The Florida Panthers will kick up their feet tonight and watch the Edmonton Oilers try to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup final against the visiting Dallas Stars.
The Oilers are one win away from joining the Panthers in the big show — the Stanley Cup final — for the first time since 2006. The Panthers made it to the final last year but lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.
Here are five things to know about the NHL playoffs:
CATS SCRATCH RANGERS FROM CUP PURSUIT
The Florida Panthers came up four points short of the New York Rangers in the pursuit of the Presidents’ Trophy this season.
But the Cats still have a shot to pounce on the biggest prize of them all when they return to the Stanley Cup final against the winner of the Edmonton Oilers-Dallas Stars series.
After falling behind 2-1 in the Eastern Conference final series, the Panthers won three in a row to polish off the Rangers in six games, the death blow coming last night as the hosts got goals from Sam Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko, and 22 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.
For the 11th consecutive year, the team that finished with the NHL’s best regular-season record won’t win the Stanley Cup.
Florida will play for the Stanley Cup for the third time. The Panthers were swept by Colorado in 1996 and lost 4-1 to Vegas last season. It’s also the third time in the final for Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who lost with Carolina in 2002 and then with Florida last year.
NUGE COMES UP HUGE
It is easy to forget Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is 31 years old, or that he was drafted first overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 2011, or that he’s the longest-serving member of the team.
Until 25-year-old netminder Stuart Skinner reminds the meat, uh, we mean media, that he was that young Oilers’ fan watching the Burnaby forward on TV going “Nuuuuuuuuge.”
When the Dallas Stars focused on shutting down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Game 5, it was Nugent-Hopkins picking up the slack with two power-play goals as the Oilers won 3-1 on Friday to grab a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference final.
Oilers’ coach Kris Knoblauch joked that Nuge was his favourite player on Friday, too. The Nuge, in his 13th season with the Oil, has 20 points (including six goals) in this post-season, which is fourth overall in the NHL playoffs.
FROM DOGHOUSE TO PENTHOUSE
It’s hard to believe the Edmonton Oilers started this season with a 3-9-1 record that prompted the firing of head coach Jay Woodcroft back in November.
Kris Knoblauch arrived in Edmonton for his first NHL head-coaching gig to find a highly-touted team in turmoil.
He says boiling the season down into segments and explaining the path forward helped take some of the pressure off a frustrated bunch of hockey players.
Edmonton finished second in the Pacific Division behind the Vancouver Canucks with a 49-27-6 record.
Oilers forward Zach Hyman says Knoblauch’s calmness has helped in the playoffs when the team has trailed in games and in series.
TEMPORARY SOLUTION TO PERSISTENT PROBLEM
Jim Hiller, Rick Tocchet and Peter DeBoer have all found a way to silence the Edmonton Oilers’ high-flying offence.
The problem for the bench bosses with the Kings, Canucks and Stars, is the “shutdown solution” always proved temporary.
A quick look at the top four in the NHL playoff scoring race is proof.
Connor McDavid leads the scoring race with 29 points, followed by Leon Draisaitl with 27, Evan Bouchard with 25 and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with 20.
Vincent Trocheck of the New York Rangers has 20 points and Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers has 19.
POWER PLAY FINALLY CONNECTS
Despite all the firepower on the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers, the first-period power-play goal by Edmonton on Friday marked the first time in nearly 80 years that it took a series five games to see its first goal scored with the man advantage.
And when Evan Bouchard, playing in his 45th post-season game, assisted on the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ goal he became the third-fastest defenceman in NHL history to reach 50 playoff points behind Bobby Orr (39 games) and Brian Leetch (41 games).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2024.