The Stanley Cup Final reunion returns to Wild Rose Country as Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers host the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
This marks the teams’ second regular-season meeting. The Oilers won 6-3 in Sunrise, Fla., on Nov. 22, five months after the Panthers claimed their second straight Stanley Cup at the same rink.
The visiting Panthers are in a different boat this time around, sitting in the cellar of the Eastern Conference standings and on a two-game skid. They started a four-game road trip with a 6-2 loss to the Kraken in Seattle. On Tuesday night, Florida got into an early 3-1 hole against the last-place Canucks before falling 5-2 in Vancouver.
Matthew Tkachuk, who scored in just his second game this month, and Sam Bennett lit the lamp for Florida, while Carter Verhaeghe assisted on both goals Tuesday.
“It doesn’t matter who you are playing, a team at home gets up, the crowd gets behind them, and then they really tighten it up defensively,” Florida defensemen Seth Jones said after the loss. “It’s hard to generate anything,”
It didn’t help that three of Vancouver’s five goals were by players left wide open in front of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers’ net.
“The goals we gave up are just so unusual for us,” Florida head coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ve got that puck on our stick, and we’ve got to get those clears, but we left guys alone three times tonight in front of our net. I don’t ever remember seeing that.”
The Oilers, meanwhile, are in unusual territory themselves following news that star forward Leon Draisaitl will miss at least the rest of the regular season with an upper-body injury. Edmonton is still in a playoff spot and entered Wednesday tied with the Anaheim Ducks for the most points in the Pacific Division. Plus, they are on a two-game winning streak after defeating the San Jose Sharks 5-3 on Tuesday.
“Having some adversity (and) missing some guys is OK for a team, as long as we have guys who are capable of stepping up and playing better, and I believe we do, we should be all right,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said.
Thirteen Oilers players recorded at least one point in Tuesday’s game. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor Murphy, Max Jones, Zach Hyman and Vasily Podkolzin all found the back of the net, and Connor Ingram made 27 saves while ending Macklin Celebrini’s nine-game point streak.
“Everyone says it’s cliche for ‘everyone to chip in,’ but it really is true,” Murphy said. “When the offense isn’t going to come as easy, it’s going to take a little more of just being responsible with your play. And it doesn’t even mean you need to score that many. It takes what it takes, whether it’s scoring five or winning 1-0.”
