hard to say
in 2023: Ekblad had a broken foot, luostar whos extremely underrated defensively was out with a broken leg, montours shoulder needed surgery, bennett needed surgery too. Everyones injured by the finals but that was a hospital lineup, our bottom six was like full of ahl guys, and our defensive depth was horrendous.
2024: Panthers had barkov finally emerge, but tkachuk disappeared most of the playoffs as opposed to last year, Bob wasnt as godly as last year, but still good. Our defensive style, depth and size were a lot better this year as well as our composure, less unneeded scrums and dumb penalties. Our PK was also night and day compared to last year, but the flip side was our powerplay was complete ass.
That said probably vegas still gets it, they were on a mission that year, something like the highest goal differential in the playoffs or something like that. Style of play that just broke us (oilers started to use that style vs us with same results), plus Hill having the best performance of his life.
I think who ever has home ice would win it in 7, vegas absolutely curbstomped us in their barn, and we managed to win one and almost win another at home even with all of our injuries.