Panthers eager to embrace Stanley Cup Final Game 7 despite losing three straight to Oilers
Although the Panthers dropped three straight potential clinchers in the Stanley Cup Final, they are looking forward to Monday's Game 7. Home teams have won 12 of the 17 previous Stanley Cup Final Game 7s — though the road team has won the past three.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice said no kid who grows up playing hockey imagines themselves scoring game-winners in Game 4 of the playoff’s early rounds. They all picture scoring the game-winning goal in Game 7 to clinch a Stanley Cup.
However, Florida’s route to Game 7 has not been the stuff of dreams. It’s one loss away from becoming a nightmare. With a win over the Oilers on Monday night, the Panthers will get to etch their names on the Stanley Cup. Lose and they become just the second team to ever lose the Stanley Cup after taking a 3-0 lead in the seven-game series.
“I grabbed my son today, who’s eight, and just said, ‘When I was little, when I was your age, I was in the driveway with my rollerblades on, pretending I was in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final,’ ” Panthers veteran Kyle Okposo said. “I said, ‘How special that you’re going to be able to go to the game.’
“You’ve got to embrace it. You’ve got to just smile and enjoy it.”
The Panthers are not letting that noise into their minds, though. They are looking at Game 7 as a blank slate.
“Tomorrow, we have one game on our minds,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We’ll play our best game, and that’s about it. We have an unbelievable opportunity to win the Cup, but our mindset is to play our best game, starting from the first shift. That’s about it. That’s all we can do.”
Maurice has coached in four Game 7s before: two with Carolina, one with Winnipeg and one with Florida last season. He is 4-0 in those games.
Entering his fifth career Game 7, Maurice said he wanted to see the team’s “vibe” in practice Sunday.
“You’re just watching to see how they move around each other,” Maurice said. “What are the natural conversations that start? How much of them are hockey-specific and mood-specific? And that’s where you start to build your feel of what the room is, where it’s going to get to.”
Florida dominated the first three games of the series. But since then, it has been all Edmonton. The Oilers have out-scored the Panthers 18-5 in the past three games. They have forced Florida to play from behind in all three games thanks to early first-period goals. Connor McDavid has lived up to his superstar billing, notching three goals and eight points in the three wins.
But Florida has the ability to keep Edmonton in check. The Panthers proved that in the first three games.
“It’s been a very even series,” star Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “We’ve won three. They won three. For us, both teams to have an opportunity — most teams, you lose three in a playoff series, you don’t have a chance at another game. Somehow, both of us have opportunities. Very exciting to leave it all out there.”
Florida will also have another advantage: playing in Sunrise. Home teams have won 12 of the 17 previous Stanley Cup Final Game 7s — though the road team has won the past three.
“It’s probably going to be the loudest rink I’ve ever been in in my life,” Tkachuk said. “That’s what I’m expecting. I can’t even describe the feeling of excitement. I can’t even express the feeling of excitement around the city right now with everybody. The build-up throughout this whole season, throughout the whole playoffs, comes down to this. So I’m expecting it to be as loud as any building I’ve ever heard in my life.”