NHL
Stanley
Cup Final
By Michael Russo, Chris Johnston and Daniel Nugent-Bowman
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jake Walman received $10,000 in fines from the NHL on Tuesday after squirting water toward the Florida Panthers’ bench and punching Matthew Tkachuk in the head during an emotional Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
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Walman’s fines were $5,000 apiece for unsportsmanlike conduct and roughing. It was the only supplemental discipline from Monday’s 6-1 Panthers win, which featured 140 penalty minutes, the fourth-highest total in Cup Final history.
The unsportsmanlike conduct happened late in the second period with Florida already ahead 4-1.
Panthers forward A.J. Greer and Walman got mixed up along the boards, and Greer ripped off Walman’s right glove, tossing it onto the Florida bench. Walman responded by squirting water at his opponent, prompting TNT analyst Brian Boucher to tell him to cut it out.
Unreal trash talking sequence by AJ Greer and Jake Walman 🍿 pic.twitter.com/FrMOgXn56x
— All Sports Culture (@ASCSportsMedia) June 10, 2025
“I obviously did that for a reason,” Walman said after the game. “I won’t go into the details. It’s just gamesmanship, I guess. I’ve just got to realize there’s cameras everywhere and they see that stuff.”
The roughing incident occurred at 14:44 of the third period. Walman was assessed two minor penalties for roughing and a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct after engaging Tkachuk in front of the Oilers net, first spearing him and then delivering a couple of gloved punches to the head while teammate John Klingberg held Tkachuk.
Jake Walman just gave a couple rights to Matthew Tkachuk 😳👊 pic.twitter.com/gSv9SgT33Z
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) June 10, 2025
The NHL doesn’t look fondly on unnecessary incidents coming from the bench, which is why Walman was fined for squirting the water. The league has attempted to crack down on extracurriculars throughout these playoffs, handing out a series of fines during Round 1 for incidents that occurred in warmups.
On April 25, Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins received a $5,000 fine, while the Senators were docked an additional $25,000, after Cousins softly shot a puck at Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz before those teams played Game 3 of their series. And when the Montreal Canadiens’ Arber Xhekaj and Washington Capitals’ Dylan McIlrath came together to exchange words during warmups on April 27, both teams received a $25,000 fine. The players were each docked individually, as well, with Xhekaj paying $3,385.42 and McIlrath forking over $2,018.23.
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Tempers flared throughout Game 3 of the Cup Final, with six members of the Oilers being sent to the dressing room before the final buzzer and three Panthers being shown the gate early as well.
“It’s for the Stanley Cup, you know? So, f—, there’s not an inch out there,” Walman said. “Everybody’s doing everything they can. That’s a grown man’s game out there. It’s not for the faint of heart. Guys are putting everything on the line.”
The NHL also looked at the Trent Frederic incident with Sam Bennett but determined the penalties assessed were appropriate.
“I just gave a shot. My stick broke, so I figured I was going to get a penalty anyway,” Frederic said. “So just kinda kept going.”
Everything stemmed from Trent Frederic breaking his stick with cross-checks on Sam Bennett 😳 pic.twitter.com/DDuNQe2M3g
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) June 10, 2025
After winning the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final last year, the Panthers chartered a plane and flew their families to Edmonton for Game 4 just in case there was a Stanley Cup celebration on the Rogers Place ice.
They then got smoked 8-1 behind a four-point night from Connor McDavid in the first of three straight wins by Edmonton.
So the Panthers aren’t getting ahead of themselves after Monday’s lopsided win. They know McDavid and the Oilers can respond.
As Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said after getting clobbered last year in Game 4, “It only counts as one win. It doesn’t matter how much you lose (by).”
Last year, McDavid said, “It’s not over ‘til it’s over” after three straight losses to open the series. Ominously, perhaps, for the Panthers, McDavid said after Monday’s game that Edmonton’s best is still coming.
“The experience of taking a beating and then being able to come back and play your best game lets you know it’s there,” said coach Paul Maurice, who felt last year’s Game 5 loss was Florida’s best five-on-five game in the playoffs. “It’s what we expect from Edmonton. The emotions are different in the Final. … The game in Edmonton last year got away from us.
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“There were only one or two guys in the room who had won a Stanley Cup. For everybody else that walked into that room, it was their first chance to win a Stanley Cup. In that game, I gave an awesome speech. The opposite speech that they needed. I gave the exact opposite of what they needed, but I learned that, too. We were wired going out, and I think (Stuart) Skinner made two or three really good saves early in that game. One was a cross-body save, and then it got away from us. It gets to 4-1, 5-1. It’s the same as Edmonton. I don’t believe any of the bulls— that they unraveled. The game got to a point it probably wasn’t getting better. Let’s move on to the next one. That’s all that was.”
As Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said Tuesday, “That’s the beauty of the playoffs. We’re down one no matter what the score was last night. And Game 4 is a big one. Every one presents a new challenge and new test in the reset.”
It hadn’t been a great start to the series for Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, but he was solid in Game 3 with a power-play goal and a big hit on McDavid.
Ekblad STEPPED UP on McDavid 👀 pic.twitter.com/MSeCHB8yXs
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 10, 2025
Maurice had a political way of describing how good Ekblad was in Game 3 compared to Games 1 and 2.
“I thought he was all energy in the first two games,” Maurice said. “He was covering a lot of ice, and (Monday), I thought he was perfectly focused in the game. So he was still doing it but defined in the areas he was pinching. I thought he played a really smart, veteran game.”
Eetu Luostarinen continues to develop into one of the Panthers’ best two-way forwards. In fact, as good as Gustav Forsling is on the back end, Luostarinen brings that acumen to the forward position.
Just look at his steal and pass that led to Bennett’s breakaway goal in the second period.
SAM BENNETT BURIES ON THE BREAKAWAY 🚨
CATS ARE COOKIN' IN FLORIDA 😼 pic.twitter.com/XWfP3Jhcrx
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 10, 2025
“I got on the elevator with him up there, and I looked up, he’s a big man now,” Maurice said. “And that’s what I noticed: ‘S—, Loosty, you’re taller than I thought you were.’ But the ‘Forsling up front’ (comparison), that’s really good, really good, because what you haven’t seen in the playoffs as much, but Gustav Forsling had some great offensive numbers this year and never got a snap on the power play.
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“We felt that (Anton) Lundell and Luostarinen, that there was more offense there, but truly respected the fact that they never cheat for it. Brad (Marchand’s) kind of training was with Patrice Bergeron, a player that never cheated the game. That’s the way he knows how to play the game, so he fits perfectly with those two guys. They’re going to do the right thing as hard as they can. They’re very clean players. But there is offense there, and Brad’s been able to bring that out of those two. It’s there for them, but just sometimes you need the right kind of veteran piece to bring it out.”
There’s been speculation that Frederic, an Oilers trade-deadline acquisition, might re-sign before free agency opens on July 1. Though there’s something more pressing at hand, he said he’d be lying to say he hasn’t thought about it.
“It’s definitely a little bit on my mind. We’re in a good place,” Frederic told The Athletic. “I’m just trying to focus on these last (few) games potentially left. I’m just trying to focus on that and do my best.”
The Oilers obtained Frederic in a three-team trade with the Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils on March 4 — a deal that saw Edmonton get his $2.3 million cap hit down to $575,000 with retentions.
Frederic had an ankle injury at the time, sustained while with the Bruins on Feb. 25, and he was only able to suit up in one game with the Oilers before the regular season ended. He was limited to 7:10 of ice time on April 5 and suffered a setback that kept him out of the lineup until the playoffs.
The 27-year-old has played in a bottom-six role at left wing over 19 playoff games. He has a goal and four points with 25 penalty minutes and a plus-1 rating, averaging 11:18 of ice time.
“I’m just trying to get better every game,” Frederic said. “It’s like anything during the season; you’re just trying to ramp up and get to the best you can play to and keep getting better every day. I really like it here.”
(Top photo of Jake Walman, Matthew Tkachuk and John Klingberg: Peter Joneleit / Getty Images)
