What the Panthers did right to win the Stanley Cup in Game 7

It wasn’t the easiest path to winning a championship, but the Florida Panthers stepped up when it mattered most.

After squandering a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers did exactly what they needed to do in order to take down the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7, clinching the franchise’s first Cup.

Florida devised and executed the perfect game plan on Monday night. Along with scoring first for just the third time in the series, the Panthers limited the Oilers’ scoring chances for the majority of the contest. When Edmonton broke through, Sergei Bobrovsky made a handful of big saves, leading to a 2-1 win.

On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen broke down what the Panthers did right to get the job done.

Frank Seravalli: The over-arching thought for me is: What an absolute clinic it was. At one end of the ice, it was back to the forecheck that made them so successful, the Oilers had a really tough time getting out of their own end. In [the Panthers] end, they had collapsed so well, they played with layers like they did earlier in the series. They made life difficult on the Oilers’ star players, and they weren’t really able to generate a lot.

Colby Cohen: You just look at the details in their game, you talk about the way they collapsed, the way they protect the middle. Their forwards back pressure as well as any team. It reminds me, honestly, of the way Vegas back-pressured the puck and what made their defense so confident and able to accept rushes, and end plays, keep a guy like Connor McDavid…to the outside of the rink. For a majority of last night’s game, everything was on the perimeter for the Edmonton Oilers. The margin for error is so razor thin in a game like that.

You can watch the full segment, and the entire episode here…