EDMONTON, Alberta — When Matthew Tkachuk appears round Edmonton earlier than a Stanley Cup Closing sport, he believes the Florida Panthers aren’t simply battling the Oilers.
“It is us towards the 20-plus guys you are taking part in towards, the 20,000 which are within the rink, the 20,000 which are outdoors the rink. It is simply us towards all people,” he mentioned on Thursday. “That is what makes taking part in on the street so enjoyable and rewarding when you may get a win.”
Tkachuk’s Panthers path the Oilers 1-0 of their sequence after Wednesday evening’s 4-3 additional time loss in Edmonton. It was solely their third loss on the street in 11 playoff video games, having began every of their earlier three playoff sequence away from South Florida.
“We have mentioned it a bunch. It is that ‘us towards the world’ mindset, however you particularly really feel it being down in a sequence,” mentioned Tkachuk. “Your again’s not essentially towards the wall, however you deal with it as a big-time, should win [game] in a hostile surroundings. I really feel like that is once we’re at our greatest. So, hopefully we are able to use that to our benefit.”
This Stanley Cup Closing rematch is already feeling completely different than final season’s, which noticed the Panthers construct a 3-0 sequence lead. Whereas defending champion Florida believes they’ve improved since final season, Tkachuk famous that this was a distinct Oilers staff than the one which the Panthers defeated in seven video games.
“I believe all people noticed final evening, together with us, they’re a really, very, superb staff. They’ve some harmful gamers. Even when their high guys are taking part in collectively, they produce other traces that may play. That hasn’t at all times been the case there,” he mentioned. “They defend arduous, block pictures, their goalie’s taking part in nicely. They’re higher. We’re higher. I believe it’ll be a fantastic sequence.”
One level of concern for Florida after Sport 1 was how they squandered a two-goal lead over the Oilers, who rallied to tie the sport within the third earlier than Leon Draisaitl’s additional time purpose ended it. The Panthers had been 31-0 underneath head coach Paul Maurice within the playoffs when main after the primary interval or the second interval in a sport.
“We went by some video and noticed the issues we are able to do higher by the impartial zone. Perhaps just a little bit extra offensive zone time,” mentioned defenseman Seth Jones. “However they performed sport. They had been stable defensively. They blocked a number of pictures. We knew that coming in that there is not a number of area on the market, not a number of performs to be made, actually. So once we do get these alternatives, we now have to attempt to maintain on to the puck and capitalize.”
Tkachuk mentioned the Panthers may very well be extra constant on the forecheck and earn extra zone time to maintain the Oilers from counterattacking.
“We did some actually good issues that we will simply should do for longer stretches of time tomorrow,” mentioned Tkachuk. “They undoubtedly completed higher than we did within the sport and possibly earned that win. They dictated extra of the sport than we did. It’s what it’s. Again to the drafting board. Simply attempt to play higher than them tomorrow.”
Sport 2 is scheduled for Friday evening in Edmonton. The winner of Sport 1 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Closing has received the sequence 76% of the time. The Sport 1 winner has received 10 of the final 13 Stanley Cup Closing sequence, together with the final 4 straight.
