Oilers still believe after mistakes put them in 3-0 Cup hole

Greg Wyshynski, ESPNJun 14, 2024, 01:13 AM ET

CloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Stuart Skinner hasn’t given up on the Oilers’ Stanley Cup dream.

“It is disappointing being down 3-0. We’ve got to let that reality sink in,” the goaltender said after the Florida Panthers’ 4-3 win in Game 3 of the Cup Final on Thursday night. “I’m not too sure what the stats are on coming back in it, but if anyone can do it, it’s the Oil.”

Here are the stats: Teams that go up 3-0 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final have won 27 of 28 series. The only exception was in 1942, when the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied to defeat the Detroit Red Wings.

Of those 28 series, 20 of them ended in sweeps. The Panthers are trying to get the broom out in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since the Red Wings eliminated the Washington Capitals in four games in 1998.

Even if the Oilers manage to send the series back to South Florida with a Game 4 win, 25 of those 28 series have ended in no more than five games.

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But the Oilers still believe.

“I think we’ve showed that we can beat this team,” said coach Kris Knoblauch, whose Oilers are now 0-5-0 against the Panthers this season.

“I think there’s a lot of belief in that. It’s not like we’re getting outplayed and we’re just [saying], ‘That team’s better than us.’ We can string together a lot of wins. We’ve shown it,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt in our room.”

Knoblauch pointed to two eight-game winning streaks in the regular season and a 16-game winning streak from the end of December into January.

“There’s frustration that we’re down, but there’s a difference between frustration and quitting. There’s absolutely no quit. There’s a belief that we can do this, so we just need to keep pushing,” he said.

Edmonton did push in the third period Thursday, getting greasy goals from Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod to cut the Panthers’ lead to 4-3. But the critical takeaway from Game 3 was that the…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/40347519/oilers-believe-mistakes-put-3-0-cup-hole

Author : Greg Wyshynski

Publish date : 2024-06-14 06:13:39

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