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New York Times
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Oilers' tweak that could change Stanley Cup Final rematch vs. Panthers
This week has been an overwhelming one for Edmonton Oilers fans. The injury to Zach Hyman that will cost the team its best winger for the rest of the playoffs, the return of Mattias Ekholm to the lineup and Calvin Pickard stepping in as backup goaltender were all explosive developments. Add that to the strong showing at home versus the Dallas Stars, and then closing out the series on Thursday night, and heads are spinning in Oilers Nation. Advertisement It's been the equivalent of trying to take a drink from a firehose. Now, after the Florida Panthers flattened the Carolina Hurricanes to win the East, talk will move on to the Stanley Cup Final. Oilers fans got one answer on Thursday night in the game versus Dallas. Corey Perry was deployed in Hyman's role on the No. 1 line and flourished. Some answers will come in the days ahead. Key among them? How to overcome the Panthers, who are as close to the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers 'Broad Street Bullies' as we're likely to see in the modern hockey era. What can the Oilers do in order to defeat the Panthers' suffocating forecheck and fantastic skill on quick turnovers? The key to winning is already evident. The Oilers are enjoying an impressive run at five-on-five during this spring's playoffs. The SA-60 numbers in the game state are almost identical to last spring's playoffs, and the expected GA-60 is slightly higher than one year ago. With those facts in play, one would expect a higher GA-60, but the results in this year's playoffs are running counter to prevailing wisdom: All numbers five-on-five, via Natural Stat Trick There are a few reasons this could be happening. Luck is often overlooked, and impossible to accurately measure, but it's important to acknowledge it exists and may skew the math. If regression hits during the Stanley Cup Final against Florida, we can safely credit luck and the natural order of things (regression) for it. The eye test suggests the Oilers are defending less, and more specifically, are running around in their own zone less often during this spring's postseason. The team's save percentage year over year has improved markedly, but there's reason to believe (visually) the Oilers are doing a better job in puck retrieval and breakouts. Advertisement Why are the Oilers better at five-on-five goal suppression this spring? After Game 3 of the series against Dallas, Meghan Chayka of Stathletes published some powerful numbers. Ignoring the outstanding offensive numbers on the Edmonton side, Chayka pointed to the Stars' inability to get shots, scoring chances and goals off the rush. The Stars thrived in this area of the game during the regular season and have several proven drivers in this area of the game. The Oilers' SA-60 numbers at five-on-five haven't changed much since last year, but the club is surrendering fewer goals. The Chayka numbers tell us that while Dallas was shooting the puck, the Stars were not, in fact, making the goalie move, nor scoring goals. Low percentage shots from opponents and Edmonton playing less in its defensive zone are keys. Both innovations are helping the goaltenders. The year-over-year save percentage for the Oilers: .896 in 2024's playoffs, .922 this season. Stuart Skinner and Pickard are (as Chayka describes in her graph) in motion far less than last year. The Oilers invested $3.6 million of the overall cap in goaltending in 2024-25. That's the lowest among true Stanley Cup contenders. When general manager Stan Bowman arrived, he didn't look for an upgrade in net (although there were calls for it from many fans and media). Instead, he addressed defence, and added men who could handle the puck. One of his first moves came when he acquired Ty Emberson. During the regular season, Bowman signed veteran John Klingberg, who struggled early but has emerged as a playoff giant in puck retrieval, outlets and finding seams for passes. It is Klingberg who gives the Oilers' second pairing a dangerous offensive edge. Finally, at the deadline, Bowman acquired Jake Walman, who has a complete skill set. Walman is a puck mover, passer and creative thinker offensively, and has grown over the years as a coverage defenceman. Edmonton's defence is better for his presence, and the second pairing (Walman-Klingberg) has often been the best one during this year's playoffs. All numbers five-on-five, via Natural Stat Trick The top three unduplicated pairings (in blue) show exceptional goal suppression. The formula Edmonton is currently using for retrieval and outlets, matched to the defensive pairings that are doing well (as above), gives the Oilers an advantage fans did not see one year ago. Advertisement That advantage should be on display against the Panthers in the final. Ekholm's presence will also be felt. Ekholm and Evan Bouchard played 10 clean minutes defensively at five-on-five against Dallas on Thursday night and were on the ice for one Oilers goal. The idea of moving the puck expertly and deploying veteran defencemen isn't new to Edmonton management. The same summer the Oilers drafted Connor McDavid, new (at the time) general manager Peter Chiarelli signed veteran two-way defenceman Andrej Sekera. He was a perfect fit for the organization, and with young and astute puck movers like Oscar Klefbom in the system, the club appeared set for the next several years. Injuries had an impact, but Edmonton managers could never find enough of this player type, let alone get ahead of the problem. Chiarelli added Adam Larsson, who was a quality shutdown type but not a pure passer. Nurse had passing issues. When Ken Holland arrived in 2019, he immediately went to work on the problem. His solutions were expensive (Duncan Keith) and too old to have a sustained impact (again Keith). Once the organization signed Brad Holland as pro scouting director, and the analytics department held more sway, more capable names (specifically Ekholm) were added. It should be noted that Bouchard was an astute draft selection by Chiarelli and his scouts in 2018. His growth in all areas over the last two seasons, and especially the playoffs, has been a key element in Edmonton's success in puck moving. The Florida forecheck is suffocating. Stuart Skinner has improved as a puck handler, and that may come into play in an effort to aid the defencemen. Using the middle of the ice for outlets has been effective for the Oilers, but Florida will have scouted Edmonton, and new wrinkles may be required. Advertisement The bottom line for the Oilers: Bowman's acquisition of puck movers, specifically Walman and Klingberg, has tilted the ice in the Oilers' favour through three rounds of the postseason. Will it work against the Panthers? Stay tuned. (Photo of Roope Hintz and Jake Walman: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
New York Times
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For Oilers, Panthers and other truly elite NHL teams, the regular season doesn't matter much
DALLAS — Dustin Brown laughed at the question, at the very idea of it, at the possibility that a reporter could have such a limited understanding of the game of hockey, of the nature of the Stanley Cup playoffs. During the 2014 Western Conference final, the Los Angeles captain — who was in the midst of playing 64 extra games in a 26-month span — was asked why his Kings were so impressive in the postseason, but so ordinary in the regular season. After all, they were the No. 8 seed in the West in 2012, the No. 5 seed in 2013, the No. 6 seed in 2014. Hardly dominant. And yet they won the Stanley Cup in 2012, reached the conference final in 2013, and were on their way to another championship in 2014. They were a team of wrecking balls, playing the heaviest brand of hockey we've seen in the salary-cap era. The Kings didn't just beat you, they beat you up. They beat you down. They beat you into a pulp. Advertisement So why weren't they winning their division every year? Why weren't they contending for the Presidents' Trophy? 'You can't play this way for 82 games,' Brown said. 'You'd never survive. You have to save this for the playoffs. We're a playoff team, not a regular-season team.' Full disclosure: I was the reporter asking the question. Hey, sometimes you have to sacrifice your dignity for a good answer. That same postseason, I posed a similar question to Chicago's Bryan Bickell, who was a perennial disappointment in the regular season and a perennial monster in the playoffs. He gave basically the same answer: If he played like that for 82 games, he'd have nothing left when the games actually counted. In the fall of 2015, following the Blackhawks' Kings-like run of Cup, conference final, Cup, I asked Marián Hossa during training camp if he ever showed up for the start of a season and thought to himself, 'I can't believe I have to go through all this again.' He chuckled. 'It's a long, long season,' he said. 'At this stage of my career, I kind of wish I could just skip ahead to the playoffs.' He was hardly alone. There comes a point in every great team's trajectory at which they're hit with the career-altering realization that, well, the regular season doesn't mean squat. The Presidents' Trophy is worthless. Seeding is meaningless. Home-ice advantage is not a big deal. All that matters is the playoffs — getting there and getting there as healthy as you possibly can. And yes, sometimes that means coasting for long stretches of games. Of weeks. Of months, even. Sometimes that means some half-hearted efforts against lesser teams. Sometimes that means losing streaks and standings drops. It can send fans into a panic or a rage, with torches and pitchforks always at the ready. But that panic never reaches the locker room. Not the locker room of a team that's been there, done that. Advertisement Look, I'm not here to say the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers don't care about the regular season. That's too glib, too harsh. But there's a reason the Panthers never blinked when they went 7-10-1 over the final month of the season, losing seven of their last 10 games and plummeting from first in the Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference to third in the Atlantic (10 points behind Toronto) and fifth in the East. Or when they lost six of seven in November, for that matter. Florida always knew that when the temperature rose, its level would, too. Sure enough, they have a chance to repeat as Stanley Cup champions after losing just five games in three rounds. Same with Edmonton. Oilers Nation was gritting its teeth over a two-month run from Jan. 30 to March 27 that saw its team go 9-11-2, falling from first in the Pacific and second in the West to third in the Pacific and sixth in the West. The preseason favorite to win it all — nearly half of The Athletic staffers picked Edmonton to win the Cup in our preseason predictions — looked like anything but a contender. But the Oilers met it all with a shrug. They knew that come April, come the games that mattered, they had what it took — on the ice and between the ears — to make another run to the Stanley Cup Final. And here they are, back in the Final against those same Panthers, after a thorough dismantling of the Dallas Stars. They've won 12 of their last 14 in these playoffs. At the end of the regular season, exactly one staffer at The Athletic still picked Edmonton to win it all. And one staffer picked Florida. That's it. We should have known better. The Oilers and Panthers did. The fact is, to a great team, home ice is nice. But it's not a must. 'The regular season is a long, mental grind,' Oilers forward Adam Henrique said. 'Maybe even more so than physical sometimes. And when teams are in their window to win, they're playing a lot of hockey year after year after year. When you're in that window, people always expect to see (you) at the top of the regular-season standings and then run through the playoffs. But that doesn't happen as much anymore. Typically, the Presidents' Trophy winner doesn't win the Stanley Cup. It's just having an understanding, being able to have a mature group that can go on the road and just take care of business, knowing what you have to do in order to win — that says a lot about a team. It's not do or die just to have home ice throughout the playoffs.' Advertisement Henrique went to the Stanley Cup Final as a rookie with the New Jersey Devils in 2012, playing 24 extra games and getting a sense of how different — how much harder, how much more physical, how much more exhausting — playoff hockey was. When he came back a couple of months later for training camp, he couldn't believe how 'mentally tired' he still was. Fitness testing? Eight preseason games? Eighty-two regular-season games? Just to get back to the start of a potentially two-month playoff run? Really? And that was just his second season. Now imagine that a decade into your career. 'I feel great,' Connor McDavid countered. 'It's a blessing to play this much hockey over the last couple of years.' OK, yeah, well, futuristic, state-of-the-art hockey Terminators don't count in this discussion. 'You want to feel good about your game down the stretch going into the playoffs, for sure,' Henrique said. 'But you want to be healthy, and that takes priority if you're in a good position to allow yourself to take those extra days or games off. There's a lot that goes into it, rather than just trying to be the No. 1 seed.' Fans hate to hear about teams 'flipping the switch' come the postseason. It feels disrespectful somehow, to the game, to those buying tickets to all those regular-season games. But the great teams — the tested teams — really do flip the switch. Pretty easily, in fact. It's what separates them from the pack. You can look at the Stars and say that they lost in the conference final for the third straight spring. Or you can look at them and say they won two playoff series in each of the last three years. That's still quite a feat. And one that seemed like a long shot when they limped into the 2025 postseason having lost seven straight games in dreadful fashion. Stars fans were borderline despondent, expecting Colorado to steamroll their team. Dallas wasn't sweating any of it, though. Dallas knew better. Advertisement 'What happened with us is, we had a couple really weird, tough losses toward the end, and then we got too far away from Winnipeg (in the battle for first place),' Matt Duchene said. 'It was unrealistic that we could catch them. And you go into a lull, right? You're in purgatory. Colorado wasn't going to catch us and we weren't going to catch Winnipeg. That's why we had the slump we had near the end. But I got asked about it before Game 1 against Colorado, and I sloughed it off, and we played a pretty good game that night. And then we won the next two and we're off to the races. We have a veteran group in here. You don't want to put yourself in a position to have to flip the switch, but sometimes maybe you have to.' It helps when you know you can. When you've done it before, over and over. Only a handful of teams are good enough for long enough to reach that point. In all the years I've been covering the NHL, I think of one player comment more than any other. It came from Patrick Sharp, the longtime Blackhawks great, when he was with the Dallas Stars toward the end of his career. Lips get looser once you leave a team, especially as you near the end of your career, and I had asked Sharp point-blank if those great Blackhawks teams cared even the slightest bit about the regular season. I had spent all those years ginning up concerns about a disjointed power play, or a hole at second-line center, or a potential goaltending controversy. And all the while, I got the sense that it was just me and the fans going through all the histrionics. Those Blackhawks rarely, if ever, seemed to get caught up in any of it. And so I go back to Sharp's answer frequently, even when I'm wondering what I'm doing spending four hours on a flight and two nights in a hotel just to watch some ultimately meaningless regular-season game in San Jose. 'When you're in the playoffs, you have a job to do and you put everything else aside and you focus on that job,' Sharp said. 'You're not really caught up in how many games we've played or how tired we may be. But you feel it in training camp the next year. You feel it in those 'big' regular-season games in October, November, December, January that really aren't that big. Yeah, the Blackhawks go into Washington to play the Capitals in January, that's a 'big game.' But it's really not a big game when you were just in the Stanley Cup Final a couple months ago. It was harder for guys to get up for the day-to-day grind of the regular season when we were going deep in the playoffs like that. Maybe that's why you saw the slumps in February and March. 'I don't think 'cruise control' is even the right way to put it. You still want to play, and you want to score, and you want to win, but it's almost like, holy s—, we're really doing this again? Here? Wednesday night in Carolina? And the other team is fired up, because the Blackhawks are in town. They're playing their best and they want to beat you. It's just tough to do it every night.' It's a lesson worth remembering next season, when the Panthers or Oilers or Stars or Hurricanes or Lightning or Golden Knights go through a dry January or a feeble February. They haven't all won the Cup, but they all know what it takes. And most importantly, when it takes it. For the league's truly elite teams, it's just a matter of getting in. Top seed or sixth seed, home ice or no home ice, red hot coming in or ice cold, it just doesn't matter. They know where the switch is, and you can be damn sure they'll find it. Advertisement The regular season is for the Maple Leafs of the world, the Jets, the Senators, the Kings, the Capitals and the Flames — all still trying to prove they can be one of those elite teams — and for all the also-rans trying to find their way back into the postseason. Let them expend all that energy and all that emotion. The truly great teams know to save it for when it matters most. For the playoffs. For right now. (Photo of Oilers' Adam Henrique and Stuart Skinner: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Associated Press
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Benn and the Stars again fall short of a Stanley Cup shot after 3rd West final in a row
DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Stars have done what no other team has over the past three decades in reaching three conference finals in a row. They failed to win a Stanley Cup during their run, though. They didn't even give themselves the opportunity to play for one. 'Three years in a row now, you get that close and you come up short ... obviously not a good feeling,' said Jamie Benn, the nearly 36-year-old captain who is about to be an unrestricted free agent after 16 seasons in Dallas. For the third season in a row, and the second against Edmonton, the Stars ended with a loss in the Western Conference final. They lost 6-3 in Game 5 at home Thursday night. 'Every year you learn new things. This is not the end goal for us,' said Wyatt Johnston, who at 22 has already been to three West finals. 'You need to go through the conference final. ... Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup. I think you always want to learn, and I think that's good that you can learn from it, but we want to win.' Edmonton advanced to a Stanley Cup rematch against Florida, the reigning champion in its third consecutive final series. Before Dallas and Florida this year, three other teams made three consecutive conference finals under the current playoff format adopted in 1994. Los Angeles and Chicago won two Stanley Cup titles during their runs, and Detroit won once. Tampa Bay made three Stanley Cup Finals in a row from 2020-22, winning the first two — the Lightning were awarded the Prince of Wales Trophy as the East champ in 2021, when there were no conference-based playoffs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As deep as the Stars have gone in each of coach Pete DeBoer's three seasons, they haven't been able to get to that final round. This was the fourth West final in six seasons for the Stars, who in the Canadian bubble in the pandemic-impacted 2020 playoffs eliminated DeBoer-coached Vegas in five games. Dallas then lost in six games to Tampa Bay. 'You've got to keep knocking on the door,' DeBoer said. 'It's a really, really hard league to win in. When you get down to the end, to the final four here, it gets exponentially tougher. ... We chased every single game in this series, and that's a tough way to play hockey against that team.' Falling behind and scoring strugglesThe Stars gave up the first goal in 15 of their 18 playoffs games, and struggled to score most of the postseason. Dallas was third in the NHL during the regular season with 3.35 goals per game and shut out only once, in the 79th of 82 games. The Stars averaged 2.5 goals in the playoffs with four shutout losses, including both losses in the second-round series they won in six games over top seed Winnipeg. A scoreless streak of 178:57 on the road, against Winnipeg and Edmonton, was the longest in Dallas playoff history. The Stars had two goals over the next three games after a five-goal outburst in the third period for a 6-3 win in Game 1 against the Oilers. 'I think we played two good rounds and then they made it hard on us,' Mikko Rantanen said. 'Maybe just give credit to them. They defended really well.' Rantanen, the trade deadline acquisition who then signed a $96 million, eight-year contract extension, led Dallas with nine goals and 22 playoff points. But all the goals came in a six-game stretch before finishing with an eight-game drought. Veteran forwards Benn and Matt Duchene each had only one goal this postseason. Jason Robertson scored twice Thursday, to finish with four in 11 games after missing the start of the playoffs with a lower-body injury. Benn's future Stars general manager Jim Nill has said Benn has earned the right to continue to be a part of the team as long as he wants. This was the end of the captain's $76 million, eight-year contract extension. Asked in the locker room Thursday night if he had any thoughts about his future, Benn softly responded, 'No.' When asked if he still wanted to be with the Stars, and if he felt good about the chances of that happening, he answered yes to both. Hall of Fame center Mike Modano is the only player in franchise history with more than Benn's 1,192 regular-season games, 399 goals and 956 points. He has played in 120 postseason games. 'He's our captain, he's our leader. He's a guy that we follow every day,' Johnston said. 'Just such an important part of our team on the ice, off the ice, and just an amazing person.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
Associated Press
20 hours ago
- General
- Associated Press
Hurricanes' Chatfield, Walker and Jarvis have no surgery plans for injuries after playoff run
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Carolina Hurricanes players Jalen Chatfield, Sean Walker and Seth Jarvis said Friday they don't plan to have surgery for injuries after the team's playoff run to the Eastern Conference final. Chatfield missed Carolina's last six games with what the defenseman described as a hip injury, while fellow blue-liner Walker was dealing with an aggravation of a shoulder injury. As for Jarvis, the team's leader in regular-season goals and postseason points, the forward said he plans to work on strengthening and rehabbing a lingering right-shoulder issue for the second straight offseason. Carolina is the only NHL team with an active streak of winning at least one postseason series for seven straight years, with this year's five-game loss to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers marking a third trip to the Eastern final in that span. Chatfield had missed the closeout game of the second-round series against Washington and then the entire Florida series. The team had never specified the nature of Chatfield's injury, which became a common question for coach Rod Brind'Amour, and he said he should be fine with extra rehab time. 'Just something in the hip,' Chatfield said during Friday's end-of-year player interviews. 'It's hard when you get that, trying to skate through that. I just couldn't even get to that speed where I would even be capable of even helping the team on the ice. 'I was able to get back on the ice before the last game and hopefully it was going to be another game or two before I could return. I was super close, for sure.' Chatfield typically held a second-pairing spot with Dmitry Orlov before his absence, and he scored Carolina's first postseason goal just 2:24 into the opener against New Jersey. Brind'Amour at one point called Chatfield 'day to day' in the most optimistic update during his absence. 'Making it as far as we did and being able to play against Florida, it was tough watching,' Chatfield said. The impact of Chatfield's absence compounded when Walker missed the last three games of the Florida series, his last appearance coming in Game 2 after taking a jarring open-ice hit from A.J. Greer and eventually exiting early. At that point, Carolina was down two of its top six defensemen and playing rookies Alexander Nikishin and Scott Morrow with its season on the brink. Walker said he had suffered a minor shoulder injury late in the regular season that was improving through the postseason before the Greer hit 'set me back pretty significantly.' He said he was hoping to return if Carolina advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, but didn't need surgery. Then there's Jarvis, who led Carolina with 10 assists and 16 points in 15 playoff games after tallying a team-best 32 goals in 73 regular-season games. Surgery had been a possibility last year, though he has focused on rehab and strengthening his shoulder. 'We loved where it was at the start of the season, in terms of the health of it and the strength and everything,' Jarvis said. 'Early on it kind of started to slip a little bit, and then kind of re-tore all the work we did on it and all the strength and everything we did. So just dealing with it again wasn't too bad, kind of the same thing as last year.' Jarvis described the injury as creating more of an issue of pain tolerance than inhibiting on-ice activity — 'I mean, the only difference would be I'd probably be able to throw a real nice spiral,' Jarvis said of surgery — while the protective brace he returned to during the season might prevent him from reaching up to catch a puck. He played all 15 of Carolina's postseason games, scoring the tying goal in the third period of Game 5 against Florida in what turned out to be the Hurricanes' last of the season. 'This summer, we were dancing around the idea of what to do with it,' Jarvis said. 'The season's gone pretty late, I don't want to miss a lot of time. So I'm going to go with the same protocol as last summer of strengthen it, rehab it. Hopefully maybe wear the brace from the very beginning of the year, and then go from there.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
New York Times
20 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
2025 Stanley Cup Final odds: Oilers given an early edge against defending champion Panthers
The betting odds for the Stanley Cup playoffs have shown the race to claim the Cup to be largely a series of coin flips. There have been favorites and underdogs to win it all, but the gap has been small, and no clear top team has emerged. It's fitting that the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers is also incredibly close in the odds. Advertisement When the odds first came out following Edmonton's 6-3 win at Dallas in Game 5 on Thursday, the teams were listed at a dead-even -110 on both sides on BetMGM. That has since shifted a bit, with the Oilers now the favorite to lift the Stanley Cup at -120. The defending champion Panthers are even-money (+100). The main storyline is, of course, that this is a rematch of last year's final. The Panthers won that one in seven games, but not before blowing a 3-0 series lead. One difference from last year's series is that the Oilers start on home ice. Last year, Florida got to host Game 7 on the heels of three losses that saw the Oilers outscore Florida by a combined score of 18-5. It would have been a lot harder to imagine Florida winning Game 7 on the road with so little momentum. Florida has a chance to be the first back-to-back champion since Tampa Bay won in 2020 and 2021. Edmonton is seeking to be the first Canadian champion since 1993. A Canadian team has won the NBA Finals (the Toronto Raptors in 2019), there has been a Canadian U.S. Open tennis champion (Bianca Andreescu in 2019) and even an American team has won the CFL's Grey Cup (Baltimore Stallions in 1995) more recently than a Canadian team has lifted the Stanley Cup. That storyline existed last year for Edmonton, but now Connor McDavid and the Oilers get another crack at it. Both teams are coming off comfortable wins in the conference finals. Florida knocked off Carolina in five games, and Edmonton got past Dallas in five as well. En route to the final, both teams won two series in five games and had one series that was much scarier. Edmonton's journey to the final got off to a rough start. The Oilers lost the first two games of the playoffs to the LA Kings. The Oilers trailed Game 3 in the third period and needed a goal in the last 30 seconds of regulation to force overtime in Game 4, but Edmonton rattled off four straight wins to advance. The Oilers then beat Vegas and Dallas in five games, meaning Edmonton has gone 12-2 in the last 14 games this postseason. Advertisement Florida's road has only been a touch tougher. The Panthers beat in-state rival Tampa Bay in five games before needing seven games to get by Toronto, winning the decisive game in Canada. Florida dropped the first two games to the Maple Leafs and trailed Game 3 by two goals, but stormed back in that series. Now, the Panthers and Oilers meet for the fifth rematch in the expansion era. Stanley Cup Final rematches in the expansion era (since 1967): ◽️Canadiens vs. Blues (1968-69)◽️Canadiens vs. Bruins (1977-78)◽️ Oilers vs. Islanders (1983-84)◽️ Penguins vs. Red Wings (2008-09)◽️ Oilers vs. Panthers (2024-25) H/t @AdamVingan — The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 30, 2025 Of those four previous rematches, the defending champion won the rematch twice. The Montreal Canadiens pulled off that feat twice, while the more recent rematches had flipped outcomes. The New York Islanders beat Edmonton in 1983, but the Oilers won in 1984. Detroit beat Pittsburgh in 2008, but the Penguins beat the Red Wings in 2009. As for the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the MVP of the playoffs, McDavid is unsurprisingly the clear favorite. He is even-money on BetMGM. McDavid won the award last year despite the Oilers not winning the Cup. He became the first person to win the Conn Smythe Trophy on the losing team since goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003 for Anaheim. With that precedent set, it's hard to pick against McDavid. Would voters spring for him in a losing effort a second time, though? Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky (+250) and Aleksander Barkov (+500) are ahead of Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl (+900) before a big dropoff to Matthew Tkachuk at +2000. The series starts Wednesday and has a fairly spread-out schedule. Game 7 would be on June 20, 16 days after Game 1. (Photo of Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
