Home Blog Panthers-Oilers Cup Final has makings of ‘great series’ entering Game 2

Panthers-Oilers Cup Final has makings of ‘great series’ entering Game 2

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Schmidt got the media in the audience to laugh at his last comment, but there’s truth to that.

To win at this time of the year players put their bodies through so much. In this series, with the history of the two teams, having met in the Stanley Cup Final last year, the Panthers edging the Oilers in seven games, there was a feeling going in that it was essentially a rivalry continued as opposed to renewed.

Game 1 proved that. It might as well have been Game 8, with Game 2 being Game 9.

The only difference is both teams feel they’re better and healthier than they were a year ago, which should only enhance the competition.

“You could even see it,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “They held a lot of the play in the first. We got to our game in the second. They mixed and matched and changed up some of their lines in the third, got some momentum from it. OT, we probably were better in the first little bit of it and then they took over. When you have two really good teams going at it, two of the best teams in the League, you’re not going to be able to dominate a whole game. I think everybody saw last night, including us, they are a very, very, very good team with some dangerous players. Even when their top lines are playing together they have other lines that can play. … That wasn’t always the case, there so definitely their depth is better. They defend hard, block shots, their goalie is playing well. So, yeah, they’re better, we’re better. I think it’s going to be a great series.”

Maybe the part that should fuel excitement about what’s to come in this Stanley Cup Final is both teams also believe they have another level to get to in Game 2.

Game 1 was the first time the Oilers played in six days since eliminating the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final on May 29. It had been a week since the Panthers eliminated the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.

“After those long breaks it’s tougher to just pick up and play at your best,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “A couple times in the regular season we did it after a long break [and] we didn’t come out very well. It’s a little bit different in the playoffs. Everyone knows the importance of the games. Everyone is focused. The adrenaline is running. So it’s a little bit easier, but we’re going to have to get better as the series goes because we know how good Florida is.”

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