The Florida Panthers will play the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers advanced to the Cup Final for the second straight season with a 2-1 win against the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday. The Oilers advanced for the first time since 2006 with a 2-1 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final on Sunday.
“I think there’s a lot of New York Rangers in both these teams," Florida coach Paul Maurice of the Oilers and Stars. "Like, the brilliant speed and dynamic off the rush. That would be our sense, that the Boston Bruins series to the New York Rangers series is completely different. This would be more akin to what we’ve seen in our last series. We think we’ve seen three completely different styles in some ways."
Florida (52-24-6), which is the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Division, will have home-ice advantage against Edmonton (49-27-6), which is the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division.
Forward Matthew Tkachuk leads the Panthers in the playoffs with 19 points (five goals, 14 assists), and forward Carter Verhaeghe (nine goals, eight assists) and center Aleksander Barkov (six goals, 11 assists) each has 17 points. Forward Sam Reinhart has 12 points (eight goals, four assists).
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has started every game, going 12-5 with a 2.20 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. Backup Anthony Stolarz has not played in the playoffs.
The Panthers were 2-0-0 against the Oilers in the regular season, winning 5-3 at home on Nov. 20 and 5-1 on the road on Dec. 16. Verhaeghe had five points (three goals, two assists), center Sam Bennett had four points (two goals, two assists) and center Kevin Stenlund had three points (one goal, two assists). Bobrovsky was 2-0-0 with a 2.00 GAA and .941 save percentage.
“We see them play, so we see that they're both unreal teams, unbelievable teams, really good players on both teams," Barkov said. "I’m not going to go into details about the teams right now, but, for sure, either of those teams you’re going to be [playing] against is going to be a very tough matchup. So, obviously, rest right now, recover and then wait for the opponent and then get back to work.”
The Oilers have been led this posteason by Connor McDavid, who leads the NHL with 31 points (five goals, 26 assists) in 18 games. Leon Draisaitl is second in the League with 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists), and Evan Bouchard is third with 27 points (six goals, 21 assists). Zach Hyman leads the NHL with 14 goals this postseason.
Stuart Skinner is 11-5 with a 2.49 GAA, .897 save percentage and one shutout in 17 games. Calvin Pickard is 1-1 with a 2.21 GAA and .915 save percentage in three games (two starts).
Against the Panthers in the regular season, Edmonton was again led by McDavid, who had three points (two goals, one assist). Pickard started each game, going 0-2-0 with a 4.59 GAA and .873 save percentage.
The Panthers are 0-2 in the Final. They lost in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights last season and were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. Edmonton has won the Stanley Cup five times, the last coming in 1990.
