Florida in danger of losing Stanley Cup Final after taking 3-0 series lead
The Florida Panthers were very upset after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, and rightly so.
Suffering three consecutive losses during the playoffs is rough, and usually leads to the end of your postseason experience.
In this case, both the Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers have lost three in a row.
Edmonton lost Games 1 through 3 and has won every game since.
It’s quite an emotional roller coaster to ride, and currently, the Oilers are enjoying the best of it while Florida is just trying to hang on.
“Right now, if you walked in the room, there won’t be a lot of happy people,” said Maurice. “And I'm not worried about what it is tonight. It doesn't have to be right tonight. You suffered a defeat, you feel it, it hurts. You’ll lick your wounds and then we start building that back tomorrow, but who you are tonight means nothing to who you're going to be two days from now.”
After Game 6 ended, Florida’s locker room remained closed to the media well past the usual five minutes that after which, it is supposed to be open.
Hockey locker rooms usually feature similar characteristics after the most devastating of losses.
Generally, words are said, gloves and water bottles are thrown, sticks are broken, thins like that.
It sounds like a similar scene may have played out after Game 6.
“We had a little chat as the team,” said Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen.
The frustration is understandable on a very human level.
These are uncharted waters, and they are full of sharks and crocodiles and all kinds of dangerous things.
The Cats only lost three or more games in a row twice during the entire 82-game regular season. Both times the losing skids reached four before the Cats got back in the win column.
We all know what a fourth straight loss would mean this time.
Now they’re on the cusp of a massive collapse, and they’ve got two days to shake off the defeats and get back on track or risk being on the wrong end of one of the most epic comebacks in sports history.
At this point, the options are limited, so you can’t blame anyone in that room for trying to focus on the positives.
“We're going home to play Game 7 for the Stanley Cup Final,” said Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe. “I think anytime you do that, everyone's going to be jacked up and excited, and it’s going to be an awesome game. You dream of it as a little kid, so it's going to be fun.”
One of the things that Florida’s players have leaned on during the season is their ability keep their composure in difficult situations.
That’s fair, but it’s hard to imagine, in the hockey world, that things could be much more trying than this.
Leaning on one another and everything they’ve accomplished to this point would seem a sensible place to start.
“We talked as a team, we talked with the coaches, and everyone needs to get ready for Game 7,” said Panthers captain Sasha Barkov. “Obviously no one is happy to lose the game.”
Florida will host the Oilers in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday night.
The puck drops inside Amerant Bank Arena at 8 p.m.
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