Florida Panthers News Officially for Today: The Panthers have just announced the addition of another very skilled signee.
The Florida Panthers have wonderful news: their home ice will host Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.
And by then, they have a lot of stuff to sort out.
On Friday night, Florida’s 5-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the championship series turned another opportunity to win the Stanley Cup into another blackout for the Panthers. Now that they’ve lost a 3-0 series lead, the Panthers will either celebrate a fantastic comeback or face a great deal of disgrace as they see the Oilers raise the Cup in their arena on Monday night.
“You feel it, it hurts, that you’ve suffered a defeat,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice remarked. “You tend to your wounds, and tomorrow we will begin repairing that.” However, in two days, who you are today has no bearing on who you will be.
The Panthers had a lot of complaints on Friday night, one of which was the goal that Aleksander Barkov had waived off following an Edmonton challenge for offsides in the second period. After the goal was overturned, Florida was incensed; Edmonton was, of course, overjoyed.
The initial call on the ice will be reversed if and only if it can be determined, based on video evidence, that the original call was manifestly incorrect, according to NHL protocol. The first call on the ice shall be validated in the event that a review is inconclusive and/or there is any uncertainty over the accuracy of the call.
Though the game was undoubtedly altered by that call, the Panthers faced further issues.
In the 105th game of the season, Florida had a season-low two shots on goal in the first period on a night when it had the opportunity to win the Cup. By the middle of the second quarter, the Panthers had only managed six shots. Although many of the Panthers’ most well-known players were absent from the stat sheet, Edmonton’s defense has significantly improved since the beginning of the series.
It took until 4:47 remaining for the team’s top goal scorer, Sam Reinhart, to earn his first opportunity on goal. It took Matthew Tkachuk until 3:09 to get his first point on the board. The power play is 1 for 19 in the series and went scoreless in three chances.
Forward Carter Verhaeghe of the Panthers stated, “They came out hungrier than us.” That was sort of it—they wanted it. They took it to us because we didn’t really get to our forecheck off the start, so I believe we need to improve and have some better beginnings.
The change has been astonishing. Florida led Edmonton 2 in the series’ overall score after the first eight periods. In the 10 periods since, the score was Edmonton 20, Florida 5. There have only been five previous Stanley Cup Final teams to let up 18 goals in three games, and Florida is the newest addition to that list at number six. Of the initial five teams, none emerged victorious.
And now we wait for Game 7.
Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov of the Panthers stated, “We have one game remaining.” “We were prepared to play a seven-game series from the beginning, and nothing has changed since then. They played three excellent games, and we won three. It is now up to us to triumph at home.
