OILERS LOOK TO STAVE OFF ELIMINATION IN GAME 4 VS. PANTHERS

USA TODAY Sports 

 The Florida Panthers can raise their first Stanley Cup in team history with a win against the host Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 on Saturday night.

The Panthers didn't come close in their previous two Stanley Cup final appearances, getting swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 and losing in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights last season.

Florida's now in position to post the first finals sweep since the Detroit Red Wings ran over the Washington Capitals in 1998.

"It's there for us, but you don't think about it," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said after his team's 4-3 win in Game 3 on Thursday night. "You can't think about it. All we have to do is just take, like, one moment at a time. .... (Friday), we need to recover and get ready for the game. That's about it. We never think too much ahead."

In the Edmonton dressing room, the Oilers are trying to figure out how they've gone from being in position to become the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, to the first Canadian team trying to avoid getting swept since the Oilers in 1983.

Only one NHL has overcome a 3-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup, the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942.

"It is disappointing being down 3-0," Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner said. "I'm not too sure what the stats are coming back on it, but if anyone can do it, it's the Oil."

Edmonton's dire situation isn't for lack of opportunities. The Oilers outshot the Panthers 35-23 in Game 3 and 32-17 in the 3-0 loss in Game 1.

"We're firing a lot of shots, we just can't seem to put it over the goal line," Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. "We're not sustaining enough pressure."

The leading scorers for Edmonton have been mostly silent.

Draisaitl, who was seventh in the NHL in points during the regular season and is second in the postseason, hasn't produced a point in the finals. Zach Hyman, who scored 54 goals during the regular season, hasn't scored either.

Superstar captain Connor McDavid has three assists, but no goals in the series.

"We can't score on the outside on these guys," McDavid said. "We have to get to the middle."

Florida forward Sam Bennett said slowing down the Edmonton offense has been a team effort.

"Every single guy is committed to playing that defense first and that system of coming back supporting each other," Bennett said. "That's what you need to have success. It's really been just a full commitment from the entire group."

The big guns for the Panthers, meanwhile, have been doing their damage in the series.

Sam Reinhart, who scored 57 goals during the regular season, has a goal and two assists against Edmonton -- including one of each in the Game 3 win.

Barkov had a goal and an assist in the last game after producing two assists in Game 1. He did not play the final 9:28 of Game 2 after taking a hit from Draisaitl.

"I can't say enough good things about the guy," Florida forward Evan Rodrigues said of Barkov. "Just plays the game the right way. Everything about him. He's just down to earth. The best human being. He's our leader. He's our leader for a reason."

- Reuters 

THE PANTHERS ARE BACK IN THE STANLEY CUP AFTER LOSING IN THE TITLE ROUND LAST YEAR

AP Photo 

 SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The 2023 Stanley Cup Final had just ended, the Vegas Golden Knights were celebrating their championship and a heartbroken bunch of Florida Panthers were taking off their skates for the final time that season.

In that moment, standing in the locker room, Aaron Ekblad made a vow.

“We'll find a way to come back next year,” the veteran defenseman said.

Look, it's not exactly uncommon for some semblance of that to be said by the team that gets a championship shot and falls short. But these Panthers actually delivered on that promise — a rarity in hockey. Florida is back in the Stanley Cup Final, becoming just the second team in the last 40 years to lose in hockey's title round one season and return the following season.

The Panthers won their second consecutive Eastern Conference title on Saturday night, topping the New York Rangers 2-1 to win that series in six games. The most recent team to lose the Cup final one season and return the next was Pittsburgh, the Sidney Crosby-led team that lost to Detroit in 2008 and beat the Red Wings in 2009. Before that, it was 1983 and 1984, when Edmonton lost to the New York Islanders one year and then topped them in five games the next for Wayne Gretzky's first Cup.

“Just a lot of motivation, dedication, commitment," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “The right pieces were added. Some great pieces added. Just one mindset: to do whatever you can to get back to it. And I thought the guys that were here last year have done an unbelievable job, coming back for the start of camp with this on their minds. So, we are not done yet.”

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final is Saturday; if Florida plays Edmonton, the Panthers will play host for the opener, and if Florida plays Dallas it'll be the Stars with home-ice advantage.

Florida’s top 10 scorers from last season all remain with the Panthers, and big moves were made after losing to Vegas as well. Florida added a trio of defensemen — Oliver Ekman-Larsson, former Panthers player Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, all of whom played big roles throughout the season. Kevin Stenlund was added to bolster the forward corps, and Cup winner Vladimir Tarasenko came to Florida in a late-season trade. Tarasenko scored the series-clinching goal against the Rangers.

“If you make it to the final, I don’t know how many teams actually get better the next year because you're usually paying a bunch of guys because they got to the final and the salary cap changes and you're going to lose some guys," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Our hockey team got better from last year to this year. We had good men last year and I still love that year and I'll love that year separately and differently than any other year that I've coached. But we got better.”

The scenario — losing in the title round one year, going that far again the next — is seen far more regularly in other major sports than in the NHL.

In the NBA, the runner-up one year has made the finals the next season 26 times in 77 years, winning 14.

Baseball has seen the World Series loser return to the next Fall Classic on 29 occasions in the last 120 years, three of those — Kansas City in 2014 and 2015, the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017 and 2018, and Houston in 2021 and 2022 — coming in the last decade.

In the NFL, the Super Bowl loser has played in the next Super Bowl eight times, going 3-5. The last time it happened: New England, which lost Super Bowl 52 to Philadelphia and won the next year against the Los Angeles Rams.

It has happened 21 other times in the NHL, but in fairness, most of those instances were in a very different NHL. When the Rangers did it in 1932 and 1933, there were nine teams. When St. Louis did it in 1969 and 1970, there were 12 teams. In the more than half-century that has followed, it’s happened only four times in the NHL: Boston lost in back-to-back finals in 1977 and 1978, then Edmonton, then Pittsburgh and now Florida gets its chance.

“I think it just comes down to our heart and our will,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. “We want it bad, and it's one thing to say you want it but to actually go out there and prove that every single night with how hard you're going to work is a different story. We want it bad.”

- TIM REYNOLDS

GOLDEN KNIGHTS' MARCHESSAULT NAMED STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS MVP

 

USA TODAY Sports 

Vegas Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup playoffs after helping his team to their first championship on Tuesday.

Marchessault, who has been with the Golden Knights since their inaugural 2017-18 season, is the first undrafted player to win the award since Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky in 1988.

VEGAS HITS THE JACKPOT | BEATS FLORIDA TO WIN STANLEY CUP

USA Today Sports 

The Vegas Golden Knights hit the ultimate National Hockey League jackpot on Tuesday by crushing the visiting Florida Panthers 9-3 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in the expansion franchise's six-year history.

With the victory, the Western Conference's top-seeded Golden Knights closed out the best-of-seven championship series 4-1, triggering celebrations in and around the hotels and casinos along the famed Las Vegas Strip.