Oilers’ blueline is improved from a year ago – but how can they contain the Panthers’ attack?

Among the storylines heading into this year’s Stanley Cup Final, many wonder if the Edmonton Oilers have enough weapons on the back end to slow down the Florida Panthers.

The Oilers enter the championship series hoping to get revenge on the Panthers, the team they lost to in a wild seven-game series.

However, despite there being plenty of similarities between the two teams compared to last year’s final, there is a notable difference in the talent level on Edmonton’s back end. The additions of defensemen like Jake Walman have bolstered the team’s confidence, and have certainly made them a tougher team to play against so far in these playoffs.

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss whether the Oilers’ revamped blue line is enough to limit the Cats in the final.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The other thing that I think is massive is this Oilers’ blue line is way better at moving the puck than it was a year ago. You take out [Cody] Ceci, you take out [Vincent] Desharnais, you add in Wallman and [John] Klingberg, and all of a sudden, these skilled Oilers’ forwards, they got D-men who can just rifle the puck up to them. They can attack with a bit of speed this year, which is not what they could do last year.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, but the big question will be how will they handle that Florida forecheck? They’ve done a pretty good job, and they’ve had the puck, and they’ve been efficient getting out of their own end. … Jake Wallman is my X factor for Edmonton. His efficiency, the way that he’s able to get rid of the puck I think that’s been hugely beneficial for the Oilers. There’s some obvious key points here. Got to get off to a better start in the series. Can’t give away a couple games like they did. Not leaping good enough and dig in. I mean, those are key words from Connor McDavid after Game 2 in the Stanley Cup Final last year, as we saw in the Amazon Prime Series. This team has a chance to write a different story starting on home ice with a better roster. 

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…