Edmonton hosts Florida in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night at Rogers Place
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The Edmonton Oilers will host the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of their second straight meeting in the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night at Rogers Place.
You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 6:00 p.m. MDT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.
Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock the Pre-Game Show that will begin 30 minutes before puck-drop, along with more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content.
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Connor speaks during Stanley Cup Final Media Day on Tuesday
EDMONTON, AB – It was always going to be us and them.
Get ready for the rematch. And once again, the stakes involve everything.
Meeting in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year, the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers have proven to be battle-tested once again through another challenging regular season and playoff campaign as the last two – and the best two – teams remaining in the NHL to contest hockey’s silver chalice.
Edmonton and Florida will face off in the 11th-ever Stanley Cup Final rematch in League history and the first since Detroit and Pittsburgh met in back-to-back years in 2008-09. This will be the second for the Oilers in their franchise history, having been swept by the Islanders in 1983 before winning in five games in 1984 to capture their first of five Stanley Cups over the next eight years.
This year, the Oilers feel they’ve taken steps to ensure they follow the script written by the 2009 Penguins and the 1984 Oilers, who both learned from their first experience to lift the Stanley Cup on the second try.
“I would say it’s just dealing with the emotion of it, just because you feel closer,” Connor McDavid said. “There’s a big circus. It can feel larger than it actually is. At the end of the day, it’s another series, and we’re playing another great team. You’ve to beat them before anything else happens, so they’ve our complete focus. All of our energy is going into beating the Florida Panthers. There should be nothing else on anyone’s mind.
“I think there’s familiarity there. We know what to expect from their game. They know what to expect from ours. They’re an aggressive, in-your-face, quick team. We played a team like that in LA, I would say there’s a little bit of that familiarity there.”
Ryan addresses the media at Stanley Cup Final Media Day
The Oilers still have the memories of losing to the Panthers in Game 7 of last year’s Final, when they fought back from a 3-0 series deficit to force a seventh and deciding game in Sunrise, only to see sunset on their hopes of accomplishing their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup in a 2-1 heartbreaking loss.
Back for a second crack at the Stanley Cup, the Oilers believe they have a deeper and better team this year that’s better equipped to defeat the Panthers, having shown their resilience and versatility in series victories over Los Angeles, Vegas and Dallas in the first three rounds to set up a rematch in the Final.
“It’s definitely shared,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins about last year’s emotions. “It’s been our drive and our goal. It’s a long process, and it’s not just as easy as saying it’s going to happen. It requires a lot of work and effort every day. It’s hard to wrap your head around thinking about next year and doing it again when you’re that fresh off it, but we’ve had the goal in mind the whole year, and we’ve done a good job getting back to give ourselves another chance.”
New additions like Jake Walman and John Klingberg have solidified Edmonton’s blueline as a puck-moving force that can quickly transition the puck into their forwards’ hands, contributing to the team’s overall philosophy of defending through offensive possession and providing consistent point production.
Edmonton’s D corps has been padded further by the return of Mattias Ekholm from injury in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final, pushing their depth on defence even deeper with the impact addition of a top-pairing defenceman in the playoffs.
Going up against a fast forechecking team in Florida, those D men will be relied upon to retrieve pucks and make a strong first pass to their forwards.
Mattias speaks during Stanley Cup Final Media Day in Edmonton
“I think D men are so, so, so important,” McDavid said. “Every time that this group has gone out and added a D man, it’s really taken our group to the next level. I think about a couple of years ago, we had Kulak and what that did for our group. Bouchie taking a step has done wonders for our group. We go out and get Ekholm, and all of a sudden we’re in the Conference Final or whatever. Walman’s just been the same way, and Klingberg stepping in has been a big help for our group since Ekky went down early. So D men are so important, and we’ve got a bunch of really good ones and they help a lot.”
Evander Kane has had a similar impact up front for the Oilers after he returned from missing the entire regular season recovering from off-season surgery in Game 2 of the First Round, and he’ll be an important player in helping the Oilers make up for the absence of Zach Hyman in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Oilers have proven they can do that collectively with 18 separate skaters (14 forwards) who’ve scored a goal in the 2025 playoffs, having earned the series-clinching victory against Dallas behind the strength of the first career playoff goal from Jeff Skinner, who entered the lineup in place of Hyman.
The Oilers are also expected to have Connor Brown back in the lineup for Game 1 against the Panthers on Wednesday.
Stuart addresses the media after Oilers practice on Tuesday
After losing their first two games against the Kings in the First Round, the Oilers have gone 12-2 to reach the Final, becoming the eighth team since NHL expansion in 1968 to do so after losing the first two games in the opening series. All seven of those previous teams went on to win the Stanley Cup, so Edmonton aims to follow that script while rewriting the ending of last year’s seven-game defeat in the Final with a more positive outcome this time.
“It gets tougher each and every summer, but at the same time, it puts that fire inside you and keeps it burning,” said veteran Corey Perry, who’s playing in his fifth final in the last six years at 40 years old. “We have that opportunity again this year to rewrite that script, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Panthers staved off the surging Oilers last June to celebrate their franchise’s first championship and are back for a third straight year in the Final after dispatching their rivals Tampa Bay, Toronto and Carolina for the chance to solidify their dynasty status as back-to-back champions.
Just like Edmonton, Florida improved at the Trade Deadline with acquisitions like Brad Marchand and Seth Jones to add around their championship-winning core of Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Sergei Bobrovsky and Aaron Ekblad.
“Obviously, they’re the champs. It’s their third final in three years. They’re a great team,” McDavid said. “You can’t say enough good things, so as I said, they have our complete focus. Going to be a great challenge and we’re excited about it.”
