2024 Stanley Cup Final
What to Know About the Edmonton Oilers Before the Cup Final

The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers do not face each other but twice a season — at most — but the two will get well acquainted with one another in the coming days as they prep for the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
On Sunday night, the Oilers joined the Panthers as the only two NHL teams still playing.
Florida and Edmonton will open the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night at 8 in Sunrise on ABC.
So, what is there to know about the Oilers?
If you are any sort of a sports fan, you probably know that Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers dominated the NHL in the latter parts of the 1980s.
In 1983, the New York Islanders won their fourth Stanley Cup title by sweeping the Oilers.
In 1984, Edmonton ended the Isles’ dynasty and began a run of five titles in seven years.
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Four of those were won with Gretzky; Edmonton won its final championship in 1990 after trading the Great One to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 — which paved the road for the NHL’s non-traditional expansion, including to Florida.
Edmonton is making its eighth trip to the Stanley Cup Final and first since losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.
Paul Maurice was not the coach of the Hurricanes then.
Moving forward to this year, the Oilers were a big disappointment when the season began.
Edmonton, despite having some of the top scorers in the world, lost 10 of its first 13 games and fired coach Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12.
Kris Knoblauch, who coached Connor McDavid back in junior, was named Edmonton’s new bench boss and things certainly improved.
Knoblauch, like Maurice, have serious ties to Hartford: Maurice got his first NHL job with the Hartford Whalers in 1995; Knoblauch was hired by Edmonton from the AHL Wolf Pack.
“We can’t really be looking at the standings right now,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said at the time of the coaching change. “Just because it’s the start of the season it feels a little different. But we’re the same team that we’ve always been. It feels weird right now.”
The Oilers, as you could probably surmise, got on track as the year went on.
At one point, the Oilers won 16 straight games and ended up the No. 2 team in the Pacific Division behind the Canucks.
“We came into this season with extremely high expectations, then hit rock bottom,” former Florida prospect Zach Hyman said per Sportsnet. “Had a coaching change. Went through things that, had you told us about at the beginning of the year, we wouldn’t have believed you.”
The Oilers are a dynamic offensive team, leading the NHL in postseason scoring after finishing fourth with 292 goals in the regular season. They finished 10th in goals-against with 236.
Edmonton had two players — McDavid (140) and Leon Draisaitl (106) — finish in the top-10 in points during the regular season. Hyman finished third behind Auston Matthews and Sam Reinhart with 54 goals.
Hyman leads all players in the postseason with 14 goals — including one Sunday night in the Oilers’ win over Dallas to get them into the Final against the Panthers.
Draisaitl is tied for second in the postseason with 10.
After facing three of the top goalies in the NHL during the playoffs in Andrei Vasilevskei, Jeremy Swayman, and Igor Shesterkin, the Panthers will get Stuart Skinner on Saturday.
This has been a strange postseason for the Edmonton goalie as he was pulled in the third period of Game 3 against Vancouver after giving up four goals on 15 shots.
Calvin Pickard won Game 4 and had 32 saves in a Game 5 loss.
Skinner came back for Game 6 and won two elimination games to advance to the Conference final.
He has won six of his past eight games for the Oilers and heads to South Florida on a roll.
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2024 STANLEY CUP FINAL
EDMONTON OILERS VS. FLORIDA PANTHERS
GAME 1
- When: Saturday, 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, All Games 8 p.m. on ABC — Game 1:Edmonton at Florida, Saturday; Game 2: Edmonton at Florida, Monday June 10; Game 3: Florida at Edmonton, Thursday June 13; Game 4: Florida at Edmonton, Saturday June 15; Game 5*: Edmonton at Florida, Tuesday June 18; Game 6*: Florida at Edmonton, Friday June 21; Game 7*: Edmonton at Florida, Monday June 24. (*) – If Necessary
- 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
