EDMONTON, Alberta — Going into this Stanley Cup Final rematch, confidence oozed from the Florida Panthers just like last year when they won — and also this time from the Edmonton Oilers because they felt prepared for the moment.
HT Image
After losing Game 1 in overtime after a puck over the glass penalty put Edmonton on the power play, the Panthers have not lost any of the belief they carried into the series. In a third consecutive final, the defending champions are unfazed by their deficit and appear well equipped to bounce back in Game 2 on Friday night.
“We’ve got a lot of battle scars on us from the last few years, and we’ve been through way worse,” winger Matthew Tkachuk said Thursday. “We can be better, we can adjust a few things and come out tomorrow and try to get a win here and get some momentum going back home.”
A win would even things up and put the pressure right back on reigning playoff MVP Connor McDavid, Game 1-winning goal-scorer Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers with play shifting to Sunrise next week. Even a loss would not put the Panthers into desperate straits.
They dropped the first two in the second round against Toronto and trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in Game 3 before rallying to win that night and beat the Maple Leafs in seven. Even for Florida’s newcomers, it was evidence that this team doesn’t go down easy.
“You’re going to have moments in the game and moments in a series that you’re going to be riding a roller coaster,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “This team, I think, has an incredible ability to be able to not only learn from what they’ve done and apply their experience into situations like this.”
Coach Paul Maurice downplayed it as “just experience,” as though every team in the NHL or any sport knows what it is like to make this many deep playoff runs in a row and look borderline unstoppable. Because of that success, the Panthers are who they are, and not a lot of major adjustments are expected.
“It’s almost always an adjustment back to form: We were a little off here, we can be a little bit better,” Maurice said. “Nobody’s changing a major system. It takes months and years to do that. You’re adjustments back to form, but I think they have a pretty strong understanding of their foundation.”
Panthers players seem to have a pretty strong understanding of how playoff hockey works. They’ve won 10 of 11 playoff series since Maurice became coach and Tkachuk arrived in a trade from Calgary in the summer of 2022.
The only time they’ve been on the wrong side of a handshake line during this stretch was the 2023 final against Vegas, when Tkachuk was sidelined by a broken sternum and several others were playing with significant injuries. The memories of that and falling behind in series along the way stick with them.
“We learn more from adversity than we do from winning,” forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “Every time you lose games or go through series where you’re down 2-0 or losing in the Cup final a couple of years ago, you learn a lot. It’s just sticking with it and being mentally strong.”
Tkachuk said he and his teammates are plenty strong mentally, so the tweaks will be more tactical. They won’t look too different but have some areas to clean up.
“Maybe a little bit more offensive zone time, some things we look at, but they played a good game,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “They were solid defensively. They blocked a lot of shots. And we kind of knew that coming in there’s not a lot of space out there, not a lot of plays to be made, really. So, when we do get those opportunities, try to hold on to the puck and capitalize.”
The Oilers turned the puck over several times in Game 1, with goaltender Stuart Skinner saving them a few times from the score getting more lopsided than the 3-1 deficit they overcame. They figure to be much improved in those areas.
Coach Kris Knoblauch knows his team has to raise its level “because we know how good Florida is.” The blueprint has been out there for several years, and it’s an imposing one.
“They’re pretty confident with their identity, and they play to that identity very well,” Knoblauch said. “They have a lot of confidence that they’ll play their game and they should come out on top. For us, we need to just be ready for it — that they are going to be better.”
NHL playoffs: /hub/stanley-cup and /hub/nhl
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Indian Super League club East Bengal FC on Thursday announced that three foreign players, Hector Yuste, Richard Celis, and Raphael Messi Bouli will be leaving the club ahead of the next season.
“The club would like to thank Hector Yuste, Richard Celis and Raphael Messi Bouli for their services. We wish them the best in their future endeavours,” the club said in a statement.
Messi Bouli joined the Red and Gold Brigade from Chinese League One club Shijiazhuang Gongfu on a free transfer in January and made eight appearances for the club, scoring three goals and assisting one in that period.
On the other hand, Venezuela forward Celis, who was also bought in the January window played nine games and failed to record a goal or assist.
Meanwhile, Yuste, who joined from arch rival Mohun Bagan Super ahead of last season, played 25 matches across all competitions and recorded two assists.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is in talks with its Afghanistan counterpart to organise a tri-series in August involving hosts UAE if the Asia Cup gets cancelled or postponed.
This edition of the Asia Cup is scheduled to be played in September and India has the hosting rights, but Pakistan will not travel to the neighbouring country as per the hybrid model accepted ahead of the Champions Trophy earlier this year.
Therefore, there is a non-clarity surrounding the event, prompting the PCB to initiate talks with the Afghanistan board.
“With the Asia Cup now unlikely to be held in India as originally planned in September due to the simmering relations between Pakistan and India, the PCB is working on another tri-series proposal,” a well-informed source in PCB said.
“The idea is that if the Asia Cup is moved to the UAE then Pakistan will play a tri-series with Afghanistan and the UAE in Dubai in August replacing the Afghanistan tour to Pakistan,” he explained.
He said the PCB has already been in talks with the two boards to organise the tri-series.
“If the Asia Cup is cancelled or postponed the PCB wants the Afghanistan and UAE teams to play the tri-series in Pakistan in August,” the source disclosed.
PCB Chairman, Mohsin Naqvi is the president of the Asian Cricket Council and the source said the ACC will meet soon to decide on the Asia Cup.
“The Indian cricket board is yet to confirm its willingness to host the Asia Cup at home. So, it remains to be seen when the ACC council meets and makes a call on the future of the Asia Cup which is to be held in the T20 format,” he added.
Nikitenko joins Abhijeet in lead at Delhi GM Open with win over Paichadze
Grandmaster Mihail Nikitenko beat Grandmaster Luka Paichadze to join Abhijeet Gupta in the lead with seven points at the end of the eighth round in the Delhi GM Open chess tournament at the Tivoli Gardens, Chhattarpur, on Thursday.
In an even battle, Nikitenko hooked a knight on the 55th move and Paichadze promptly resigned.
Overnight sole leader Abhijeet drew with Manuel Petrosyan to reach 6.5 points, with two more rounds to go in the Swiss League competition.
In the ninth round, Nikitenko will play black against Abhijeet. There were 12 players with 6.5 points and 16 players with six points, which could lead to a very lively climax. On the second board, Mamikon Gharibyan will play top seed SL Narayanan. Diptayan Ghosh will play Van Huy Nguyen.
The results (eighth round):
Manuel Petrosyan 6.5 drew with Abhijeet Gupta 7; SL Narayanan 6.5 drew with Neelash Saha 6.5; Mihail NIkitenko 7 bt Luka Paichadze 6; Aronyak Ghosh 6.5 drew with Vitaly Sivuk 6.5; Diptayan Ghosh 6.5 bt Boris Savchenko 6; Aditya Samant 6.5 bt Saravana Krishnan 5.5; Mamikon Gharibyan 6.5 bt Abhishek Kelkar 5.5; Mikulas Manik 6 drew with Adarsh Sriram 6; Viresh Sharnarthi 6.5 bt Hari Madhavan 5.5; Amit Agrawal 5.5 lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov 6.5; EU Ahaz 5.5 lost to Van Huy Nguyen 6.5; Semetei Tegin 6 drew with Arnav Agrawal 6; S Nitin 6.5 bt Soham Roy 5.5; Alok Sinha 5 lost to Karthik Venkataraman 6; Deepan Chakkravarthy 6 bt Harshit Sahu 5; Alekhya Mukhopadhyay 5 lost to Harsh Suresh 6.
