Connor McDavid set a new NHL record for playoff assists with a four-point night as the Edmonton … [+]
If the Stanley Cup Final was decided by aggregate goals, the Edmonton Oilers would be sitting pretty right now.
After being outscored 11-4 in the first three games of their series against the Florida Panthers, the Oilers swept away the possibility of elimination with a dominant 8-1 win in front of their home fans on Saturday.
Now, the goal totals are tied 12-12.
But in the NHL, a win’s a win. The Oilers are still down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series and will need another victory back in South Florida on Tuesday to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive.
The only team in league history ever to come back to win the Cup after falling into a 3-0 hole in the final was the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
In earlier playoff rounds, only three squads have successfully overcome the deficit:
- 2014 first round: Los Angeles Kings vs. San Jose Sharks – the Kings went on to win the Cup
- 2010 second round: Philadelphia Flyers vs. Boston Bruins – the Flyers went on to reach the Stanley Cup Final
- 1975 quarterfinal: New York Islanders vs. Pittsburgh Penguins – first-ever playoffs for the Islanders, who joined the league in 1972
So, the Oilers’ odds are still long. But resilience has been a trademark of this group this season.
Edmonton sat second-last in the league standings with a record of 3-9-1 when Kris Knoblauch took over from Jay Woodcroft as the team’s head coach on Nov. 12, 2023. Under Knoblauch, the Oilers went 46-18-5 over the remaining 69 regular-season games, for a .703 points percentage.
With their Game 4 win, the Oilers also maintained a Knoblauch-era record of never losing more than three games in a row. Each time it happened in the regular season, the team bounced back in a big way, with streaks of eight wins, 16 wins and five wins.
The 16-win streak fell one short of tying the NHL’s all-time record.
“It’s been fun to be a part of,” McDavid told this writer during the All-Star break in January. “Especially to be a part of this group. We’re getting contributions from all over the lineup, whether that’s both of our goalies, all six D-men have been playing great, the penalty kill has been awesome, and getting contributions in many different ways up front.”
To cap off a memorable season will a championship, that group will need to string together one more four-game streak.
They can take confidence from the grace under pressure that they’ve shown earlier in the playoffs. In Round 2 against the Vancouver Canucks, the Oilers erased a 3-2 series deficit and won Game 7 on the road to advance. And in the Western Conference Final, they overcame a 2-1 deficit and some early-series scoring troubles to win three straight against the Dallas Stars — comfortably outscoring their opponents 10-4 in those final three games.
Still, the Panthers won’t be an easy out. They’re 15-6 so far in the playoffs and have lost just three times at home — in Games 1 and 5 of Round 2 against the Boston Bruins, and in overtime of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers.
That loss put them down 2-1 against the top regular-season team in the NHL. But the Panthers replied with three tight wins to advance to the final, outscoring New York 8-5.
After suffering their first loss in seven games on Saturday, Panthers coach Paul Maurice made a minor tweak to his lines at practice on Monday, swapping in Ryan Lomberg for Steven Lorentz on the fourth line with Kevin Stenlund and Kyle Okposo.
It’s not unusual for big-minute players to skip practices at this time of year. When asked about the absences of defenseman Aaron Ekblad and forwards Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk, Maurice said they were “All good.”
Bobrovsky should also return to the Florida net. After playing every minute of the Panthers’ playoff run so far, he was pulled early in the second period of Game 4, after giving up five goals on 16 shots.
The move was intended to give Bobrovsky a rest rather than be seen as a criticism of his play or indication of an injury concern.
“We gave up eight goals and zero of them were the goalie’s fault,” Tkachuk said after Saturday’s game.
No matter what happens from here, Oilers captain Connor McDavid has secured a spot in the NHL record book. Scoring his first-ever Stanley Cup Final goal and adding three assists on Saturday, McDavid’s seven points so far in the Final have him three points ahead of any other player.
And after becoming just the fourth player in NHL history to reach 100 assists during the 2023-24 regular season, McDavid’s 32 playoff assists now make him the all-time leader in that category. Wayne Gretzky had previously held the top three spots, all from his time with the Oilers in the 1980s.
McDavid will have at least one more game to add to that total.
With 38 points in 22 games, he’s also tied for fifth all-time in playoff scoring. Gretzky holds three of the top four spots, including the all-time record of 47 points. Mario Lemieux sits second with 44 points, collected with the Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991.
On Saturday, McDavid passed his assistant coach, Paul Coffey, who is the top-scoring playoff defenseman of all time with 37 points in 1985. The previous record-holder from the salary-cap era was Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, with 36 points in 2009.
Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final goes Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Amerant Bank Arena (ABC, ESPN+, CBC, Sportsnet). If the Oilers can stay alive, the series will return to Edmonton for Game 6 on Friday.
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