Panthers hosting Oilers for first time since Stanley Cup Final ‘brings back some good memories’
It has been just more than eight months since the Florida Panthers won their first Stanley Cup, knocking off the Edmonton Oilers in seven games after nearly giving the series away. They have done their celebrating, spending the summer with the Cup, receiving their championship rings, raising the banner on opening night and reminiscing each time they faced a former teammate who was part of that playoff run.
The final full-circle moment from that championship comes Thursday, when the Panthers host the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena for the first time since that Game 7 win on June 24.
“Obviously it brings back some good memories,” said forward Evan Rodrigues, who led the Panthers with seven points in the Stanley Cup Final. “Whenever there’s a rematch against these guys, you always want to try and come away with a win.”
The Panthers most desperately wanted — and needed — a win in Game 7 back in late June. They took an early 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 Cup Final before squandering their first three chances to win the series by scores of 8-1 in Game 4, 5-3 in Game 5 and 5-1 in Game 6.
In the winner-take-all finale, Florida received goals from Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart — with Reinhart’s goal set up after Dmitry Kulikov cleared an Edmonton scoring chance away while crashing into Florida’s net — to take the 2-1 win. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 of 24 Oilers shots that came his way.
“There was an interesting balance to it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of the team’s mind-set entering Game 7. “Clearly, you lose three in a row and you are very aware of what that means, but the other side was still there and that was we have this chance. Sometimes you let your brain worry about failure where there’s not really a payoff to success. You just avoid failure and that’s your driver — you just don’t want this to be bad. But that wasn’t the context of this at all. There’s still a Stanley Cup right there for you to take, and I think the overall memory, other than you get to touch the Stanley Cup and you get your name on it, is actually in those days in between, what you went through and what you had to do mentally to get yourself to be in a position to play as well as we did to come out at the start of that game.”
Despite the memories, Maurice insisted pregame the focus won’t be about bringing up the past. There’s too much still at play with a month-and-a-half left in the regular season.
The Panthers entered play Thursday one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. Edmonton, which entered the Florida game on a four-game losing streak, is second in the Pacific Division.
“We won’t a lot of reminiscing before the game,” he said, “but if you watch the prep programming coming into the game and get some flashbacks, it brings a smile to your face.”
Eetu Luostarinen returns
Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen returns to the Florida lineup on Thursday after missing the team’s win on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators due to the birth of his daughter Sophia.
“It’s been a crazy two days,” Luostarinen said. “Just really blessed and really excited. Everybody is doing great. Both baby and mom are doing great, healthy and happy.”
Luostarinen will slot back into his usual spot on the left wing of Florida’s third line with center Anton Lundell and right wing Jesper Boqvist.
With Luostarinen back, the team sent forward Justin Sourdif back to the Charlotte Checkers, the team’s American Hockey League affiliate. Sourdif scored his first NHL goal on Tuesday against Nashville.
Latest on Matthew Tkachuk
Star Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk, sidelined by an apparent groin injury sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off, will remain out at least for Florida’s games against Edmonton on Thursday and the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
“Nothing new,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He is out near-term, we know that, but we’re just making sure we get as many ideas on treatment and things like that. I’ll give you the update when I get the final update of what we’re doing.
“We just don’t need to hurry right now,” Maurice added, “because he is not playing on the weekend and we’re not jamming him back into the game. We’re just going to make sure we see as many people as we need to see and we got a really good handle on how it wants to be.”
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