The 2024 Stanley Cup Final got underway on Saturday (June 8) at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, where the Edmonton Oilers were defeated 3-0 by the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series.
Related: Bobrovsky Shines With 3-0 Shutout in Game 1 of Stanley Cup Final
Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe opened the scoring just 3:59 into the game, Evan Rodrigues extended Florida’s lead with a goal at 2:16 of the middle frame, and Eetu Luostarinen scored into an empty net with just over 4 seconds remaining in the third period.
Sergei Bobrovsky had a sensational night between the pipes, turning aside all 32 shots by the Oilers. Edmonton netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 15 of the 17 shots he faced.
Many in the hockey world felt that Edmonton was the better team in Game 1; it just ran into a hot goalkeeper. Speaking to media after the game, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch and his players seemed to genuinely believe in their ability to rebound from Saturday’s loss and win the series.
Oilers Foiled by Bobrovsky
If the Oilers are at a loss for words to explain how they lost Saturday, that’s only because “Goalied” hasn’t been added to the dictionary yet.
Bobrovsky was the difference-maker in Game 1, shutting out the Oilers, who were held without a goal for the first time since losing 5-0 to the Dallas Stars during the regular season on April 3.
The two-time Vezina Trophy winner showed why he is regarded as one of the top goalies on the planet, robbing the Oilers of a sure goal on several occasions. According to Natural Score Trick, Edmonton had 13 high-danger chances but was unable to convert any of them because of Bobrovsky’s brilliant play.
At the other end of the ice, Skinner didn’t have a terrible game by any means. Still, at the same time, the 25-year-old’s performance wasn’t anything more than average, and his fellow netminder inarguably outmatched him.
Hockey Gods Get Even With Oilers
The opposite held true in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place last Sunday, when the Oilers defeated Dallas 2-1 to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.
That night, Skinner was the far superior goalie between himself and Jake Oettinger of the Stars. Despite being brutally outshot, 35-10, the Oilers prevailed thanks to Skinner’s 34-save effort. Edmonton’s 10 shots tied the all-time Stanley Cup Playoff record for the fewest by any team in a win.
Saturday in Sunrise, Edmonton was more than doubling the Panthers in shots, 25-12, through two periods, but found themselves trailing 2-0 after 40 minutes. Florida’s 18 shots tied for the second fewest allowed in a loss by the Oilers in their postseason history.
“Maybe it was the hockey gods getting us back for that Game 6, where we probably didn’t deserve to win,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who led all players with six shots on goal, said while speaking to media after the game. “Tonight, maybe we deserved at least one goal or maybe two goals, and we don’t find a way to get to them. I know this group will stick with it, bounce back. That’s what we take a lot of pride in doing, and we’ll gear up for a big one (in Game 2).”
Oilers Blow Opportunity in Florida
Supposing that Edmonton was the best team in Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday and lost because of one masked man, should that give the Oilers confidence moving forward? Or should it concern them because they couldn’t win even on a night when they did outplay the opposition?
It can undoubtedly be seen as a lost opportunity, one the Oilers may lament if this series doesn’t go their way, considering that Florida wasn’t at its finest on Saturday.
Through the first three rounds of this postseason, the Panthers outshot the opposition by 8.7 per game. Going into the Stanley Cup Final, Florida had a 54.5% Corsi and 54.4% Fenwick in these playoffs; in Game 1 against Edmonton, those rates were just 41.4% and 38.7%, respectively.
“I thought overall we played a pretty good game. We had some chances to score goals and they didn’t go in. We know that probably wasn’t their best game. We anticipate them to be much better the next one,” Knoblauch said during his post-game press conference with the media. “I think they probably were caught off guard, just (by) you guys talking about how good they are and (saying) we didn’t have a chance in this series. But there’s a lot of things I liked about our game, but we know that we’ll have to get even better.”
That will need to be the case in Game 2, as history suggests that Edmonton really, really, really needs to even the series up at one win apiece: Only five times in NHL history has a team rallied to win the Stanley Cup Final after falling behind 2-0 (most recently the Boston Bruins in 2011) and only once have the Oilers come back from down 2-0 to win a playoff series, in 2006 against the San Jose Sharks. Game 2 is set for just after 8 p.m. Eastern Time at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (June 10).
