How do the Panthers beat the Oilers to repeat as champions? Here are the keys
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2025 Stanley Cup Final: Florida vs. Edmonton
The Florida Panthers return to the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive year as they face the Edmonton Oilers in a rematch of last season’s final that the Panthers won in seven games.
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The Florida Panthers are four wins away from repeating as Stanley Cup champions.
Their final test is the toughest in a rematch with the Edmonton Oilers, the same team that just last year took them to seven games in the Stanley Cup Final before the Panthers ultimately prevailed.
Here are five keys for the Panthers if they want to win it all for a second consecutive year.
Win with depth ...
Edmonton has been carried in large part by four main players on offense in Connor McDavid (six goals, 20 assists, 26 points), Leon Draisaitl (seven goals, 18 assists, 25 points), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (five goals, 13 assists, 18 points) and Evan Bouchard (six goals, 11 assists, 17 points).
The Panthers have spread the wealth around, receiving contributions from up and down the lineup all postseason. They have 19 players with at least one goal and 10 players with at least 11 points. Every defenseman has scored at least once.
There’s a confidence that comes with that when Florida can roll every line and not have to rely on two or three big players to do the heavy lifting every night and it also affords the Panthers the opportunity to set up matchups that work in their favor.
For example, the fact that the team’s third line of Anton Lundell centering Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand has been so effective on both ends of the ice — they have outscored opponents 10-2 while playing together at five-on-five — gives coach Paul Maurice the confidence that they can contain one of Edmonton’s top lines featuring either McDaivd or Draisaitl. That, in turn, frees up either the Aleksander Barkov line (with Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart) or the Sam Bennett line (with Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk) to go against one of the Oilers’ bottom lines.
... But the stars have to show up, too
That said, the big guns do need to step up on the biggest stage — and for their part, they have throughout the playoffs.
Barkov leads the team with 17 points in the playoffs. Bennett leads the entire league with 10 goals. Tkachuk has 16 points, seven of which came in the Eastern Conference final. Verhaeghe has six goals, including a pair of game-winners.
There’s certainly enough to go around, but as Reinhart said after the Eastern Conference final, “big players make big plays at the biggest moments when you need them.”
Excel on special teams
Florida’s game is built on creating steady pressure at five-on-five, being relentless on the forecheck and grinding down the opposition for a full 60 minutes.
But if the game does end up relying on special teams, they’ve been pretty good there, too.
The Panthers boast the best penalty kill of the postseason, killing off 87.9 percent of opposing power play opportunities despite being shorthanded an average of 6:20 per game this playoffs.
They have three effective forward pair combinations, including Barkov-Reinhart (the top two finishers for the Selke Trophy given annually to the league’s top defensive forward), Luostarinen-Tomas Nosek and Lundell-Marchand to rotate in and out, plus the defensemen have been stellar at limiting shots up close as well.
The Oilers will present the biggest challenge to that group, though, as they have scored on 30 percent of their power-play opportunities (12 for 40) this postseason.
Florida’s power play is converting at a 23.2 percent clip (12 for 52) in the playoffs.
Maintain the goaltending edge
Sergei Bobrovsky has been the backbone for this Florida team all playoffs. While there were some shaky outings early in the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has overall been a model of consistency.
The 36-year-old goaltender, who is wrapping up his 15th NHL season and sixth with the Panthers, has a 2.11 goals against average and .912 save percentage. He has three shutouts in 17 games — one in each round — and has held opponents to two goals or fewer in 11 of those 17 games. His 6.04 goals save above average according to Natural Stat Trick are the most among all goals this postseason.
His opposition in Stuart Skinner, meanwhile, has either been fantastic or downright dreadful.
Prior to Edmonton’s Game 5 win over the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference final, when he gave up three goals on just 17 shots, Skinner had either been excellent (one goal or fewer in five wins, including three shutouts) or downright putrid (four-plus goals allowed in four losses) in net this postseason.
Florida needs to try to get to Skinner early if they want to get an early edge in the series.
Don’t overthink it
While this is obviously the biggest stage of the season, the final games that will determine which team is a champion, the Panthers know at the end of the day it’s just hockey.
They’ve been here before — three times now in the past three years. They need to make sure they don’t let the moment get too big, they don’t let their emotions get the better of them.
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 10:18 AM.
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