Panthers/Oilers create first repeat Stanley Cup Final since Penguins/Red Wings

Oh, what a time it was!

The Edmonton Oilers dispatched the Dallas Stars in five games last night, easily shrugging aside those Stars the same way the Oil did to Vegas. It sets a date with destiny and a Stanley Cup Final rematch against the Florida Panthers.

History couldn’t have written a better script for Connor McDavid. Both Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby had to come back in a second year and dethrone the team that beath them in their first SCF. Now the chance is right there for McDavid to join them and fully cement his legend as one of the game’s all-time greats.

It’s remarkable how circumstances align in history for the great ones, kinda like how the puck seems to follow them around the ice.

One person who can’t be feeling so good this morning is Dallas coach Pete DeBoer. DeBoer pulled Jake Oettinger after a quick two goals against, and then see-sawed a little on putting the star goalie back in the game later on. He didn’t. DeBoer’s comment after the game was just as brutal.

Come to think of it, DeBoer would make a great internet commenter. Make rational thought followed by the all important “BUT” proceed spend 85% more time and energy contradicting the whole statement. Seen that one before.

Anyways, that fun thought aside, this Stanley Cup Final will revolve around McDavid and the Oilers’ quest to finally get to the top. McDavid has a whopping 143 points in 90 playoff games — 46 out of the 90 games have been multi-point performances. He hasn’t hoisted the chalice just yet but it’d be difficult to find an individual contributing more in what is such a team sport.

Could this be the year? The cards are falling in place for the areas McDavid can’t control. Improbably, Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have rotated around and Edmonton’s found enough goaltending to take a 12-4 record this spring while going through the Western Conference. The loss to injury of Zach Hyman will be a big deal, but others like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have been massive this spring.

Florida is the champs, and like the champs of previous repeat SCF matchups, they are formidable. The Panthers have history to go for as well, looking to become only the third team in the NHL’s salary cap era (since 2005) to accomplish back-to-back titles. That, of course, would join the Penguins (2016-17) and Tampa (2020-21).

It’s interesting to note that Pittsburgh became the first repeat Cup champion in nearly 20 years (first since Detroit in 1997-98) only to see in the decade that follows that the feat could happen three times. That’s a hard trend to describe, do teams that make it to the top have that extra edge and ability to find ways when times are tight in future years? Is it all just random chance and coincidence to come out of the top end? It’s a fascinating question.

Last year’s Edmonton/Florida series went the distance for all seven games. It ended up as heartbreak for McDavid, captured on camera for all to see. After a full year, both clubs are back. The Panthers either get b-2-b and a place in hockey history as one of the great clubs of this era, or the Oilers finally get back to the top for the first time since 1990 and break the 32-year drought of Canadian teams going after the Stanley Cup. You couldn’t script it any better than that, especially framed through the lens of watching McDavid try to finally take that next step to the very top.