Stanley Cup Finale Checking All The Boxes

One in the books; one chapter written . . . so what has the hockey world learned and what can the hockey world expect to see for the duration of what promises to be a thrilling Stanley Cup final?

Well, to state the obvious – great hockey, for one.

We witnessed plenty of that in Game 1 Wednesday night as the host Edmonton Oilers took the opener 4-3 over the visiting Florida Panthers in overtime.

The beginning of a series that is expected to go deep (seven games to settle the score would surprise absolutely no one) exposed a few storylines. Maybe the biggest? The Oilers aren’t close to what they were last season when they posted the old bunnies-in-the-headlights look during the first few matchups with Florida.

“It felt completely different. When I saw the Cup on the ice last year, I was kind of looking at it with googly eyes,” offered up Edmonton starter Stuart Skinner. “This year seeing it, it’s ‘I was here last year. I saw it. It’s time to get back to work and do my thing.’ It definitely felt completely different.”

That’s certainly what ‘experience’ can give you. The Oilers would likely enjoy forgetting about their devastating seven-game loss to the Panthers in 2024. Making new memories, more positive ones, is the ideal.

Florida boss Paul Maurice, never one to shy away from a media microphone and never one to offer anything less than a compelling quote, said this following the loss – “It (has the) potential to be just a spectacular seven-game (series), up and down the ice. It’s still fast. There isn’t any casualness and there’s no BS in either team’s game. The pucks go deep that are supposed to go deep. I think we had maybe two all night that we didn’t like our decision off the line. They didn’t fool around with it, either . . . It was honest. It was hard. It was fast and it was tight. It was an overtime game.”

Florida is scarily deep and scarily composed. Nothing seems to trigger any and all sorts of panic. The Panthers continuously get the job done.

It’s funny too. Each subsequent year, you think – well, hell, they’ve lost this player and that player (Radko Gudas, Brandon Montour, Nick Cousins, Anthony Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Ryan Lomberg, Steven Lorentz, to name just a few of them). But anyone who’s watched this club skate knows it’s not about individuals, it’s about ‘team.’ Maurice said as much during a pre-final interview on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. He basically said, this team is special; these guys play for each other, these guys love each other, and it doesn’t seem to change even when the roster gets shuffled.

Team identity, people.

So, when the Panthers stomached an early, first-period charge by the Oilers (as expected) and almost sneakily found themselves leading after one, and leading after two, there wasn’t a ton of shock among media and fans. That’s Florida hockey – the team just knows how to garner wins. That’s nothing new.

What is new, this time around, is the look and feel of the opposition. As Skinner said above, Edmonton isn’t the same breed of cat it was one year ago.

Of note, his Oilers outshot Florida 14-2 in the third period. Down a goal, they found a way to find the back of the net as Mattias Ekholm (welcome back) tied it 3-3 at the 6:33 mark.

So, what did Florida learn in Game 1?

“Just not let up. Don’t sit back,” said Sam Bennett, whose stock has risen during these playoffs as a pending UFA. He leads the league in goals with a stunning 12. “We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead. And for whatever reason, we sat back a little bit.”

And what did everyone on board learn about the Oilers? Well, resilience and belief and confidence are now benchmarks of this hockey club. But yes, arguably that was there last season as well – roaring back from a 3-0 series deficit to force a deciding game spoke volumes on that. It’s just that it appears so indelibly implanted in their makeup in 2025.

What came as no surprise is who led the charge: Connor McDavid (two assists) and Leon Draisaitl (two goals).

Game 2 goes Friday night back at the madhouse in Northern Alberta.

Can’t wait.

Enjoy.

thegrossgame@yahoo.com

Photo: Courtesy Edmonton Journal