The Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup dream began slipping away Monday night, after dropping a 4-1 decision to the Florida Panthers.The turning point came at 3:11 of the third period, to be precise, on an unassisted marker by Evan Rodrigues in what proved to be the game winner.Rodrigues added a second goal at 12:26 before Aaron Ekblad put it away with an empty netter at 17:32.Up until then it had been a fairly even match after Mattias Ekholm opened the scoring on a dandy feed from Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid at 11:17 of the first period. It proved to be the only goal the visitors have managed against Cat’s goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in 180 minutes of play..It’s the first time the Oilers have scored less than two goals in two games since 2020. The Oilers hit three posts on the PP but only managed 19 shots on goal, compared to 32 on Saturday. Florida steered 29 on Oilers’ goalie Stuart SkinnerAfter being manhandled by the Panthers’ tough guys in Game 1, the Oilers fought back — to their detriment. Forward Warren Foegele was handed a game misconduct at 9:21 of the first period for kneeing Panthers’ Eetu Luostainen.Leon Draisaitl put Panthers’ captain Aleksander Barkov out of the game with a possible broken jaw at 10:32 of the third. It looked to be a clean hit but on replay Draisaitl did have his forearms up.In all, Florida got six power play opportunities to the Oilers’ four. After 32 straight penalty kills, the Oilers finally gave one up on Rodrigues’ second goal. A bright light was Oilers’ D-Man Evan Bouchard who set a record 30 minutes of play after Darnell Nurse sat most of the game after playing less than four minutes on four shifts. No word if it was a record, but Bouchard hit a point shot — a rocket — that clocked 156 kilometres per hour..The Oilers come back to Edmonton down 2-0 — with the odds clearly against them. More than 90% of teams who win the first pair of games go on to win the Cup.But McDavid was undeterred.“It’s another opportunity for our group to come together. It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be difficult. But I’m excited to see what our group come together and fighting through adversity and looking forward to people doubting us again… we’re good with our backs against the wall.”Game 3 goes on Thursday at 6 pm MST.
The Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup dream began slipping away Monday night, after dropping a 4-1 decision to the Florida Panthers.The turning point came at 3:11 of the third period, to be precise, on an unassisted marker by Evan Rodrigues in what proved to be the game winner.Rodrigues added a second goal at 12:26 before Aaron Ekblad put it away with an empty netter at 17:32.Up until then it had been a fairly even match after Mattias Ekholm opened the scoring on a dandy feed from Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid at 11:17 of the first period. It proved to be the only goal the visitors have managed against Cat’s goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in 180 minutes of play..It’s the first time the Oilers have scored less than two goals in two games since 2020. The Oilers hit three posts on the PP but only managed 19 shots on goal, compared to 32 on Saturday. Florida steered 29 on Oilers’ goalie Stuart SkinnerAfter being manhandled by the Panthers’ tough guys in Game 1, the Oilers fought back — to their detriment. Forward Warren Foegele was handed a game misconduct at 9:21 of the first period for kneeing Panthers’ Eetu Luostainen.Leon Draisaitl put Panthers’ captain Aleksander Barkov out of the game with a possible broken jaw at 10:32 of the third. It looked to be a clean hit but on replay Draisaitl did have his forearms up.In all, Florida got six power play opportunities to the Oilers’ four. After 32 straight penalty kills, the Oilers finally gave one up on Rodrigues’ second goal. A bright light was Oilers’ D-Man Evan Bouchard who set a record 30 minutes of play after Darnell Nurse sat most of the game after playing less than four minutes on four shifts. No word if it was a record, but Bouchard hit a point shot — a rocket — that clocked 156 kilometres per hour..The Oilers come back to Edmonton down 2-0 — with the odds clearly against them. More than 90% of teams who win the first pair of games go on to win the Cup.But McDavid was undeterred.“It’s another opportunity for our group to come together. It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be difficult. But I’m excited to see what our group come together and fighting through adversity and looking forward to people doubting us again… we’re good with our backs against the wall.”Game 3 goes on Thursday at 6 pm MST.
