Examining how Panthers, Oilers stack up for Stanley Cup Final rematch
This year's championship series offers a rare rematch of season's epic seven-game series, which pitted the Florida Panthers against the Edmonton Oilers.
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Florida won the first three games, convincingly, before dropping the next three, even more convincingly, and eventually emerging victorious in a Game 7 the hockey gods would've been proud of.
The Panthers won that seventh game on home ice, which is a luxury they won't have this time around should the series go the distance again.
That shouldn't be an issue for these Panthers, however.
Paul Maurice's crew has been historically good on the road during this postseason, winning eight of the ten games they've played outside of Sunrise by a ridiculous goal differential of plus-27.
That's right, in those ten away games, Florida has scored an eye-popping 48 times while allowing just 21 goals against.
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Conversely, they've given up the same amount of goals at home, 18, as they have scored, which makes sense when seeing as though they hold just a 5-4 at Amerant Bank Arena.
One thing that many can agree on is that both teams arrive at this year's Final better than they were a season ago.
Edmonton is averaging a league best 4.06 goals per game this postseason while the Panthers are putting up 3.88.
Defensively, Florida is allowing 2.29 goals per game, lowest of any playoff team, while the Oilers have given up a similarly stingy 2.81.
It's to no one's surprise that Edmonton remains one of the best in the business on the power play.
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They enter the Final operating at a 30.0% success rate while on the man advantage, which is actually a tick higher than last postseason.
Florida is also executing at a higher rate during this year's playoffs than they did last year, rising from 18.5% to 23.2% this postseason.
One of the big differences from last June to now is on the penalty kill.
While the Panthers have remained consistently solid on the PK – last playoffs they killed 88.0% of penalties and this year they're killing 87.9% - it's the Oilers who have seen a significant drop-off.
Last year they were lights out, allowing only four power play goals during the entire postseason while killing 94.3% of the power plays they faced.
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We'll see if that element comes into play when the series kicks off on Wednesday night.
Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. ET from Rogers Place in Edmonton.
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Photo caption: Jun 21, 2024; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) controls the puck against the Edmonton Oilers during the third period in game six of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. (Sergei Belski-Imagn Images)
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