SUNRISE, Fla. — The team, under duress, swapped uniforms.
The Florida Panthers lost control of a Stanley Cup Final that they once dominated.
Which doesn’t mean they still won’t win it. Chances are they will. But the pressure shifted to them heading into Edmonton on Friday night.
“No. No, no,” Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk said Tuesday night after his team lost for the second straight time. “It’s not a playoff game for us. We’re going up there with a 3-2 lead in the series I just have to take care of business like we did in the third game.
Sorry, I don’t buy it.
Make no mistake, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the Panthers found themselves in hostile territory Friday night and won the Cup on their third try. This is a veteran team playing in its second straight Stanley Cup Final and they are not easily shaken.
But I don’t care what the Panthers say over the next few days leading up to Game 6. The pressure shifted to them. Or at least they got a lot of it back.
“Absolutely nothing has changed in our situation in the last two games except that we learned some things,” insisted Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. “Some lessons we don’t need to learn, we have learned enough. But these lessons continue to be taught to us, but nothing has changed for us. Not a thing.
Well, a lot has changed for the Oilers.
From the start of this Stanley Cup Final, it was the Oilers who felt the pressure of an anvil on their shoulders, falling 2-0 in the series here in South Florida, unable to win what seemed like a must-win Game 3 in Edmonton and faces the possibility of being the first team swept in the championship series since 1998.
There was a tinge of embarrassment in all this.
Not so fast, said Connor McDavid, likely becoming Conn Smythe’s favorite, win or lose. I mean, come on. The playoff scoring leader with 42 points made four straight appearances in the Cup finals, refusing to let his team’s season end.
An 8-1 loss to the Panthers on Saturday night in Game 4, followed by an impressive 5-3 win here on Tuesday night, turned that series around.
“I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but again, this group believed in this from the beginning,” top pair defenseman Mattias Ekholm said after the game Tuesday night. “I don’t know if there was pressure on us or what. When we were down 0-3, I thought we played well enough to at least win one of those games. We’re there, we’re getting rebounds and getting results.
“Yes, it changes quickly, that’s the beauty of the playoffs, you can feel really secure with a 3-0 lead but two games later that might not be the case,” added Ekholm. “We just bury our heads, trying not to focus too much on the outside noise and keep doing what we’re doing.”
And let’s point out this about the Oilers when they were down 0-3 in this series. They didn’t feel like it was really a 3-0 series based on their play. And they insisted that if there was a team in the league that could pull it off this return was definitely them. With an impassive face.
They pointed to their 2-9-1 start to the season, their second massive turnaround that included a franchise-record 16 straight wins, their ability to not fold but rather embrace adversity.
“I know a lot of guys shut us out,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after the game. “We were shut out a lot in the playoffs, regular season, whatever. But that doesn’t bother the group there. They have a lot of confidence — a lot of confidence and they’re just enjoying every extra day because we were counted out a long time ago and we’re still here playing hockey in June and we have an opportunity to go back to Edmonton for Game 6. There is something to smile about.
Their determination lies in scar tissue.
They lost 3-2 and 2-1 in the second round against Vancouver. They were down 2-1 in the Western Conference final against Dallas. They pulled themselves together every time.
“Yeah, it looks like we got through it,” Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner said. “We were able to have these kinds of experiences where we have to understand. Once again, we’ve put ourselves in a little hole and we’re going to continue to dig and climb our way out.
That victory that night, in that building, in one of the most entertaining Cup Final matches in recent history? It was something good.
“Anytime you’re able to show yourself, show your team, that we can count on each other, (that) we believe in each other. It’s one thing to say it, but to show it and actually do it…I mean, that’s it,” Skinner said.
“It’s easy to talk. It is much more difficult to walk. We prove to ourselves that we can do both.
The Panthers certainly tried to dash the Oilers’ hopes with an early push in Game 5 Tuesday night, with Sam Reinhart and Aaron Ekblad both having Grade-A scoring chances early but denied by Skinner. These two big stops calmed the Oilers down.
For his part, Connor Brown started the day by telling reporters: “We’re going to try to get them back to Alberta. » He opened the scoring a few hours later with a shorthanded beauty.
CONNOR BROWN OPENS THE SCORING IN MATCH 5 WITH A SHORT GOAL! 🙌 #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: ABC & @ESPNPlus ➡️ https://t.co/Pp9X7OGP3W
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/sEijvXhbA1 pic.twitter.com/TM0R6RRMPJ– NHL (@NHL) June 19, 2024
“We played a hell of a game. We conceded a goal shorthanded. This must stop,” Maurice said.
Then, No. 97 took over the night, with a goal and two assists in the second period, including a breathtaking run that split Panthers defenders Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov in a way reminiscent of Mario Lemieux doing something so similar to Ray Bourque and Adam. Oates a few decades ago in the conference finals. Except that instead of scoring the goal himself, he relied on Corey Perry for the eventual game winner.
This is what legends are made of.
“I’m in that position a lot to get pucks, escape them, get them into the zone, so that’s something I watch a lot how some guys play,” McDavid said in breaking down the play. “Mikkola has a very long range and I just tried to force my way out there, and Pers did a great job working from behind.”
The Oilers held on after a furious Panthers comeback, but more telling was their ability to ultimately defend that lead. Under incredible pressure.
“It was a total effort from everyone,” McDavid said. “The special teams were obviously great. Shorthanded, there is nothing else to say. It’s been great. Brownie scores a nice goal there to set us up. The power play started and Stu was great and at five on five we did just enough. It was a total team effort from top to bottom.
Here’s what changed in two games:
• Skinner dominated his counterpart Sergei Bobrovsky;
• The Oilers’ lethal power play came back to life, with two power play wins Tuesday night after getting one in Game 4;
• And their desire, after the third match facing a 0-3 hole, to simplify their game actually came to fruition.
“I feel like we play very free and do everything that requires little to no skill to be successful; we block shots, we move pucks in and out. They’re clichés, but they’re so important,” Ekholm said.
Can they really make it to the end? Can the Oilers be just the fifth team in NHL history to come back to win a series they trailed 0-3 and the second team in Cup Final history since the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1942 to do so?
“We are confident that we will achieve this,” Ekholm said.
One thing Justin Williams and Jarret Stoll both said in common about the recipe for an 0-3 series comeback in our article on Monday was the importance of Game 5.
This is the moment when the dream comes true. When the change in dynamic is really felt.
“That’s the game I remember the most,” Stoll said of Game 5 in San Jose as his 2014 Kings erased an 0-3 series deficit to become the last NHL team to achieve a full return to the series. “We played a great game and then we had all the momentum in the world and we just weren’t going to lose Game 6 at home.”
Williams added of the Oilers: “If they win Game 5, true belief will come through and you never know.”
Oh, it’s real. It’s also always intimidating.
The Panthers are brought back to Alberta, okay.
They have two days to reset and embrace what will be pure chaos at Rogers Place on Friday night.
“Yeah, we’re a good road team, so we’re going to go out there and play with confidence, play our game and go for it,” Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said.
The Oilers? They wanted to bring him home so badly.
“Yeah, really excited, really excited,” McDavid said. “But I’ve been excited about all these games. From the first match two months ago. The playoffs are the most fun time of the year. Special with this group. Special with our city, our fans. They make these races so much fun and I’m really excited to see the energy they bring Friday night.
(Photo: Peter Joneleit/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)