The Edmonton Oilers Have Finally Figured Out That Taking 21 Penalties In A Single Stanley Cup Final Game Is A Great Way To Get Your Shit Pumped
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.There's a strong case to be made that the Edmonton Oilers just played quite literally the worst Stanley Cup Final game in the history of the Final. I get the idea about "sending a message" heading into the next game and everything. But if there was one message sent from the Oilers last night to the Florida Panthers, it's that Florida has these guys on the ropes and they have already snapped.
I don't know if the Oilers have ever seen the Panthers' powerplay operate before, but they have a shit ton of dudes on that roster who can put the puck in the back of the net.
So when you have goons on your team like Evander Kane ending his night with 16 penalty minutes, Trent Frederic coming in with 14 penalty minutes, and Darnell Nurse racking up 19 penalty minutes? You're going to lose that game 100 times out of 10. It doesn't even matter at that point if Stuart Skinner is giving up a goal on every 4 shots that he sees, because the Oilers were never at even strength enough to actually claw their way out of that hole.
The Panthers went 3/11 on the powerplay last night. You might be thinking to yourself that the Oilers did a pretty good job to at least kill 8 of them. But either way, that's 16 less minutes the Oilers have to play 5v5 hockey. That's 16 fewer minutes for McDavid and Draisaitl to go out there and do what they do.
2nd most penalties in a single Cup Final game, but at least they "sent a message" to Florida towards the end of that game. That message?
That even if they start throwing some cheapshots, they're all going to end up on the ice with a Panther on top of them. You can't out scumbag the Florida Panthers. They have perfected the craft of scumbag hockey. You're never going to win that battle, and you're only going to feed their strength. These sick bastards live for shit like this.
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The thing that is going to scare the Florida Panthers is Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl heating up. It's not going to be Darnell Nurse slashing guys. It's not going to be Evander Kane slashing guys. It's not going to be remembering that Trent Frederic is even on Edmonton's roster. The thing that scares the shit out of the Panthers is 97 and 29 going berserk and each having 7-point nights. They can't do that if the Oilers are shorthanded for 22 minutes a night.
You need to feed Florida's fears. Stay out of the box, stop shooting yourself in the dicks, and let the best hockey player on the planet carry you to a championship. Simple as that. I don't know how Kris Knoblauch hasn't drilled that into their skulls yet, but there's still time to turn it around.