Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Stanley Cup Final, Game 6 vs. Edmonton Oilers
Are the Panthers going home champions tonight?
The Panthers can officially keep the Cup tonight if they beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6. It’s not just any other game, or any other playoff game, no matter how loose the Panthers seem to be.
When a reporter asked Paul Maurice what it’s like to wake up on a day when you can win the Stanley Cup, Maurice responded: “I think you asked me that four times last year.” That looseness has translated to the rest of his team.
“We haven’t treated any days differently and this morning was the same. We were all pretty loose this morning, joking around, cracking jokes and staying loose. You know what’s at stake tonight but you kind of just push that away and focus on what you can control and that’s just taking your day, going through your routine, doing the same thing you’ve done and that’s just how we’re handling it,” said Sam Bennett.
Having been through the experiences of last year should help the Panthers deal with the emotions and stakes of the night, but there’s no telling how they’ll deal with it until the puck drops against that same desperate team with nothing to lose as they faced a year ago.
And the Oilers are certainly going to look better than they did in Game 5, when the Panthers locked them down and squeezed the life out of their game. Stuart Skinner will be back in net, while John Klingberg and Kasperi Kapanen will return to their lineup.
Will experience or desperation rule the day in Game 6, which in spite of everything the Panthers have said, is not just any other game, or any other playoff game?
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Tonight’s game will start at 8:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted nationally on TNT and TruTV and can be streamed on Max.
Catch the Florida Panthers pre-game show on Scripps Sports with Jessica Blaylock, Ed Jovanovski, Randy Moller and Katie Engleson 30 minutes before puck drop.
For more information on how to find Scripps Sports, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov —Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
A.J Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt — Dimitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Uvis Balinskis, Jesper Boqvist, Nico Sturm
EDMONTON OILERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Connor McDavid — Corey Perry
Evander Kane — Leon Draisaitl — Kasperi Kapanen
Jeff Skinner — Adam Henrique — Trent Frederic
Vasily Podkolzin — Mattias Janmark — Connor Brown
Mattias Ekholm — Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse — Brett Kulak
Jake Walman — John Klingberg
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Viktor Arvidsson, Troy Stetcher
Injured: Zach Hyman (Out, UBI), Alec Regula (IR)
Oilers Lines Courtesy of DailyFaceOff.com
*Opposing team lines subject to change.