For the second time during this postseason, the Florida Panthers find themselves trailing in a series after Game 1.
Florida failed to hold a two-goal, second period lead on Wednesday night at Rogers Place, ultimately falling 4-3 in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers in the opener of the Stanley Cup Final.
Credit should absolutely go to the Oilers, who fought hard and took advantage of what the Panthers gave them.
Now Edmonton has something they could not obtain through the entire seven-game Final last June: a lead in the series.
How long it lasts, or how much it grows by, remains to be seen. Game 2 is right around the corner.
For now, let’s get to the takeaways from what was ultimately a very entertaining Game 1:
COULDN’T CLOSE IT OUT
Florida briefly held a two-goal lead early in the second period, but even after the Oilers scored to make it a 3-2 game, that middle frame was still quite good for the visitors.
After outshooting Edmonton 17-8 during the second period, the Cats just couldn’t find their offense during the third.
The Oilers were all over the Panthers, logging 14 of the 16 shots on goal and pushing the game to overtime.
Overall, shots and chances were heavily favoring Edmonton over the final 40-plus minutes of Game 1.
“We just need to not let up and not sit back,” said Panthers center Sam Bennett. “We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead, and for whatever reason we sat back a little bit tonight.”
“I think at 3-2 (we played more conservative), not at 3-1,” added Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “We were driving play at that point where we're good with it. That'll go back to, not in terms of defensive positioning or our play without the puck, but I thought we were a little safe with the puck.”
BOTH TEAMS HAD OT CHANCES
The overtime session nearly lasted the full 20 minutes, and both teams had some decent look.
Florida came out and carried play for a few minutes, but then gradually that shifted back to the Oilers, where it remained until the power play that ended the game.
Pushing back against the natural flow of a game like that can be difficult when you’re in it, but that’s what the Panthers will need to do if they want to continue imposing their style of play on Edmonton, not the other way around.
“You get into the flow of the game play,” said Maurice. “And what I mean by that is you get into icing some pucks, or half-icing, and they get the advantage. It was kind of like the start, their breakouts are tough, we're on them, transitioning…I thought we had the flow of the play in the first part of (overtime), they had the flow of the play the second.”
SETTING UP FOR A GREAT SERIES
The lasting impression from Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final is that it features all the potential symptoms of what could be an incredibly long and entertaining series.
Both teams have high-end talent, solid and reliable depth scoring, large defenseman who can skate and put the puck in the net and both play very strong, physical defensive hockey.
As we learned last season, when the teams matched up in a bit of a different way, is that Florida and Edmonton know how to get the best out of each other.
It surely helps that we’re in the Final and every player is giving every ounce of their being to try and reach the mountaintop.
Seeing how things play out over the next couple of weeks should be a treat for hockey fans.
“it's potential for just a spectacular seven-gamer, right up and down the ice,” said Maurice. “It's still fast. there's not any casualness, and there's no BS in either team’s game. The pucks go deep that are supposed to go deep. I think we had one all night we didn't like, maybe two all night that we didn't like our decision at the line, and they didn't fool around with it either. It was honest, it was hard, it was fast and it was tight, it was an overtime game.”
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Photo caption: Jun 4, 2025; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl (29) scores the game winning goal in overtime against the Florida Panthers in game one of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. (Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images)