Stanley Cup Final Game 5 facts and questions for Panthers vs. Oilers, tied 2-2
Here's what you need to know.
▪ What's the deal: The teams will be in Edmonton's Rogers Place for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final with series tied 2-2 after the Oilers won Game 4 in overtime. TV game time is 8 p.m. on TNT, truTV, HBO Max as well as streaming outlets.
▪ What's at stake: The winner gets a 3-2 series lead in the best-of-7 series and will have the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup in Sunrise during Tuesday's Game 6. Since the 1967 expansion from the NHL's six-team era, when a Stanley Cup Final is tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner also won the series 11 of 16 times.
▪ Advice for fans: Keep the cafetera ready to make some cafe Cubano for yourself or your watch party. Three of the four games have gone into overtime, two after tying goals in the last 20 seconds of regulation.
▪ Key question for Edmonton: Will Calvin Pickard start in goal after Stuart Skinner got yanked in Games 3 and 4? In both cases, Skinner didn't play badly. In fact, he did well to not give up more goals while the Oilers, by their own admission, flat stunk in front of him. But, Pickard's 7-0 in these playoffs with a better goals against average (2.69) and save percentage (.896) compared to Skinner (2.99, .891) and only lost his job to injury in the second round.
▪ Key question for the Panthers: Did blowing a 3-0 lead and losing Game 4 in overtime shake the psychological equilibrium that's allowed them to surf successfully the wins and wipeouts over the last three years of NHL playoffs and make three Stanley Cup Finals.
▪ Key question for both teams: Can they keep up this series' breathless pace after a a 2,500-mile flight sucks up the lone off day before Game 5? Both coaches, who have been in Stanley Cup Finals before and in hockey their whole lives, remarked on the pace, physicality, the quality of hockey from board battles to open ice skill plays.
'I think [experience and conditioning] all those play a factor, but there's an excitement for both teams that will build as you get toward the end. It's a grinder,' Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. 'So, you actually find more energy toward the end of a series because there's not another one after this.'
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