By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The banner commemorating the first Stanley Cup title in Florida Panthers history had not been raised to the rafters yet when a newcomer realized just what it was like to join the champions on a title defense.
It was their final preseason game in Quebec City in early October after a high-intensity training camp, and the focus was already there.
“Last preseason game, usually guys are taking it a little easier, getting ready for the season, play some soccer, have a coffee, get on the ice,” A.J. Greer recalled Monday. “There were 22 guys working out – full workouts before the game. It’s like we didn’t even have a game. Guys were doing power lifting, guys were doing lower-body, upper-body, bike sprints before the game and I’m thinking to myself, ‘They’re dialed in here.’”
And that was before the real hockey started. Now, more than 250 days later, the Panthers are one win away from repeating as champions, and the Stanley Cup will be in the building with their chance to extend its stay in Florida if they defeat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Final on home ice Tuesday night.
“It’s business as usual,” top-line winger Sam Reinhart said. “We’re obviously excited about the position we’re in. You put all the work to be playing at this time of year, so we’re excited.”
They also know what to expect this time around. Florida lost its first opportunity to close out Edmonton after going up 3-0 in the Final last year, then lost three straight before finally getting the job done in Game 7.
Everything was new then, from handling the butterflies and the logistics of families getting to town to thinking about the order of passing the big silver chalice around on the ice.
“There’s a whole bunch of stuff you have to go through the first time and then there’s all these superstitions – you don’t want to talk about it, you want to talk about it – well, there are things you have to talk about,” Coach Paul Maurice said. “All of that stuff got dealt with last year when we went through it for the first time. Now, just get ready for the hockey game. It’s a different set of emotions for us.”
This Final has unfolded differently, with the teams being tied after two games and then again through four. The Panthers jumped all over the Oilers to win Game 5 in Edmonton on Saturday night to set the stage to clinch.
That was utter domination, and, unlike last year, their first chance to hoist the Cup comes in front of home fans in Sunrise.
“We’re just excited to be back home, and we’re excited to hopefully keep that going after last game,” winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “We think we’ve played pretty good hockey over this whole series, in the whole playoffs, but especially the last few, so we know this is the type of game we have to play.”
Florida is looking to become just the third team to go back to back since the NHL’s salary cap era began in 2005, joining the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and ’21 and the Pittsburgh Penguins in ’16 and ’17. Just 18 have done it in league history.
The Panthers are favored on BetMGM Sportsbook to take Game 6. After laying an egg and getting pushed to the brink of elimination, the Oilers are hoping to drag the series back to Edmonton for Game 7 on Friday night.
“For whatever reason, our group doesn’t like to make it easy on ourselves,” Oilers captain and co-playoff leading scorer Connor McDavid said. “We’ve put ourselves in another difficult spot, and it’s our job to work our way out of it.”
Only eight of the 44 teams to fall behind 3-2 in the Final have gone on to win. Boston was the last to do it in 2011 against Vancouver, extending Canada’s Cup drought that goes back to 1993.
The Panthers would love to make this the 31st consecutive season it is won by a team in the U.S. They have played a lot of games over the past three years and trips to the Final, but the chance to lift the trophy is enough to push off that fatigue for at least one more game and two at most.
“You play all year to try to win a Stanley Cup,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “It’s in our grasp and, yeah, I’m sure we’re all going to be ready to go.”
McDAVID IS PRODUCING, BUT IS IT ENOUGH FOR OILERS?
It took until 13 minutes left in Game 5 for McDavid to score his first goal of the series, and it was after he and the Oilers fell behind 3-0 to the Panthers, on the way to losing and getting pushed to the brink.
Before that, he led all scorers with six assists, and only teammate Leon Draisaitl has more points than McDavid’s seven. Of course, the best hockey player in the world is in the spotlight no matter what he does, and he hasn’t been able to break out and put the Oilers on his back thanks in large part to Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov and the Panthers keying in on him defensively and slowing him down at all costs.
“It’s not really about me – it’s about us,” McDavid said Monday when asked about his play in the series. “I think everybody has another level, myself included.”
Coach Kris Knoblauch thinks it has been a bit of an unfortunate Final for McDavid given the amount of scoring chances that just haven’t gone in.
“I think Connor’s been one of our best players every single night, and that’s what we expect,” Knoblauch said Sunday. “I’ve got no issues with his game. Obviously, our team relies heavily on him and Leon and how they’re playing, but I think that it’s tight checking for everyone and it’s not going to be a midseason game against a non-playoff team when sometimes he’s had 10 or 12 scoring chances. Those numbers are obviously reduced playing against a good team like Florida.”
The Panthers have defended McDavid and Draisaitl “reasonably well,” according to Coach Paul Maurice, who acknowledged two of the NHL’s most talented forwards are bound to get their opportunities.
Barkov’s line, with Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart, has been tasked with playing against McDavid, perhaps to the detriment of offense. That’s the job, so Reinhart was noticeably upset to give up that late goal Saturday night.
“I’m upset every time they get a goal,” Reinhart told reporters in Edmonton. “It’s a team effort defending guys like that. We’ve known all series the challenge is there for us. No one really cares in our locker room who’s producing each night. It’s just a matter that someone is at the right times. And that’s what we’ve had.”
McDavid led all scorers through three rounds playing with Zach Hyman on his right wing. Hyman’s right wrist was dislocated, with ligaments torn, on a hit late in the Western Conference final, and left winger Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was bothered by an undisclosed injury during a stretch against Florida.
Loading up by putting McDavid and Draisaitl on the ice together – the so-called nuclear option – has not been used as often because Hyman isn’t around.
“With the absence of Zach Hyman, it makes it more difficult putting those two together because of the depth of our lineup,” Knoblauch said. “With what we have right now, to run those two together for long periods of time makes it more difficult for our depth on our team.”
That puts even more pressure on McDavid in Game 6 to keep the series going, as the Panthers again focus on preventing him from doing anything of the sort.
“He’s an unbelievable player,” Barkov said. “He’s probably the best player of our generation. You have to be aware of him every single time he’s on the ice and you have to try to take the space away from him as much as possible and stuff like that. But at the same time, you just concentrate your own game, your own team game, and play that as well as possible.”
