The Florida Panthers’ ferocious attack could give them a leg up in the Stanley Cup Final
The stage is officially set.
The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers will kick off the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Saturday. It’ll be an entertaining matchup between two of the strongest teams in the league, both of whom have battled through significant adversity to reach this point.
For the Oilers, they had to battle back from a disastrous start to even re-enter the playoff picture in the first place, but the Panthers also started the season reeling after being beaten by the Vegas Golden Knights in last year’s championship series.
Both the Panthers and Oilers will get the chance to prove their worth for good in this year’s Cup Final. But as Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed during Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, the Panthers’ balanced attack and “ferocious” forechecking might make them the team to beat.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Fifth straight year one of the Florida teams is in the Cup Final. [The Panthers] move past the New York Rangers in six games, and I will say, if it wasn’t for Igor, it could’ve been four or five games as well. Shesterkin was lights out, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. The Panthers, they are looking like a wagon, they are looking like the best team in the NHL, as they were for long stretches in the regular season, too. Like, it’s not surprising to see them play this dominant brand of hockey.
Frank Seravalli: It’s not, and I think that’s what’s going to be so fascinating is watching how this Panthers team that’s a physical beast, their players, their forwards especially are ferocious on the forecheck, that’s going to be something that the Edmonton Oilers really haven’t experienced. They got a little taste of that, slightly, from the Vancouver Canucks in Round 2. Dallas was such an odd series for Edmonton in that there was no animosity, no hate, no ill will. The only emotion that existed was within the crazy momentum swings, and it was crazy that there was never really a pushback — or punch back — from Dallas. Once the Oilers took the lead in Game 4, it was kind of like the Stars and the Rangers went out with a bit of a whimper, which is disappointing for two really talented teams. But the Cats have this wave-after-wave attack that is led by Matthew Tkachuk in terms of brawn and matched by Aleksander Barkov in terms of brain. […] Whether it’s the goal-scoring touch from Sam Reinhart, the clutch gene from Carter Verhaeghe, that Florida team is going to be really, really difficult out.
Watch the full episode here: