2024 Stanley Cup Final
The End Is Here: Florida Panthers Want to Ride Out with Cup Glory

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers held their final full practice of their season on Sunday morning.
Win or lose, the 2023-24 NHL ends tonight.
The Panthers will play the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final tonight at 8, and come Tuesday, one team will be atop the hockey mountain while the other will start work on getting there.
Next year.
“The puck drops, and momentum is changed over the course of the game,’’ said Florida coach Paul Maurice, who is 4-0 in Game 7s although this is his first in a Stanley Cup Final.
“More so even true with Game 7s, the finality of it. Nobody’s practicing, there’s no video tomorrow. It’s this kind of clean slate, because both teams have fought real hard to get to the very end.”
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There are many numbers to look at coming into tonight’s Game 7.
There is up 3-0 for the Panthers, and a series tied 3-3 thanks to three straight elimination wins for the Oilers.
The road team has won the past three Game 7s in the Cup Final, although the last team to lose one away from home were the Oilers in 2006.
This is also the second Game 7 of the Cup Final played in Florida and the first since Alberta’s Calgary Flames lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
But the only number the Panthers care about is the No. 1.
They have one game left, and if they win it, that’s what they will be.
No. 1.
“It’s probably going to be the loudest rink that I’ve ever been in my life,’’ Matthew Tkachuk said Sunday.
“That’s what I’m expecting. You can’t describe the feeling of excitement. I can’t express the feeling of excitement around the city right now with everybody. You know, the buildup through this whole season and throughout the whole playoff comes down to this. So I’m expecting it to be as loud as any rink ever.’’
The Panthers are flirting with the wrong side of history, a loss making them the only modern-era team to ever lose a championship after being up 3-0.
Although the Panthers are not talking about said infamy, they know the opportunity for glory is there as well.
“We have one thing on our mind: To play our best game,’’ Sasha Barkov said. “That’s about it. We have an unbelievable opportunity to win the Cup, but our mindset is to play our best game starting from the first shift, and that’s about it. That’s all we think about.”
Florida has not played very well in its past three losses to the Oilers, but all of that will be swept under history’s carpet if they get things right tonight and get one more win.
The Oilers knew a best-of-7 series was not over after three games, and the Panthers know it is not over after six.
The best, as they say, has yet to come.
“Extremely excited, obviously, for an opportunity to play a Game 7,’’ Brandon Montour said. “Obviously, the last three are what it is, but now it comes down to one game for it all. Guys are fired up about this opportunity.”
Tonight could be a classic.
“Both of us, at one point in the series, lost three games,’’ Tkachuk said. “Doesn’t matter how it’s gone or how you draw it up. They lost the first three. We lost the next three. Like, it’s even right now; it doesn’t matter what has happened to get to this point.
“So, it’s easy to forget. You know, you just forget everything that’s happened throughout this whole season, really. Game 7, at home. How could you not be so jacked up? This is an absolutely incredible, incredible opportunity. So, yes, you want to recognize or remember some of the good things that helped you beat these guys earlier in the series, but I’m trying to forget all of it. Just go in there and win one game. This is what it comes down to.’’
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2024 STANLEY CUP FINAL
EDMONTON OILERS VS. FLORIDA PANTHERS
GAME 7
Best of 7 Series Tied 3-3
- When: Monday, 8 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- National TV: ABC
- Streaming: ESPN+/Hulu
- Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
- Series Schedule — Game 1: @Florida 3, Edmonton 0;Game 2:@Florida 4, Edmonton 1; Game 3: Florida 4, @Edmonton 3; Game 4: @Edmonton 8, Florida 1; Game 5: Edmonton 5, @Florida 3; Game 6: @Edmonton 5, Florida 1; Game 7: Edmonton at Florida, Monday
- How They Got Here — Florida: d. Tampa Bay 4-1, Boston 4-2, New York Rangers 4-2; Edmonton: d. Los Angeles 4-1, Vancouver 4-3, Dallas 4-2.
- This Season (Florida Won 2-0) — At Florida: Panthers 5, Oilers 3 (Nov. 20). At Edmonton: Panthers 5, Oilers 2 (Dec. 17).
- Last Season: Edmonton Won 2-0
- All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-16-0, 3 ties
- Postseason History: First Meeting
