Oilers focus on next game, try to ignore prospect of elimination from Stanley Cup Final

It wasn't technically a must-win game for the Edmonton Oilers, but it was. Now they're up against some long odds in the Stanley Cup Final having lost the first three games to the Florida Panthers in the playoff series.

It wasn't technically a must-win game for the Edmonton Oilers, but it was.

Now they're up against some long odds in the Stanley Cup Final having lost the first three games to the Florida Panthers in the playoff series.

The Oilers made a game of it Thursday night against the Panthers, but coming within one goal to tie Game 3 wasn't enough in the 4-3 loss.

Only four times in National Hockey League history has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven set — one them in the Cup Final 82 years ago at the dawn of the Original Six era — for the rare so-called 'reverse sweep.'

Despite that, Oilers players put on a brave face — or call it confidence, bravado, maybe even delusion — when asked about the daunting task of coming back somehow in the quest to lift the Cup.

After all, of the 210 playoff series in NHL history that have seen a team take a three-games-to-none lead, less than two per cent have seen the other come back to win it.

Oilers winger Zach Hyman calmly told media following practice on Friday at Rogers Place he and his teammates "have a strong belief" in themselves.