Edmonton buzzing as Oilers prepare for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final

Stephen Whyno · The Associated Press

· Posted: Jun 04, 2025 8:58 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

The 2nd incarnation of the Florida Panthers against the Edmonton Oilers successful the Stanley Cup last opens successful the other country of North America from a twelvemonth ago.

Game 1 is Wednesday nighttime successful Edmonton, wherever fans successful the hockey-crazed superior of Alberta get to spot their squad commencement a bid astatine location for the archetypal clip during this playoff run.

"To beryllium capable to commencement the Stanley Cup last connected location ice, you tin conscionable consciousness a buzz successful the metropolis and these radical merit it," NHL MVP finalist Leon Draisaitl said.

"They've waited a agelong clip for this and, evidently to us, it's each astir finishing it."

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Starting astatine location past year, the Panthers went up 2 games to nary and won the archetypal crippled successful Edmonton to instrumentality a 3-0 bid lead. They mislaid the adjacent 3 earlier winning Game 7 to seizure the archetypal rubric successful franchise history.

'Hoping for the bully one'

Florida is successful the last for a 3rd consecutive play and is 4 wins distant from becoming the NHL's archetypal back-to-back champions since cross-state rival Tampa Bay successful 2020 and 2021.

"It's wherefore we're here: We're playing hockey successful June for the 3rd consecutive twelvemonth and a accidental to beryllium a portion of history," standout winger Matthew Tkachuk said.

"We've had 2 kicks astatine it truthful far, and they've been precise antithetic summers, truthful we're hoping for the bully one."

The Panthers person won 10 of 11 playoff bid since Tkachuk joined successful a commercialized from Calgary successful 2022 and manager Paul Maurice took implicit that aforesaid offseason.

As 1 of those 10 opponents who ended up connected the incorrect broadside of the handshake enactment against the burgeoning hockey powerhouse successful South Florida, the Oilers don't privation past to repetition itself.

But seasoned defenceman Mattias Ekholm, backmost from an extended wounded absence, doesn't privation to load up excessively overmuch unit connected Game 1.

"You inquire each azygous feline successful our locker room, we privation to travel retired flying, we privation to play large and we privation to triumph Game 1," Ekholm said.

"You spell to their locker room, they're astir apt saying the aforesaid thing. One team's going to triumph it and 1 team's not."