SCF: Florida Panthers vs Edmonton Oilers (Series Tied 3-3) Hold onto your butts, Game 7, Monday 8/24 @ 8pm ET !

[Leonardo87]

**Stanley Cup Final**
Florida Panthers vs Edmonton Oilers

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[Sasha Orlov]

I was curious to see what Oiler fans thought were the issues and a bit surprised to see that Skinner is taking most of the heat on their board.

Maybe he's just a useful punching bag, but I'd only blame him for 1 goal last night. Meanwhile their offense has dried up but and their D continues to be extremely porous.

Their D is bad (especially Nurse - Ceci pairing) but Skinner also isn’t solid enough to give them much confidence

Having a Carey Price or a Bobrovsky in net can make a mediocre D core a lot better through the psychological boost they give

 

[MCR74]

Edmonton is beating themselves - thats the frustrating part about this finals.

FLA isn't outplaying anyone - in fact they are dominated for long stretches spending them wholly in the defensive zone. Correct me if I'm wrong - but FLA has spent the majority of each game in the D-Zone I believe.

They have simply been more opportunistic when Bouchard/Nurse or Skinner f*** up. Its always one of those 3. If Edmonton can somehow get those 3 to play 4 games of lights out hockey - its a reverse sweep.

If there was ever a definition for "wishful thinking", this is it right here.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

They were also beating teams that weren't in the playoffs. Didnt they have San Jose, Anaheim, Arizona like 6 of those?

The Oilers 16 game win streak in the regular season was overrrated. Also have to have puck luck to make that happen. The Pens 17 game win streak was much more impressive.

 

[Just Rude]

Boston (who have Zacha and Coyle as their top 2 centers) took this Florida team to 6 games and was a much tougher opponent for Florida than these Western Conference Champs. And that's with Marchand missing 3 or 4 games.

Yep. The Atlantic top teams "toughened up", for lack of a better term, because they needed to in order to try to keep pace with Florida (i.e. Reaves and Maroon, as examples).

It's not coincidence that the top three hitting teams in the league during the regular season were Florida, Toronto and Boston. In the playoffs, four of the top 5 in hits/60 are from the Atlantic.

It's not just the hitting. Florida is just relentless. It's a team that is just built for playoff hockey, from the net out.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Edmonton was significantly better for Game 1 in periods 1 and 2 but then Florida shut it down in period 3.

Florida was significantly better in Game 2 although Edmonton had a couple decent stretches.

Edmonton was better in most of Game 3, but shot themselves in the foot and Florida was better with the attention to detail. Panthers controlled period 2 last night

I missed the first 10minutes of the 1st period last night, was Edmonton really that good at the start of the game? Shots were 8 vs 8 with 9 mins remaining of the 1st.

The Oilers lost this game in 6 minutes of the 2nd period.

 

[Beezeral]

Edmonton is beating themselves - thats the frustrating part about this finals.

FLA isn't outplaying anyone - in fact they are dominated for long stretches spending them wholly in the defensive zone. Correct me if I'm wrong - but FLA has spent the majority of each game in the D-Zone I believe.

They have simply been more opportunistic when Bouchard/Nurse or Skinner f*** up. Its always one of those 3. If Edmonton can somehow get those 3 to play 4 games of lights out hockey - its a reverse sweep.

The stats and the underlying numbers say these are two evenly matched teams everywhere except in goal.

Skinner is playing like a replacement level goalie and Bob is playing like a Vezina finalist. Bob isn't carrying the Panthers, but he is the difference in the series.

 

[Laus723]

Wait, are people really complaining about the officiating from last night?

Well, they did miss the two flops, oops I mean trips, by the Panthers in the waning minute plus.

 

[Beezeral]

Well, they did miss the two flops, oops I mean trips, by the Panthers in the waning minute plus.

they also missed this.


It was typical prison rules the last 2 minutes.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1801459120404357257

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

For all the complaints about the officials, the power play time in this series favors Edmonton, and that's even after they threw a giant hissy fit down late in game 2 and started belly flopping our goalie in game 3.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Edmonton is beating themselves - thats the frustrating part about this finals.

FLA isn't outplaying anyone - in fact they are dominated for long stretches spending them wholly in the defensive zone. Correct me if I'm wrong - but FLA has spent the majority of each game in the D-Zone I believe.

They have simply been more opportunistic when Bouchard/Nurse or Skinner f*** up. Its always one of those 3. If Edmonton can somehow get those 3 to play 4 games of lights out hockey - its a reverse sweep.

Come on buddy

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

The stats and the underlying numbers say these are two evenly matched teams everywhere except in goal.

Skinner is playing like a replacement level goalie and Bob is playing like a Vezina finalist. Bob isn't carrying the Panthers, but he is the difference in the series.

I would say both Bob and Florida's forecheck have been the difference. Florida is attacking the Oilers defense every time and 90% of their goals have resulted from the Oilers D breaking down and coughing up the puck in their own end.

No question Florida knew this heading into the series. Many teams exposed the Oilers D in the regular season by just attacking their defense. Pressure them and they will turn the puck over at the worse possible times.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

I would say both Bob and Florida's forecheck have been the difference. Florida is attacking the Oilers defense every time and 90% of their goals have resulted from the Oilers D breaking down and coughing up the puck in their own end.

No question Florida knew this heading into the series. Many teams exposed the Oilers D in the regular season by just attacking their defense. Pressure them and they will turn the puck over at the worse possible times.

100% correct

Not to mention the Panthers D have turned the oilers forwards into perimeter players

Multiple instances last night where McDavid held the puck for 10+ seconds below the red line and couldn’t find anyone net front to feed

They’re in shambles

 

[Oneiro]

Edmonton is losing every board battle, putting up weak shots from the outside Carolina style and aren’t getting goals from the most important players.

They didn’t outplay shit. They’re not getting goalie’d, they were always mediocre and if they had played COL and VGK instead of LA and VAN, they wouldn’t even be in the final.

 

[Ratsreign]

Still one more W to earn.

Let’s go Panthers!!

 

[AvroArrow]

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Point leaders in the last two rounds

McDavid: 13 points in 9 games. 10 EVP +2

Draisaitl: 4 points in 9 games. 2 EVP. - 2

Draisaitl disappeared when it got tough

Oilers fans were attacking me relentlessly a few weeks ago for discussing Draisaitls drop in production vs top teams. Phenomenal player no doubt, but you can clearly see the difference between playing teams earlier in the playoffs/pacific vs when he's against actual cup contenders.

I thought he was great vs Dallas who I consider a real cup contender, but 0 goals in 3 games now. He's had his chances just can't seem to bury them. Bob has been great but we have a combined 0 goals for McDavid + Draisaitl + Hyman + RNH now in the finals.

On the bright side, it was a great run for the Oilers and a good experience for their core. Florida lost in the finals last year and are just 1 win away from winning it all now. Regardless of how this series goes, their group will only be better because of it. But still some major flaws. The goaltending and 5 on 5 production are killing the Oilers chances, having an elite powerplay is great and all but when you're against an elite defensive team + elite goalie, it's only gonna get you so far.

If goaltending was even, this should be a 2-1 series in favor of Florida right now in my honest opinion. Get Edmonton a real goaltender and they'll be back in the finals again at least once over the next 2-3 years.

 

[MCR74]

For all the complaints about the officials, the power play time in this series favors Edmonton, and that's even after they threw a giant hissy fit down late in game 2 and started belly flopping our goalie in game 3.

So no different than the regular season then?

I guess we all cope in different ways.

Beats hitting the bottle, I guess.

 

[MCR74]

If goaltending was even, this should be a 2-1 series in favor of Florida right now in my honest opinion. Get Edmonton a real goaltender and they'll be back in the finals again at least once over the next 2-3 years.

You didn't know? Edmonton signed one last summer. That's what they told us anyway.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

I think the Rangers were the toughest opponent the Panthers faced so far (and there is still time for the Oilers to go beast mode), as Florida had to bring its best game the way it didn't against Boston.

Panthers would have swept the Rangers if it wasn't for Shesterkin standing on his head. Panthers made the best team in the regular season look pretty ordinary.

 

[dhfa]

The way they do the seeding needs to change so we can have more competitive finals series. Some teams have to go through a gauntlet while other teams get an easy path. Then when the easy path team meets the gauntlet in the finals we get a sweep. Oilers probably lose to most of the Atlantic teams. Its better to have the sweeps and blowouts happen in the early rounds rather than seeing a finals like this. Just my opinion.

 

[PromisedLand]

The Eastern Conference sucks, Florida only played bozos.
You can't handle McDrai.
Something something empty seats.
We got goalied.
The ice in Sunrise is bad, we're going back to Canada for the good ice.
Colin Campbell
Your team doesn't have any fans.
We got goalied again.
If we traded two of our worst players for two of your best players, we'd win. <------ YOU ARE HERE
Florida isn't better, we are beating ourselves.

Alantic Division in the East is THE TOUGHEST division in the entire league IMO

TB 3 consecutive cup finals
FLA 2 consecutive cup finals
MTL (was there too recently)
BOS (in 2019)

Atlantic Division has been representing EAST in the SCF since 2019

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

Panthers would have swept the Rangers if it wasn't for Shesterkin standing on his head. Panthers made the best team in the regular season look pretty ordinary.

They played their best game vs NYR. Before that series, I said that if they played the way they did against Boston, they would lose in six. I really thought the Panthers were just sloppy and undisciplined and generally very loose against Boston.

If Boston had better center depth, they could have taken that series.

 

[Beezeral]

I would say both Bob and Florida's forecheck have been the difference. Florida is attacking the Oilers defense every time and 90% of their goals have resulted from the Oilers D breaking down and coughing up the puck in their own end.

No question Florida knew this heading into the series. Many teams exposed the Oilers D in the regular season by just attacking their defense. Pressure them and they will turn the puck over at the worse possible times.

The Panthers are getting their goals with the forecheck for sure. I was simply saying that forecheck advantage has been mitigated by the Oilers having more puck possession and shots. The analytics show these games pretty even in terms of xG share. The difference has been Bob is making saves and Skinner isn't. This is a big difference from the prior two series where the Panthers were absolutely dominant in every metric but Shesterkin and Swayman were dragging their teams to 6 games by the skin of their teeth.

 

[ViD]

The way they do the seeding needs to change so we can have more competitive finals series. Some teams have to go through a gauntlet while other teams get an easy path. Then when the easy path team meets the gauntlet in the finals we get a sweep. Oilers probably lose to most of the Atlantic teams. Its better to have the sweeps and blowouts happen in the early rounds rather than seeing a finals like this. Just my opinion.

Are you implying Florida had to go through an easy route playing the three best goalies in the NHL and topping it off with a matchup against the President’s Trophy winner ?

 

[jgs]

All these posts about how Edmonton is outplaying the Panthers, Edmonton is beating themselves is crazy. Florida is beating the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers style of play is killing the Oilers, just as they did the Rangers.

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

Are you implying Florida had to go through an easy route playing the three best goalies in the NHL and topping it off with a matchup against the President’s Trophy winner ?

No, he's saying that Edmonton had it easy and that's why the SCF is 3-0 right now.

I'm not sure I agree. Dallas is a great team and Vancouver, even with a fourth string goalie, was a very good team as well.