After Game 1 Loss to Oilers, Panthers Have Plenty to Work On

When it was over, after Leon Draisaitl scored with 31 seconds in overtime, the Oilers celebrated and the Florida Panthers headed into the Edmonton summer night.

Edmonton, which lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Panthers in excruciating fashion last June, turned the tables a little bit on Wednesday night.

Florida had the Oilers right where they wanted them in the second period, Sam Bennett’s second goal of the night giving the Panthers a 3-1 lead and quieting what had been a raucous crowd in Edmonton.

Only everyone kind of knew a push by the Oilers was coming.

And it did.

The Panthers got swept up in it, but still, one bounce here or there and it is Florida holding a 1-0 series lead in this edition of the Stanley Cup Final.

Yet the scoreboard read 4-3 Oilers, and now, the Panthers have to, as many of them said in the postgame, “reset and regroup.”

“It’s going to be a long series,’’ said Sam Bennett, who tied the score at 1 by crashing (literally) the net, then made it 3-1 on a breakout goal with Nate Schmidt 2 minutes into the second.

“I don’t think we expected this to be easy. We can learn some things from tonight and then we’re just going to move on.”

The Panthers appeared to have their foot on Edmonton’s neck, expected pushback or not.

Just 1:17 after Florida made it 3-1, the Oilers sprang to life on a goal from Viktor Arvidsson.

Mattias Ekholm tied it in the third.

“I think just not let up. Don’t sit back,’’ Bennett said when asked what the Panthers could improve on. “We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead and for whatever reason we sat back tonight.”

Edmonton did a great job of hemming the Panthers in their zone and took aim at Sergei Bobrovsky in great numbers.

The only thing, really, that kept the Panthers in the game as long as they were was the play of Bobrovsky.

Bobrovsky ended with 40 saves — 23 of them coming in the third period and overtime with the Panthers being outshot 24-8 during that span.

“They’ve got a good offense, so we knew that they had a good team,’’ Bobrovsky said.

“It’s a good challenge for us. It was a tight game. I thought our guys, we did a great job defending. We had great kills in the first and the second. I thought there were lots of good things, and we just put it behind us and get ready for the next game. The next game is a big game.”

Florida started off overtime in great shape, putting the early pressure on Stuart Skinner and the Oilers — but after the first couple of minutes, it was all Edmonton.

When Tomas Nosek tried to clear the puck out of the corner and instead put it into the seats for a delay of game penalty, it certainly felt like the Panthers were not going to survive this kill.

And they did not.

“It has potential to be just a spectacular seven gamer, up and down the ice,’’ coach Paul Maurice said. “There isn’t any casualness and there’s no BS in either team’s game. The pucks go deep that are supposed to go deep. I think we had one all night we didn’t like, maybe two all night that we didn’t like our decision of the line. They didn’t fool around with it, either. It was honest, it was hard, it was fast and it was tight. It was an overtime game.”

Draisaitl, who did not score a single goal against the Panthers in seven games in last year’s Final, got his second of the night in overtime.

Time, as the Panthers said, to regroup and move on.

“They pushed. They obviously are a very good team, and it doesn’t take much for them to score,’’ said Brad Marchand, who made it 2-1 in the first by scoring on Florida’s second power play of the night.

“Not surprising, the push they did. They’re a great team. We just got to keep going. … Move on. It’s one game. You can’t get stuck in the past here. So we’ll regroup, refocus, and get ready for the next one.”

2025 STANLEY CUP FINAL

GAME 2

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ EDMONTON OILERS

Edmonton Leads Best-of-7 Series 1-0

• When: Friday, 8 p.m.
• Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton
• National TV: TNT/truTV 
• National Streaming: Max
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys), SiriusXM
• Radio Streaming: SiriusXM, NHL App
• Series Schedule (all games at 8 p.m., TNT) — Game 1: @Edmonton 4, Florida 3 OT; Game 2: @Edmonton Friday; Game 3: @Florida Monday; Game 4: @Florida, Thursday June 12; Game 5*: @Edmonton, Saturday June 14; Game 6*: @Florida, Tuesday June 17; Game 7*: @Edmonton, Friday June 20.
• Regular Season (Panthers won 2-0) — At Florida: Panthers 4, Oilers 3 (Feb. 27). At Edmonton: Panthers 6, Oilers 5 (Dec. 16).
• How They Got Here: Edmonton d. Los Angeles (6), Vegas (5), Dallas (5); Florida d. Tampa Bay (5), Toronto (7), Carolina (5)
• Postseason History: Florida Won 2024 Stanley Cup Final 4-3
• All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-18-0, 3 ties