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Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Florida Panthers-Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup Final by the numbers
The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers meet again in the Stanley Cup Final, a cross-continental showdown of the NHL's last teams left standing. The Panthers are aiming to be back-to-back champions, while Oilers captain Connor McDavid is looking to hoist the Cup for the first time in his dominant career. Game 1 is Wednesday night at Edmonton. Here's a look at the series by the numbers: 11 This is the 11th rematch in the final in league history and the first since Pittsburgh and Detroit in 2009. Edmonton and the New York Islanders also had one in 1984. Each of those series saw the result flip from the previous year. The other two rematches since the expansion era began in 1967 were Montreal sweeps of Boston in 1977 and '78 and St. Louis in '68 and '69. 3 The Panthers are in the final for a third consecutive season, matching cross-state rival Tampa Bay's trio of trips from 2020-22. The Lightning won back to back on their first two runs, then lost their third to Colorado. Since Paul Maurice was hired as coach and Florida acquired Matthew Tkachuk in a trade in the summer of 2022, the team has won 10 of 11 playoff series. 51 McDavid and longtime running mate Leon Draisaitl lead all scorers in the playoffs with 26 and 25 points, respectively. This is their seventh playoff run together and the sixth year in a row. Since their postseason debuts in 2017, McDavid has 143 points and Draisaitl 133, first and second of all players in that time. All that is missing is the Stanley Cup. 2.11 Sergei Bobrovsky has again backstopped the Panthers to the final, going 12-5 with a 2.11 goals-against average and .912 save percentage through three rounds. Counterpart Stuart Skinner lost his starting job after allowing 11 goals in Games 1 and 2 of the first round and only got it back in the second when Calvin Pickard was injured. Since returning to the net, Skinner is 6-2 with a 1.73 GAA and a .931 save percentage. 2,543 The 2,543 miles (4,092 kilometers) between Sunrise, Florida, and Edmonton, Alberta, is — for the second year in a row — the longest distance between finalists in NHL history. It's a roughly six-hour flight each way for the teams, which will be especially challenging going back to western Canada for Game 5 without an extra travel day after Game 4. ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
CBC
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
Oilers, Panthers more alike as Stanley Cup final rematch arrives
A year ago, when the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers met in the Stanley Cup final, they were opposites in everything from climate, market and franchise history to deep-run experience and toughness. Since Florida won that series in seven games for its first championship, much has changed to make these opponents much more alike. The Panthers have added talent and skill, and the Oilers have gotten older and become harder to play against. Those changes set the stage for a compelling rematch. Game 1 is Wednesday in Edmonton at 8 p.m. ET. "These are the two nastiest teams left," 2003 Cup winner Mike Rupp said. "They don't seem to get rattled, they play with a lot of intensity, sometimes they cross the line. They just defend well. There's a lot of things that they're different than one another about, but at the core of it, they're pretty similar to each other." Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl haven't gone anywhere, but they've also been through the heartbreak of forcing Game 7 against the Panthers and falling short of the goal they've been hunting over the past decade together. With Trent Frederic, Jeff Skinner, John Klingberg and Jake Walman, the Oilers are bigger and more seasoned for this. "They're meaner," said retired defenceman Jason Demers, who like Rupp is now an NHL Network analyst. "They have a little bite to their game, a lot more bite than last year where they were a little bit more speedy." Florida can be speedy, opportunistic and dangerous, and has been over the past few post-seasons, winning 10 of 11 series since head coach Paul Maurice took over and winger Matthew Tkachuk arrived after a trade from Calgary. The Panthers are in the final for a third consecutive year, losing to Vegas in 2023 only after Tkachuk, defenceman Aaron Ekblad and others were banged up to the point that they had nothing left in the tank. They were the underdog back then. WATCH | 3 Brothers in 3 continents celebrate Oilers together: CBC News Network's Heather Hiscox speaks with Oilers super fans Pete Lilly, Jake Lilly and Luke Lilly. 3 days ago Duration 10:29 Get the latest on the CBC News App, and CBC News Network for breaking news and analysis. Rough and tumble With one successful Cup run complete and with Seth Jones and Brad Marchand added to the core led by Tkachuk and captain Aleksander Barkov, they now look unstoppable. "They're a heck of a team," McDavid said after beating Dallas to win the Western Conference Final. "Obviously, it's their third finals. They're a special group. We're a special group. It's going to be fun." It also could be physical. The Oilers lost hard-nosed winger Zach Hyman to a long-term injury late in the series against the Stars, but they are more prepared now to play the rough-and-tumble style Florida has won with. The fact that it's a rematch in the final - the NHL's first since Pittsburgh beat Detroit in the second of their back-to-backs in 2009 - only spices things up. There have only been four rematches in the Final since 1968. "I don't think there'll be any weeding out or wading into that series," Demers said. "I think it's going to be gun shot, explosions right off the bat." Going down two games to none last year led to McDavid's profanity-laced outburst in the locker room, a moment caught on cameras that wasn't quite enough to turn around the series. The memory of going down 3-0, clawing back to cross the continent again for a Game 7 and not winning is still fresh in his mind. The Oilers have been through that trip to the final and feel the pain now, something the Panthers endured before winning. Now it's time to see if they learn the same lesson and change the result. "Edmonton now, I think they needed to experience last year to get to where they're at now and they're kind of unflappable," Rupp said. "I think that's a weapon for them."
