Can McDavid and the Oilers bring the Cup back to Canada?
CBC
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The Stanley Cup final begins Saturday at 8 p.m. ET when the Edmonton Oilers visit the Florida Panthers, marking Connor McDavid's first appearance on the NHL's biggest stage.
At the age of 27, the world's best hockey player has already won three regular-season MVP awards and five scoring titles since joining the league nine years ago. But, until a couple of weeks ago, he'd never won a game past the second round of the playoffs. That changed as Edmonton defeated top-seeded Dallas in the Western Conference final to give McDavid his best chance yet to capture the Stanley Cup.
Speaking of droughts: as you may have heard, no Canadian-based team has won the best trophy in sports since Patrick Roy's Montreal Canadiens in 1993 (four years before McDavid was born). A Canadian club has played in the Stanley Cup final six times since then, including Edmonton in 2006. But the Oilers are still looking for their first title since 1990 — two years after they traded Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles.
The Panthers can relate. They're trying to win the first championship in the history of the franchise, which dates back to 1993. Florida's rat-infested run to the Cup final in 1996 ended in a sweep to Colorado, and last year the Panthers lost the final in five to Vegas.
WATCH | Oilers can win Canada's first Cup in three decades:
So, one way or another, a long wait is about to end. Here are some non-drought things to know about this fascinating Oilers-Panthers matchup:
It's the opposite of that Spider-Man meme.
In sports, contrasts often make for the most compelling matchups. And there are plenty of contrasts here. You don't need to be a die-hard hockey fan to appreciate that Edmonton, the NHL's northernmost outpost, is a long way from sunny South Florida, both spiritually and literally. According to the league, the Oilers and Panthers are separated by 4,089 kilometres, making this the longest distance between opponents in the history of the Cup final.
On the ice, these teams try to beat you in different ways. The Oilers feature the most dynamic offensive player in the sport and ranked near the top of the league in scoring this season. The grittier Panthers tied Winnipeg for the fewest goals allowed.
However, these are not one-dimensional clubs. Florida ranked 11th in scoring this season and has elevated to fourth in goals per game in the playoffs, while Edmonton finished an improved 10th in goals-against average in the regular season and is up to seventh in the playoffs.
Florida is favoured.
The Panthers spent so many years as an NHL backwater that it's hard for some people to accept that they've been one of the league's premier teams for a while now.
Florida had the fourth-best record in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season before winning the Presidents' Trophy the next year while leading the league in goals. A second-round sweep at the hands of Tampa Bay taught GM Bill Zito that he needed to toughen his team up to succeed in the playoffs, so he swapped out interim head coach Andrew Brunette for colourful veteran Paul Maurice and made a blockbuster trade that sent NHL assists leader Jonathan Huberdeau to Calgary for truculent 40-goal scorer Matthew Tkachuk.
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