EDMONTON – News flash: There’s only one Game 8 that matters, and they’ve already played it.
So when the Florida Panthers arrive in Edmonton for the first meeting between these two teams since Game 7 of last spring’s Stanley Cup Final, remember one thing: only care, ill will and a desire to let The only people who value this game more than two points on a Monday night in December are Oilers fans.
After 35 years of fighting, we’re pretty sure the Oilers players want nothing to do with the old revenge angle.
Because there is no room for revenge.
Florida State’s name appears on the trophy. Edmonton’s is not.
In these regards, it’s a sad fact that won’t change in any game on December 16th.
“It’s a new season,” Darnell Nurse said. “They were a team that was playing really well early in the year, so … we came in with the mentality that we wanted to play our game and worry about ourselves.”
He couldn’t speak his mind after Las Vegas’ win over their division rival, and it wasn’t just a game against the Panthers.
Then we will say for him: We spent the entire summer trying to move on from this series. It was devastating, after clawing its way back from a 3-0 series deficit, to lose 2-1 in Game 7. We then spent almost two months, from October to November, trying to find our “A” game again.
Now we’ve found our place with five wins in a row and we look like a legitimate threat to win the cup. Do you want to talk about last year?
Do you want to talk about another loss to Florida?
If you gave Oilers players a dose of truth serum, they’d say they never want to talk about the Florida Panthers again — until they play and beat them again in a game that really matters.
The best example we can remember was in Vancouver, where “Game 8” — the first meeting between the Canucks and Bruins in seven finals in 2011 — was held at Boston’s TD Garden. — has continued to evolve over the years.
That was a Canucks team that got knocked out of the ’11 finals by the big, bad Bruins. Vancouver lost to Boston, who managed to exert their will in Game 7 and find ways to score more goals.
The Oilers looked back and regretted losing their first three games, but they trailed by just one goal in Game 7. Florida won fair and square. But in the end, there was little to choose between the teams.
The Canucks rightly feel they have something to prove in their next game in Boston — and they won’t be pushed around again — a 4-3 win in Vancouver that didn’t get the carvers excited, but it certainly earned it back Some pride.
The teams received a total of 107 PIM players and 4 fighting professionals. Milan Lucic was ejected for leaving the zone to attack the Canucks, one of four inappropriate conduct violations in 10 minutes.
Vancouver went to Boston and beat them.
“Last year is behind us. The memories and feuds carry over,” goaltender Corey Schneider told my colleague Ian McIntyre that day. “But overall … it’s a big win for our team. It’s a statement to the rest of the league that we’re back to where we were last year.”
Now, Edmonton is back to where it was last year. But no matter what happens tonight against Florida, the Oilers have made that statement.
The Oilers, who had the best winning percentage in the league (.703) last season after Kris Knoblauch took over as head coach on Nov. 12, today ranked with a .731 winning percentage since Nov. 18. third place. Slow starts are a thing of the past — they’ve won five straight and are 12-3-1 in their last 16 games — and the Oilers are confident whether they beat the Panthers or not Onwards to another legal crusade for Stanley.
With wins over Pacific-leading Vegas and (at the time) league-leading Minnesota, the Panthers were just another good opponent coming to town. One of which, we’ll allow, comes with some bad memories.
“It’s going to be another really good test,” Leon Draisaitl said mildly. “They’re a good team. I thought they played really good hockey.”
That’s it, folks. that’s all.
No game 8. There is nothing to prove.
It’s business as usual, even if the other uniform does give Oilers fans a nightmare or two.
