How Panthers have fared vs. Connor McDavid so far in Cup Final. Plus lineup notes
The Florida Panthers are fully aware that one does not simply stop Connor McDavid.
“You’re not going to do it,” veteran forward Brad Marchand said.
The Edmonton Oilers superstar is arguably the best player in the league, his combination of speed, stick-handling, vision and anticipation essentially unparalleled.
The goal, instead is merely to contain him.
“It’s just try to work as hard as you can to limit how many opportunities he gets. Hopefully you keep to 10 or 15 instead of 20 or 30.”
And for the Panthers’ part, they have done a pretty good job at that through the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final when the game is played at full strength.
While McDavid does have five assists, with a couple coming on other-worldly passes, only one has come with the game at 5-on-5. Two have come on the power play. A third came with the game at four-on-four. And a fourth was when Edmonton played six-on-five with an empty net.
The problem is basically all of McDavid’s assists have come at key moments. He had the primary assist on the Leon Draisaitl’s overtime game-winner in Game 1 on the power play and had a helper in both of Edmonton’s third-period game-tying goals — an even-strength goal by Mattias Ekholm in Game 1 and a 6-on-5 goal with 17.8 seconds left by Corey Perry in Game 2.
At 5-on-5, McDavid leads the Oilers with seven scoring chances and 1.08 expected goals and is tied for the team lead with five high-danger chances.
Panthers lineup change
The Panthers are making one lineup change ahead of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Forward A.J. Greer, who missed the first two games of the series with a lower-body injury, is drawing back into the lineup as the left winger on Florida’s fourth line that also has Tomas Nosek at center and Jonah Gadjovich at right wing.
He is replacing Jesper Boqvist, who filled Greer’s spot for those two games.
“It’s great,” Greer said. “I really hated watching from up top and not being with the guys and not being on the bench and not being able to play. But I had to make a decision that was going to be helpful to the team and helpful to what we’re trying to accomplish, and if I can’t be 100%, I’m not playing the right way. We have depth in our lineup, and I think that guys stepped in and did a great job. I’m just stepping right back into things. I’m not trying to change anything, and I’m not trying to change my identity. I’m just trying to come back to the way that I usually play with the two guys on that line and just kind of do what we do best and then set up the next line for success.”
Greer was banged up for most of the Panthers’ Eastern Conference final series against the Carolina Hurricanes, which Florida won in five games.
He missed the final 4:02 of Game 3 after appearing to tighten something up late in that game, a 6-2 Florida win. He did not play at all in Game 4 and then exited the Panthers’ 5-3 series-clinching win in Game 5 early in the third period, not taking the ice for the final 18:35 of the contest.
Through 12 postseason games, Greer has three points (two goals, one assist) in addition to logging 45 hits while averaging just 7:47 of ice time.
Penalty kill
The Panthers’ penalty kill has been one of their main sources of success throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That has remained the case through two games against Edmonton.
Florida has gone 8 for 10 on the penalty kill so far in the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers’ star-filled power play headlined by McDavid and Draisaitl. Florida also has a shorthanded goal.
“We just try to stay aggressive,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “We try to pick the right moments to pinch up plays or pressure the puck when they’re fumbling or things like that. But I think it’s been decent. Obviously, there are some things we can clean up. They’re great players. They’re going to make great plays with time and space sometimes. But the best penalty kill for us is to not take penalties. At the end of the day, if things do break down, we have Bob [goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky] in net to make some big saves for us as well. We want to stay out of the box as much as possible, but we will have to block shots. We will have to make good plays to take some of their time and space.”
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