The Panthers will become only the tenth team in the NHL’s long history to win back-to-back Stanley Cups should they manage to pull off a repeat against the Edmonton Oilers, who themselves have achieved the feat twice. Needless to say, coach Paul Maurice would want his squad at full strength when they roll into Rogers Place on June 4. But is that a possibility? 

During the June 1 press conference, when a reporter asked Maurice whether everybody would be ready to go by Wednesday, Maurice replied without a curtain on his answer. Maurice started, “There’ll be a question mark on A.J. Greer.” Greer suffered a lower-body injury versus Carolina on May 24, and missed Game 4. And although he made it to the ice for the series-clinching Game 5, the winger recorded only 4:22 minutes of ice-time, which included a shift as short as 22 seconds in the third period. But while Greer may be doubtful, the Panthers’ coach had some positive news about the others.

The Panthers’ head coach further added, “…Other than that, everybody’s ready to go now. So, we’ll have a full group. There’s only one that we’ll watch.” The ‘full group’ includes Eetu Luostarinen, too. The Finnish center raised alarm bells when a cross-check by the Hurricanes’ William Carrier sent him out of Game 5 in the first period itself. The Panthers HC, however, cleared the air, saying, “Yeah, he’s out there today, he’s ready to go.” 

“Tomorrow will be, so you know what I’m telling you, tomorrow will be a full day. If somebody doesn’t warm up right in the gym, and that’s kind of the way we do it, sometimes a guy’s a hundred percent behind, he just can’t get his back to loosen up, we just don’t put him on the ice. Other than that, I’m expecting a full lineup tomorrow,” added Maurice. 

Anton Lundell, who was among the absentees with Luostarinen and Greer during Saturday’s skate, also has nothing stopping him from taking the ice in Game 1. So yeah, the Panthers don’t have too many worries going into the Stanley Cup Finals. But what about their opponents? How are they feeling?

Edmonton Oilers are not stressing too much

It was the 1989-90 NHL season when the Edmonton Oilers won their last Stanley Cup. It’s been 35 long years since then. You’d also think that the memory of how they squandered a 3-0 series lead in last year’s Finals would be keeping them up at night. But that has hardly been the case with the Florida Panthers’ opponents. 

Connor Brown waited inside a cabinet for 20 minutes with a pillow and his phone just so he could pop out of it to announce the starting lineup to his teammates ahead of Game 4 against the Dallas Stars, which the Oilers won 4-1. He himself wasn’t playing in the game because of the injury he had sustained after taking a hit from the Stars’ Alexander Petrovic. He had to sit out the series-clinching Game 5, too. But now? He’s fit again and has good reason to keep it cool and confident.

“I think last year when we punched our ticket, there were only a few guys that had been there before, and so when we went to the Stanley Cup Final, there was that big shock factor,” Brown said. “This year, we understood what it took, given our experience last year. We kind of just followed the blueprint, respected the process, and believed we were going to get the results we wanted. And we’re going to continue to do that. I think we’ll be ready to go right from the get-go this time around,” he added. Similar sentiments were echoed by Leon Draisaitl, who thinks the Oilers have done a good job of “not making it as stressful maybe as it has been in the past.”

Now, all eyes are firmly fixed on Rogers Place as the countdown to the first puck drop of the series has begun. The tension is palpable, and the excitement in the air feels electric. Fans are buzzing with anticipation. Players are getting ready both mentally and physically. The only thing left now is to see who will rise to the occasion and take the crucial first win.