By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer
EDMONTON, Alberta — Going into this Stanley Cup Final rematch, confidence oozed from the Florida Panthers just like last year when they won – and also this time from the Edmonton Oilers because they felt prepared for the moment.
After losing Game 1 in overtime after a puck over the glass penalty put Edmonton on the power play, the Panthers have not lost any of the belief they carried into the series. In a third consecutive final, the defending champions are unfazed by their deficit and appear well equipped to bounce back in Game 2 on Friday night.
“We’ve got a lot of battle scars on us from the last few years, and we’ve been through way worse,” winger Matthew Tkachuk said Thursday. “We can be better, we can adjust a few things and come out tomorrow and try to get a win here and get some momentum going back home.”
A win would even things up and put the pressure right back on reigning playoff MVP Connor McDavid, Game 1-winning goal-scorer Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers with play shifting to Sunrise next week. Even a loss would not put the Panthers into desperate straits.
They dropped the first two in the second round against Toronto and trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in Game 3 before rallying to win that night and beat the Maple Leafs in seven. Even for Florida’s newcomers, it was evidence that this team doesn’t go down easy.
“You’re going to have moments in the game and moments in a series that you’re going to be riding a roller coaster,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “This team, I think, has an incredible ability to be able to not only learn from what they’ve done and apply their experience into situations like this.”
Coach Paul Maurice downplayed it as “just experience,” as though every team in the NHL or any sport knows what it is like to make this many deep playoff runs in a row and look borderline unstoppable. Because of that success, the Panthers are who they are, and not a lot of major adjustments are expected.
“It’s almost always an adjustment back to form: We were a little off here, we can be a little bit better,” Maurice said. “Nobody’s changing a major system. It takes months and years to do that. You’re (talking about) adjustments back to form, but I think they have a pretty strong understanding of their foundation.”
Panthers players seem to have a pretty strong understanding of how playoff hockey works. They’ve won 10 of 11 playoff series since Maurice became coach and Tkachuk arrived in a trade from Calgary in the summer of 2022.
The only time they’ve been on the wrong side of a handshake line during this stretch was the 2023 Final against Vegas, when Tkachuk was sidelined by a broken sternum and several others were playing with significant injuries. The memories of that and falling behind in series along the way stick with them.
“We learn more from adversity than we do from winning,” forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “Every time you lose games or go through series where you’re down 2-0 or losing in the Cup Final a couple of years ago, you learn a lot. It’s just sticking with it and being mentally strong.”
Tkachuk said he and his teammates are plenty strong mentally, so the tweaks will be more tactical. They won’t look too different but have some areas to clean up.
“Maybe a little bit more offensive zone time, some things we look at, but they played a good game,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “They were solid defensively. They blocked a lot of shots. And we kind of knew that coming in there’s not a lot of space out there, not a lot of plays to be made, really. So, when we do get those opportunities, try to hold on to the puck and capitalize.”
The Oilers turned the puck over several times in Game 1, with goaltender Stuart Skinner saving them a few times from the score getting more lopsided than the 3-1 deficit they overcame. They figure to be much improved in those areas.
Coach Kris Knoblauch knows his team has to raise its level “because we know how good Florida is.” The blueprint has been out there for several years, and it’s an imposing one.
“They’re pretty confident with their identity, and they play to that identity very well,” Knoblauch said. “They have a lot of confidence that they’ll play their game and they should come out on top. For us, we need to just be ready for it – that they are going to be better.”
OILERS ARE PLAYING THE HITS
McDavid had two hits on the opening shift of the series, and that was just the start of the Oilers taking the body in Game 1 of their rematch with the Panthers.
The series opener was a clear message that for all their skill and talent, the Oilers are eager to counter Florida’s physicality with some of their own. The teams combined for 102 hits, many of them bruising body checks sending opponents into the glass and to the ice.
“We’re a team that has proven we’re going to play hard throughout the entire playoffs,” winger Evander Kane, who had a game-high nine hits, said Thursday. “Just because we’re playing Florida, that’s not going to change.”
Doing so without injured forward Zach Hyman, the leading hitter in the playoffs, meant a team toughness, by committee approach. Guys like Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin who are not known for that aspect of hockey, showed they were more than willing to finish checks when available.
“We’re a team built for a lot of the physical edge and whatnot,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “Our team’s not afraid of that. (We are) playing a really, really good opponent that brings up the physicality each night, and we have to match that.”
BEST OF BENNETT
Florida’s Sam Bennett scored twice in Game 1, in the process breaking the franchise record for goals in a playoff year with 12. The first was trademark Bennett on the edge of the crease, showing why he’s so good this time of year and is about to get paid – either by the Panthers or someone else – this summer as a free agent.
“He’s got a nose for the net,” Tkachuk said. “He’s at the net a lot. Good things happen when you go to the net. He’s confident. He’s hard to play against on both sides of the puck, and he wants the puck and demands the puck. He’s been playing really well.”
Bennett is second to Hyman in hits, and his goal total is the most of any player this postseason. Teammate Seth Jones, who played against Bennett for several years in Chicago, Columbus and Nashville, thought Game 1 was a display of “a little bit of everything” from the 28-year-old forward.
“He’s been one of our best players through his playoffs and is capitalizing on a lot of big plays for us and timely goals,” Jones said. “But as a defenseman, you see where he gets around that blue paint. He pushes off. He makes himself big, screens (for goals), as well. It’s just that constant body contact around the net that really elevates his game and makes it difficult to handle.”
ASL BROADCAST
For a second consecutive year, the final is being broadcast in American Sign Language, with some improvements and additions. David McGregor, a deaf professional referee based in Vancouver, is now an intermission correspondent, and the alternate telecast now includes player pre- and postgame interviews.
“I’m very proud of our growth and our evolution and also a tip of the cap to the NHL for being bold and brave and buying into this and allowing this to grow,” said Brice Christianson, founder and CEO of P-X-P, which is doing the broadcasts. “We’re again making history. The NHL and PXP, every time we expand this, we keep on doing an unprecedented, groundbreaking, historic moment.”
P-X-P, a company that works to make sports more inclusive through interpretation, has been involved with the league since Christianson first did Commissioner Gary Bettman’s annual pre-Cup final news conference in Denver in 2022.
This year, broadcasters Noah Blankenship and Jason Altmann got a hand from TNT play-by-play guru Kenny Albert, whose daughter Amanda is an associate producer for the NHL in ASL. Albert spent 40 minutes on a Zoom call with them, lending some of his expertise and answering their questions.
“A lot of it was just talking about the preparation, some advice as far as calling the game,” Albert said. “It was great to meet with them over Zoom and chat with them and just share some knowledge that they can hopefully use in their broadcasts.”
ICINGS APLENTY
The teams combined to ice the puck 21 times in Game 1, including nine in overtime alone. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch chalks that up a little to the pressure and players not having as much time as they thought to make a decision, along with human nature
“It was Game 1 and it’s a little bit of nerves, feeling out what the other team’s doing and where that pressure’s coming from and not wanting to make a mistake,” Knoblauch said. “It was something that we would like to stay away from but understand that’s part of the game.
Florida counterpart Paul Maurice splits up icing into three categories: smart ones to stay out of trouble, maddening ones when players don’t get to the center red line to avoid it and ones where stretch passes just get missed.
He also has fond memories of the puck sailing down the ice several times late in the Panthers’ Stanley Cup clincher last year.
“I think we had 42 in the third period in Game 7 last year,” Maurice said with a chuckle. “We iced that puck 1,000 times.”