Florida won Games 1 and 2 on home ice by a combined score of 7-1
Florida won Games 1 and 2 on home ice by a combined score of 7-1
The Stanley Cup Final is taking a lengthy road trip as the series shifts from one corner of the continent to another.
Holding a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 is the Florida Panthers, but now the Cats will hit the road and travel 2,541 miles to Edmonton, where the Oilers will be waiting.
Edmonton desperately needs a win in Game 3 and will be looking to get their high-end offense in gear after scoring only a single goal so far in the series.
During the regular season, the Oilers earned the third-most home wins in the NHL, going 29-8-4 at Rogers Place.
While they haven’t had the same success during the playoffs, a 6-3 mark is nothing to sneeze at.
It should make for a fun matchup as Florida tied for most road wins in the NHL during the regular season and have won six of their eight games outside of Sunrise so far this playoff.
The Panthers have received some good news in the time since Game 2 regarding their captain.
Sasha Barkov left Monday’s game midway through the third period after taking an elbow to the head from Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl.
There was fear that the hit could keep Barkov from playing in future games, but the veteran center was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice and, barring any setbacks, should be in Florida’s lineup on Thursday.
Barkov and the Panthers few to Edmonton on Wednesday afternoon, though getting out of South Florida was not easy due to severe weather impacting the area.
The Cats were originally scheduled to depart around 1 p.m. but were delayed for about three hours.
When they eventually landed in Edmonton, it was just before 8 p.m. local time, and they pulled up to their team hotel about an hour later.
The Oilers flew back to Edmonton on Tuesday. We’ll see if Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch makes any changes to his lineup while trying to avoid falling into the dreaded 0-3 hole.
As for the Panthers lineup…
Here are Florida’s projected lines and pairings for Game 3 in Edmonton:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Vladimir Tarasenko
Kyle Okposo – Kevin Stenlund – Steven Lorentz
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVGSEJ1buOw[/embed]
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