The Cup cometh
Aleksander Barkov is the first Finnish-born captain to hoist the Stanley Cup in its 132-year history! After 30 years and four tedious attempts this time around, Florida have done it, taking their first trophy, avenging their defeat a season ago to Vegas. Congratulations once again to the Panthers!
That does it for our live coverage of a memorable Game 7, thanks to all of you for following along with us! Wherever you are, good morning, afternoon and goodnight! You can read a full report here:
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MVP
Gary Bettman is talking, which is always an invitation to boo as much as possible, regardless of what he’s saying.
But wait, the Conn Smythe trophy goes to Connor McDavid! Isn’t he on the losing team? You don’t see that often! It’s for the entity of the playoffs of course. How about that?
Handshake
The players line up and shake hands as the Cup gets set to enter. McDavid looks on as do the other Oilers, knowing just how close they came to flipping this series. But it was not to be – Canada is still searching for a Stanley Cup win, over 30 years since the Canadiens beat the Kings in 1993.
Wow!
What a finish! Edmonton put together a series of chances in the final ten minutes, but they could not complete a historic Cup Final comeback. Florida, with Canada against them, with the sports world against them, are able to flip their would-be historic collapse to win their maiden title! Bobrovsky, destroyed for three-straight games, rebounds to carry Florida to the win of a lifetime!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, Final
The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in their 30-year history!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, :15 third period
Florida nearly score on the empty net. Seconds left!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 1:00 third period
Edmonton win the face off. Skinner is out of the net. It’s empty!
Timeout Edmonton
It’s squeaky bum time with 1:35 left as the Oilers gather to talk it over and draw up a would-be equalizer.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 1:35 third period
Edmonton are offside! The clock stops, face off outside the zone upcoming.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 1:54 third period
A flurry of shots in front of Bobrovsky! Florida survives!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 2:35 third period
Florida finally clear the zone and Edmonton reset. Eyes on Skinner as we start to think about emptying the net.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 3:29 third period
Nurse a shot – kick save Bobrovsky! More pressure from Edmonton - shot from Bouchard – save! Bobrovsky was down and lost his stick but Florida cleared the zone! Icing called.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 4:35 third period
Under five minutes to go now. Barkov takes a shot into the chest of Skinner who holds on!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 5;25 third period
Terasenko registers a rare third period shot for Florida but Skinner holds on!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 6:20 third period
A hand pass in the Florida zone play just before a Foegele shot.
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Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 6:43 third period
More pressure from Edmonton but the Oilers go offside and play stops. Man, this is good.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 7:02 third period
Bouchard a huge shot, save Bobrovsky! Now the puck is lose – McDavid has the puck, makes a move, but the puck gets away! Now Hyman has an open net but he can’t get a stick on it! How did Edmonton not score?!
You could sense Edmonton were figuring out Florida and they nearly did! the Panthers are holding on!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 7:23 third period
From a 2-1-9 start this season to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. But a memorable season for Edmonton season is on the line!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 8:08 third period
The Oilers win yet another face off in the Florida zone and control the puck, but a shot is blocked and Rheinhart comes back the other way, making hay v two defenders! Edmonton survive and the clock continues to tick!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 9:13 third period
Edmonton are having some success in the Panthers zone, digging out pucks and cycling the puck, but there’s no real breakthrough yet. We’re halfway through the third – they better hurry up!
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 10:36 third period
Edmonton win a face off and put on some possession pressure, with Draisaitl active in the Florida zone and with some space. But there’s no serious threat at the end of the flurry.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 12:34 third period
Bouchard, a little flip towards net and Bobrovsky, clearly benefiting from a day off of practice yesterday, saves it easily.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 12:52 third period
McDavid is stripped of the puck before he gets going, and the Oilers powerhouse continues to be held in check. Now Foegele with a shot and Bobrovsky, steady as she goes, has yet another save. He holds on and play stops.
The clock is ticking on the Oilers series comeback chances.
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Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 14:30 third period
Edmont’s historic penalty kill has a short handed break but Brown’s shot is wide! Now at the end of the man-advantage, Bennett takes a lose puck and fires it off the chest of Skinner! He catches the rebound and holds on!
We’re back to even-strength.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 16:30 third period
Bennett a shot for Florida – high and wide. Play is free-flowing to start the third, up and down. Now a turnover by Montour in the Panthers zone but nobody there to take advantage for Edmonton.
Now we have a high sticking call on Edmonton! Eetu Luostarinen takes a stick to the face and Bouchard heads off for two minutes – in the regular season it could have been more.
Can Florida extend their lead?
The third period has begun!
The Cup is still in the case, but not for much longer. Can Edmonton turn it around?
A ways to go but…
Full credit to Florida. They have turned the narrative on its head tonight, proving yet again that professional athletes have shorter memories than media and fans who fuss over what has happened instead of what needs to be done. The Panthers have returned to their smothering ways, rendering the Oliers offensive lifeblood useless through two periods.
Email!
Anthony Reinhart writes:
I’m a Canadian living in Brisbane and my brother is visiting from Edmonton. Thanks to the lovely people at the Stones Corner Hotel here in Brisbane, they tuned their biggest screen to Game 7 just for us.
Robb Hare says:
We’re here because nobody can touch the Guardian when it comes to live-blogging sports. Plus this way we don’t have to listen to “hockey commentator voice” all night.
Robb can’t hear my chesterfield commentating, lucky for him.
Missing in action
Where’s Connor McDavid? Where’s Leon Draisaitl? McDavid set a record for assists in a postseason, passing Wayne Gretzky. But tonight? Nothing going on. Draisaitl hasn’t scored a goal in this series and tonight? Nothing going on. The tandem have scored over 200 regular season points, but if Game 7 ends like this, Oilers fans are going to have questions about where their biggest guns were when the chips were down.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, end of second period
The second period ends, and Florida skate off with an ovation and a one goal lead in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
And if you’re an Edmonton fan, just consider this:
Florida are 68-0-4 in their last 72 games when leading after two periods.
Gulp.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 1: 24second period
Florida turns it over in their zone but Janmark can’t make anything of the opportunity. Then Florida come back with a shot from Kulikov that Brobovsky smothers – he holds on and play pauses.
Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 3:26 second period
So we heard from Florida’s chief goal scorer, will Connor McDavid make his presence felt in this Game 7?
GOAL Oilers 1-2 Panthers, 4:49 second period
THE PANTHERS RETAKE THE LEAD IN THE 2ND 🚨
— ESPN (@espn) June 25, 2024
THIS GAME 🍿 pic.twitter.com/DaMA7fAJyu
Sam Reinhart’s shot beats Skinner! It’s his first point since the first three games of this series! It comes off a defensive miscue that allows a shot that seemed relatively harmless to somehow bounce off Skinner’s glove!
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Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 5:10 second period
A flurry of hard, physical play in both ends without stoppages as these exhausted teams try to break through.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 7:20 second period
Verhaeghe a shot off the right shoulder of Skinner! It’s opening up some here in the second!
Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 8:54 second period
Rodrigues shoots wide from the top of the circle! The puck makes it across Skinner’s crease but there’s nobody home to slot it in!
Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 10:25 second period
Edmonton control the puck in the Florida puck for well over a minute but Bobrovsky easily smothers the main chance by Ekholm, a slap shot from the point.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 12:25 second period
Verhaeghe puts the puck on net, and Skinner makes the save easily as we head to the midway point pf period no2.
Paul Maurice
The Panthers coach tells ESPN TV in the US that his team are “making plays, we’re playing the game the right way.”
I’d agree. Kudos to Florida for not melting down, far from it, after everything they’ve been through.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 13:54 second period
Edmonton keep possession after the penalty but no real chances for the Oilers. McDavid pushes a shot into Bobrovsky’s glove as we head into a television timeout.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers, 14:31 second period
Edmonton cycle the puck, while Florida’s Stenlund loses his stick! Tense moments for Florida – Draisaitl, who has also been quiet, tips the puck towards the net but Bobrovsky has it and covers up.
Now Bouchard shoots from the point as the penalty expires – glove save Bobrovsky! And that’s it for Edmonton who fail to score with the man advantage! The Panthers net minder is holding up his end of the bargain tonight!
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Oilers 1-1 Panthers 16:38 second period
Where is McDavid – four periods, zero shots. The best player in the world needs to show up for Edmonton.
Meanwhile, Tkachuck loses his skates and he slides right into Foegele and they call tripping. So here comes an Oliers power play. Big minutes coming up.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 19:33 second period
And Montour a shot, with Skinner saving a misdirection by Tkachuk and covering up! So right away Florida put pressure on the visitors!
The crowd, so mixed, not so loud, is jittery at best. There is just a bit on the line tonight, so it’s understood.
Second period!
And we’re back!
Stats
Florida is out shooting Edmonton 8-6. Florida is aggressive, up 17-5 in the hits department, but this is key – Edmonton have already blocked 10 shots. It really is super tight, on my scorecard I give the first round to the home team. You have to love how they’ve responded to the three game debacle.
This is war!
This game isn’t being impacted by much that happened the past six games. Florida struck first, something they weren’t able to do the last few games, and despite Edmonton answering, the Panthers put together a flurry late in the period that shows them to be on terra firma – no hangover at all from the last three games. And they’re hitting hard. Now, will we hear from McDavid in the second period? His name was barely called in the first.
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Oilers 1-1 Panthers end of 1st period
Montour! A mammoth shot from the near point as time expires! Skinner makes the save, but I’m not sure it would have counted.
What does count is that Florida were not rattled even one bit by Edmonton’s near-instant response to the Panthers opening salvo.
One in the books and we’re tied!
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 1:02, 1st period
Tkachuk is alone with Skinner who has the net mostly covered and the shot goes high. But that’s another chance there for Florida who have put together multiple positive shifts here as the period winds down.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 1:57, 1st period
A couple of big rips by Florida – Lomberg and Forsling, both turned away by Skinner!
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 5:02, 1st period
Henrique, a wrist shot, turned away easily by Bobrovsky. Then Brown takes a crack at it and Bobrovsky covers up. Nothing too serious.
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Oilers 1-1 Panthers 5:50, 1st period
So much for the importance of the first goal and so much for the momentum it would bring. Edmonton answering straight away changed the narrative instantly. That said, Florida are hitting hard and often, leading that tally 17 to 7, while the Panthers have coughed up the puck four times to one for Edmonton.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 6:47, 1st period
Bouchard winds up and hits iron, or steel or whatever it is– ding! Florida are saved, but only just!
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 7:51, 1st period
Kevin Stenlund with shot that’s blocked by Nurse who gets in the way with perfect timing! Florida has five shots, Oilers have four.
Oilers 1-1 Panthers 9:09, 1st period
Edmonton put together puck control, a flurry of possession that ends with a wrist shot by Bouchard and a glove save by Bobrovsky! The Oilers look comfortable.
And to think, moments earlier he was hit so hard he lost his helmet!
MATTIAS JANMARK ANSWERS RIGHT BACK FOR THE OILERS!! pic.twitter.com/pUjQ6YfLjK
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 25, 2024
GOAL! Oilers 1-1 Panthers 11:56, 1st period
Now you see it, now you don’t! Florida’s lead that is – Janmark has space, and beats Bobrovsky. And just like that Edmonton answer! How about that for a start!
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GOAL! Oilers 0-1 Panthers 15:33, 1st period
Just after the power play expires, Rodrigues shoots wide of Skinner but Carter Verhaeghe brilliantly misdirects the puck past Skinner and into the net! Florida have their first lead since Game 3!
THE PANTHERS STRIKE FIRST IN GAME 7 🚨
— ESPN (@espn) June 25, 2024
📺: ABC/ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/HgX45kBs9D
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Oilers 0-0 Panthers 15: 39, 1st period
Barkov slams Janmark into the boards and he loses his helmet! And that’s the only shot Florida has in this power play.
Oilers 0-0 Panthers 17:39, 1st period
Florida’s Lundell tests Edmonton’s Skinner straight away but he turns the puck away easily.
Now we have an early penalty! A high stick by Warren Foegele to Montour means the Panthers have a chance to settle the stomachs of Panthers fans straight away.
Puck drops!
We’re off! Here we go!
National Anthems!
OK, Alanis Morissette just performed both anthems, and, um, there were lot’s of folks singing O Canada! Yikes!
I’ve never got a chance to rate both anthems before.
O Canada, rock solid 8/10.
But wait, now there’s a healthy belting of the Star-Spangled Banner, and a little of the old “USA, USA” – so maybe there’s hope for the handful of locals in the house.
Alanis gets a 7.5/10 on that – I’d like a bit more from her next time.
One-time Panthers goalie and font office man Roberto Luongo bangs the drum for Florida and that means here comes face-off! Finally!
We are almost done with…
…endless previews and about 3000 car commercials. Game 7 is coming right up.
Please stand by!
You’re a Panthers fan…
…you’ve dropped three straight, nobody believes in you and the whole planet is Oilers, Oilers, Oilers. But here’s what you do have…
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice has never lost a Game 7 as an NHL head coach 😲
— ESPN (@espn) June 24, 2024
Will he make it 5-0 tonight? 👀 pic.twitter.com/ltQ5rOqAS3
O Canada!
You’re turning up in droves for our live blog tonight – 53% of our readers are from the great white north! It seems you’re quite interested in hockey and in this game in particular, for whatever reason. Let’s hear from you – from Victoria to St John’s – join our blog! Write david.lengel@guardian.co.uk or tweet in to @lengeldavid. And send nanaimo bars please!
Whatever works!
Kobe shirt once again for Warren Foegele. 🐍 @EdmontonOilers | #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/3oKNENjmx3
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 24, 2024
Who’s rooting for who?
Well, I think it’s safe to say that most neutrals would like to see Edmonton win and make history tonight. They’re loaded with eye candy and pass the puck like an art form. Simply put, they’re a a lot of fun to watch. And, team/regional/provincial rivalries aside, we know most of Canada would certainly like to see the Oilers break the 31-year northern Stanley Cup drought, the longest in history, tonight.
Game 7!
— Randy Boissonnault 🏳️🌈 (@R_Boissonnault) June 22, 2024
Back to Florida one last time to bring the cup home to #Edmonton and back to Canada! #LetsGoOilers
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Septième match !
Les Oilers retournent en Floride une dernière fois pour ramener la coupe à Edmonton et au #Canada ! #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/8YjopyK7fD
Who is rooting for Florida besides a small group of defense first hockey fans who envy a state with no income tax? Probably not too many, but that doesn’t mean Florida isn’t a great team who have done almost everything right this postseason. If they can pull this off they’ll have avoided an all-time choke job and a lifetime of humiliation and most of this three-game nightmare will be forgotten with a raise of a cup!
Face off is coming soon! Stick with us!
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Isn’t it ironic?
…or maybe it’s just plain crazy, with most of the world rooting for the Oilers, with thousands of Oilers fans piling into the arena in Florida, and after dropping three straight games, that the Panthers are rolling out the red carpet for Canadian Alanis Morissette to sing the national anthems tonight? Come on folks! Where is Ariana Grande when you need her?
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 24, 2024
What is wrong with Sergei Bobrovsky?
When the Panthers goalie, known for hitting the ice first the ice, always early for practice, didn’t appear on Sunday, the rumour mill started cranking. Is he hurt? Is he just cooked? Is he being benched?
The well known talk-show host Pat McAffe had a sensible theory: “he’s exhausted.”
Then today, Monday morning, suddenly he was back after that unusual absence, one that occurred in the most desperate of times.
Sergei Bobrovsky is on the ice.#FlaPanthers optional morning skate ahead of Game 7 starts at about 10:30 pic.twitter.com/5zqpMJCLlO
— Jordan McPherson (@J_McPherson1126) June 24, 2024
One of the keys to this game will surely be the form of Bobrovsky, or rather, if he can recapture it just in time to rescue a Panthers team that has yielded the first goal in the last three games. Not allowing McDavid and company to settle in early and put that first goal up on the road is crucial and will have a lot to do with whether or not Florida can keep any “here we go again” thoughts out of the hearts and minds of home fans, players and coaches.
Oh, and if you’re keeping score at home, here’s what the Bobrovsky vs Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner line looks like since the end of Game 3.
Sergei Bobrovsky: .756 SV% & 6.43 GAA
Stuart Skinner: .943 SV% & 1.71 GAA
Here they come
Usually hockey players come with mullets, missing teeth, bad suits, looking like they haven’t seen the sun in a few years. And while the latter is certainly true here, McDavid and Leon Draisaitl actually look pretty good. Although the German could do with some socks, no?
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl arrive for Game 7 action‼️
— ESPN (@espn) June 24, 2024
📺 Oilers-Panthers at 8 ET on ABC/ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/spgaJAOIDr
Bonjur Hi!
Well here we are, at the mountain top of North American sport, a Game 7 to decide a season. This is the absolute best we can do over here. That’s right: not even a Super Bowl, with all it’s pomp, circumstance and juiced up capitalist spectacle, regardless of the match-up, can match a Game 7. And the reason for that is we know the Super Bowl is coming. We know it’s going to happen. We plan for it. We create adverts for it, months, and sometimes years in advance. If it’s February, we know we’re going to get the big show, the massive ratings, the chicken wings, the weight gain, the hangover.
But we never know when we’re going to get a Game 7 for all the rings. Sure, we know there’s always chance, but where, when and how takes time to present itself, and then sometimes those chances just go poof, into dust. And if you don’t buy what I’m selling, just consider this: we haven’t had a Game 7 to decide a championship here in North America since before the pandemic. And that’s kind of a long time ago already, is it not?
So no, we never know when it’s coming. After all, it was just a few days ago that the Florida Panthers were rollicking along with a 3-0 Stanley Cup Finals lead over the Edmonton Oliers. It was only a matter of time before a boozed-up team from the Everglades started chucking the old cup around a rooftop pool at a post-playoff bash, somewhere around the southern extremes of the Sunshine State.
Except it didn’t quite happen that way. The Oilers, suffocated by Florida, figured out a way to breathe oxygen back into their dying season.
We didn’t see it coming, or at least I didn’t see it coming. That’s because Edmonton, a team that had averaged over 3.5 goals a game this season, a team that saw the best player on the planet Connor McDavid, and Leon Draisaitl, one of the best players on the planet, combine for 238 regular season points, managed just four goals in the first three games. The Oilers were just smothered by Florida, like the New York Rangers, who the Panthers slowly and meticulously choked out of the playoffs a round earlier.
Then suddenly, goals flooded the ice. Eight in Game 4. Five in Game 5. Then five more in Game 6. Lamps were lit over and over and over and over, and Florida, who had looked totally unsolvable, whose goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, seemed completely unbreakable, suddenly found themselves exactly where they didn’t want to be. Game 7.
But their plight is our delight. We get to follow what is arguably the most anticipated hockey game of the century.
Only one team has overcome a 3-0 series deficit in the Stanley Cup finals and it was over 80 years ago: well before helmets, before glass, but just after chicken wire lined the boards. A long, long time ago, and these days, it simply doesn’t happen. Tonight, it might.
Stick with us, more to come!
David will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Colin Horgan on tonight’s game:
No NHL team has come back from 3-0 down to win a Stanley Cup Final since the Toronto Maple Leafs did it against the Detroit Red Wings in April 1942. Now, 82 years later, the Edmonton Oilers may change that history. On Monday night on the edge of the Everglades, the Oilers will face off against the Florida Panthers in Game 7 and try to win their fourth straight to take the Cup and become the first Canadian NHL champions since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. If it goes the Oilers’ way, the game will most likely be crowned one of the NHL’s all-time best – or at least one of the most memorable in league history. And the Oilers captain, a generational talent, will have come back to where his career with the team began.
26 June 2015 was a Friday and there was a buzz in the BT&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, home (still, under a different name) of the Panthers. It was NHL draft night, and the assumed No 1 pick was an 18-year-old from north of Toronto who’d lit up the Ontario Hockey League for three years and led Canada to a World Junior Championship the previous winter. Connor McDavid had been playing on another level his entire life, allowed to skate at age six with the nine-year olds and granted “exceptional status” to enter the OHL at age 15, a year early, where he became the most decorated player in the league’s history.
The Oilers were, on the other hand, coming off another dismal season. They’d finished second-last in the Western Conference. By 2015, the Oilers had become something of a perennial joke at the draft. The team picked first overall in 2010, 2011, and 2012, seventh overall in 2013, then third overall again in 2013 – each one a reflection of Edmonton’s poor performance. No matter how many top draft picks the Oilers added to the roster, they found themselves back at or near the bottom of the league over and over again. But then, here was McDavid. Could he finally be the answer?
“I think my expectations exceed any of those that anyone else puts on me,” McDavid told the Globe and Mail after the Oilers selected him first overall. “I just have to make sure I am playing my game. If I meet my expectations, the chances are I will meet everybody else’s as well.”
You can read the full story below:
