SUNRISE, FL – As sunny, 90-degree weather penetrated the surface of Amerant Arena in preparation for the Stanley Cup Final, compressors were working overtime to ensure excellent ice conditions for hockey to be played at its highest profile stage. The curtain was about to go up on the Stanley Cup Final between the mighty Edmonton Oilers and the returning Eastern Conference Finalist Florida Panthers.
Those conditions ended up being the best for just one team, the Florida Panthers. On the strength of Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopping all 32 Edmonton shots in front of a sellout crowd of 19,543, the Panthers took Game One of the Stanley Cup Final.
It was just the second victory in twelve tries across three Stanley Cup Final series. The Panthers were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 on the way to their first Stanley Cup. Last year, Vegas defeated Florida 4-1 for their first Stanley Cup. The Panthers have never led in a Stanley Cup Final game, winning their lone game in last year’s series in overtime of Game Three. They have also never led a Stanley Cup Final series.
Those two things changed tonight and history is on their side. 75% of teams who win the first game of the Stanley Cup Final go on to win the series. If the Panthers can win Game Two, there is a 90.6% (48-5) chance they will win the Cup. If the team holding home ice advantage wins the first two games, their chances increase to 92.7% (38-3).
Perhaps the long travel event affected the Oilers. At 2,541 miles, it is the longest distance between two Cup finalists ever with the next closest being the 2011 series between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks at 2,499 miles. Meanwhile, Florida has been rested and healthy.
Game One of the Stanley Cup Final is the first in what could be as many as seventeen days of hockey’s best on display. It is not common that players arrive to the fourth round of the two-month grind healthy, but earlier in the day at the Florida morning skate, Coach Paul Maurice declared that 27 players were on the ice and healthy this morning, ready to go. Last year in the Final against Vegas, he could only declare 14 players healthy, a major difference year over year.
Edmonton sought to take the fight right into the Florida zone early with a series of shots peppering the Panthers net. Zach Hyman had a golden opportunity in the first minute when he broke down the right side of the Florida net, but goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky had other ideas, directing the shot into the corner.
Not long thereafter, the Panthers made good on their first chance.
That’s when just under four minutes into the opening stanza, Florida put together a superb scoring rush. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov waltzed through the neutral zone along the bench side of the ice and dished the biscuit directly in front of him to teammate Sam Reinhardt.
Reinhardt crossed over the Edmonton blue line and found a streaking Connor Verhaeghe on the left side. The Florida sniper swatted his 10th of the playoffs past Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner to take the early lead and the arena exploded. It was Verhage’s 10th of the playoffs.
Edmonton then took the ensuing draw and advanced into Panther territory when Connor McDavid blasted a drive on Bobrovsky. The confident netminder turned it aside leaving no rebound to pounce on.
More pressure from the Western Conference champion developed when just under six minutes into the period, McDavid raced down the right side and cut in all alone. Bobrovsky had an answer for the league’s top scorer. No soup for you.
The feeling out period continued with a great deal of sloppy play in the neutral zone.
A third of the way into the period, the heavy hockey began to emerge on the slab and it resulted in going over the line when Edmonton’s Matthias Ekholm for tripping and the Panthers on their lethal power play, going 19 for 51, 1st in the NHL during the post season.
Florida went to work and peppered Skinner with a flurry of shots, but he saved them all.
Right after killing off the penalty, Edmonton came out firing with blasts from Hyman and McDavid. Bobrovsky had an answer for each of them and no rebound for a second chance. The Florida defense engulfed the Oilers upon coming within twenty feet of their goal.
Edmonton began to play a little too loose in their half of the slab with missed passes and poor coverage. The Panthers took advantage of the unforced errors en masse.
Veteran Edmonton player Adam Henrique nearly knotted the game with less than six minutes to play in the period when he accepted a stretch pass and went in all alone on Borbovsky. The answer was his left pad, punting the puck into the corner to preserve the lead.
With Edmonton pressure intensifying in the Florida zone after that chance, Florida’s Gustav Forsling was whistled for tripping McDavid, putting the Oilers in the position to tie the game before the period ended.
Just more than a minute into that man-advantage, Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins accepted a nifty pass as he crossed over the Florida line unmolested and in alone on Bobrovsky. The Russian netminder, popped that left pad out to make the save and another threat was neutralized.
On the ensuing face-off, the Oilers held control and the puck eventually found its way onto McDavid’s stick. Stymied with the first chance near the right post, McDavid spun around that post and behind the net, eager to test Bobrovsky on the other post with a wraparound. Bail was denied and the Panther lead was protected.
With just 24 seconds left and Edmonton applying pressure, Ekholm sentrom the left point which Bobrovsky snared with his glove, but the Florida defense wasn’t too keen in how close the attacking players got to their goalie as he fell to the ice with the puck secured in his glove,
With seconds left in the period, Florida’s Verhaeghe was flagged for high-sticking and sent to the box, a penalty which would roll over to the middle period for the Oilers to start with a nearly full-term power play.
Bobrovsky was flawless, though, and the period ended with the Oilers having dominated in shots 14 to 4 with the Panthers holding the lead on Verhaeghe’s go-ahead goal early in the frame. Heavy hockey was on full display with the Panthers leading in the hits category 24-15.
Edmonton stepped on fresh ice to start the second period with the man advantage and went to work on the power play.
Hyman had a golden chance in close when he accepted a pass unmarked from a teammate residing in the Sunrise area code, but shot high over the net from five feet out.
Not long after Florida extinguished the penalty, the Panthers forecheck swarmed the Edmonton defense. A heart-pounding effort from Sam Reinhardt to pressure the play led to his beating Evan Bouchard to the puck and backhanding a pass out to center. That’s where a streaking Evan Rodrigues made no mistake in snapping the drive past Skinner to give the Panthers a two-goal lead. Evander Kane was caught trailing his man, Rodrigues, and it cost Edmonton.
Edmonton needed something strong to get back into the game and they nearly found it when Bouchard sent a low drive from eighty feet out and right on Bobrovsky. It hit the skate of Edmonton’s Corey Perry and deflected into the corner of the rink. Had it not hit Perry’s skate blade, the Florida lead would have been cut in half.
The weathering of a formidable 18-shot Oiler attack through a little less than half of the game seemed to inspire Florida who went on their own attack, still though, reaching just half the shot total of the visiting squad.
Midway through the period, Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark made a spirited rush down the left side in all alone on Bobrovsky, but the save was made. His teammate, Connor Brown followed-up the shot by jamming at the smothered puck, causing it to come dislodged from under Bobrovsky’s right pad and into the net.
The effort was ruled no goal and in the ensuing truculence, a pair of coincidental roughing minors were assessed to each team and sent Edmonton’s Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark along with Florida’s Kevin Stenlund and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the box.
Not long after the restart, Panthers Sam Bennett was called for interference, giving the Oilers a chance at some life in the game. They went to work quickly.
Shots from Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and Nugent Hopkins were well-placed, but not evasive enough to find twine. Bobrovsky remained sensational, stopping everything coming his way and even using the knob of his stick and his melon to keep the puck from crossing the goal line.
The Oiler attached continued to roll, though. Edmonton’s Warren Foegele and Evander Kane both sent brisk drives from the slot, but Bobrovsky smothered both. Shots were 24-9 Edmonton with just more than six minutes to play in the second period.
Giving them credit, Edmonton hung in there and continued to thrush the Florida half of the ice.
Just under a minute to play in the second period, Florida carried the puck out of their zone when Sam Reinhardt entered neutral ice. He fed the puck to Barkov who nearly snuck the puck past Skinner before being neutralized.
In the next rush by Edmonton, Bobrovsky misplayed the puck behind his net, nearly leading to an Edmonton goal with the frame unattended. The Oilers failed to convert. It was chaos in the Florida zone.
After two periods, Edmonton continued in the shot lead at 26-12, but Florida held the only lead that mattered with the 2-0 score. Florida continued the heavy hockey by increasing their documented hit total to 48 to 26 through two periods, 24 to 11 in the second period alone.
Edmonton really needed to get something going early in the third period and nearly did when a tic-tac-toe passing play from Hyman to Draisaitl to McDavid nearly was converted before Bobrovsky smothered it.
Florida kept hitting and with emphasis whenever an Edmonton player entered the Panther zone along the boards. Coach Maurice said this morning that 85% of the game is won along the boards and his team executed on winning those battles all game long.
Just as momentum was building with a flurry of activity around the Florida net, Edmonton’s fortunes worsened when with just more than thirteen minutes to play in regulation, Oilers Corey Perry was whistled for interference. The ill-advised infraction came as Perry was coming out of his own zone, an awful unforced error. Florida went on the power play and didn’t attempt to protect the lead by coming right onto the attack.
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Putting Edmonton on their heels, Sam Reinhardt received a pass from Eetu Luostarinen and sent a snapshot which Skinner gloved safely to earn the stoppage. A few minutes later, Reinhardt was at it again, attacking the net with a drive that Skinner snared once more. Edmonton could not apply any more pressure. With 32 shots up to this point, the Oilers spirit seemed to have been broken with Bobrovsky’s performance.
The final nail in Edmonton’s coffin was the empty net goal by Eetu Luostarinen with four seconds left.
Final shot totals were Edmonton 32-18 while Florida dominated in hits 63-35.
Game Two is Monday night in Sunrise before the series shifts to Edmonton at Rogers Centre on Thursday and Saturday.
Dennis Morrell has developed a deeply rooted passion for our game over many decades as a goaltender, writer, photographer, goalie coach, and active Level 3 USA Hockey-certified, on-ice official with over 2,000 games with the whistle. His passion for the game began in the early 70s upon his first glance at players battling for the puck at Clayton’s Shaw Park.
And yes, the ice is perfect.
He has been fortunate to journalistically cover 2 NHL Entry Drafts, 5 NHL All-Star Games, 8 NHL Outdoor Games in two countries and 22 games played in the context of 10 Stanley Cup Final games, witnessing the oldest trophy in sports lifted by the champion 3 times, including when his beloved hometown team, the St. Louis Blues, won their first chalice in 2019.
He has witnessed over 1,000 major and minor p/professional games in over 250 different arenas. He can be reached at dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com and you can follow him on Twitter at DMMORRELL.
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