2025 CUP CHECK: Game 6 – Whining & Winning – Oilers 1, Panthers 5

2025 CUP CHECK: Game 6 – Whining & Winning – Oilers 1, Panthers 5

The Florida Panthers are back to back Stanley Cup 
champions, as they repeat in the 2025 Stanley Cup final. The Florida Panthers win 5-1 in game six 
over the Edmonton Oilers. Goodness gracious! Like I, I don’t even know how much time we spend on the 
actual game. A lot of people are trying to make this about the Leafs, because the Leafs took the 
Panthers to seven. It’s not something to hang your hat on, but I do have to say this one eerily 
similar thing. In game seven it was actually 0-0 after one. When the Panthers scored their 
first goal on Toronto, it was said afterward that it felt like the Panthers went up 
4 nothing. To me – this game was nearly identical to that. Oilers come out of the gate, 
they’re good. They’re laying hits, they’re big, they’re mean. They got the puck which is good! 
They have the first bunch of shots on goal! The Panthers get one, ONE, and it’s over. But oh 
what a one. The Oilers actually clear their zone, Bouchard turns it over at the blue line. Ekholm 
comes in and says “Well I’m not Jake Walman, so this is going to go much better.” Sam Reinhart 
windmills him! When was the last time you saw two defensemen, two different defensemen, get windmill 
deked by two different players from the same team in back-to-back Stanley Cup final games?! Reinhart 
beat Skinner wide, over. 436 into the game and it felt like the rest of the game was, the rest of 
the night, 55 plus minutes. It’s a formality. But you know what? All right The Panthers are taking 
back more of this game and they’re feeling good but it’s Edmonton! It takes one moment! One! 
One! And you got McDavid and Draisaitl and all of them! I think McDavid and Draisaitl played at 
least one individual shift with every winger on the Oilers. I don’t know if Kris Knoblauch was 
just tricking everyone with his initial lineup card or if he just blind panicked immediately. 
If you could just get to intermission down one, maybe you’ll be okay. Catastrophic defense in 
the Oilers zone. Matthew Tkachuk gets the puck, miles from anybody. Rips it! It’s in! Two nothing 
heading into intermission and it felt like nothing but cruel and unusual torture to force the 
Oilers to play through the rest of this game. Listen, what comes out of this game? I mean 
obviously the Panthers winning the Cup. Sam Bennett winning the Conn Smythe, Sam Reinhart – 
how about the Sams on the Florida Panthers – Sam Reinhart getting four goals in this game. That’s 
what’s going to be talked about. What I’m going to remember about this is the unending, vicious, 
evil, boa constrictor that is the Florida Panthers defense. They strangled and suffocated the Oilers 
from puck drop on. Well maybe not from puck drop on. The first couple minutes or so of the game, 
here come the Oilers. These guys are sadistic. It’s like they give you a chance. But as the game 
wore on, the second period, the third, they just wrapped themselves tighter and tighter around you 
and they force you to play what is essentially mistake-free hockey. Well you’re down two nothing. 
You cannot play mistake hockey down two nothing. But when I say mistake free I’m talking about 
like you cheat for offense, kind of mistake free. not whatever the heck Stuart Skinner did. Because 
Carter Verhaeghe from not all that far inside the blue line throws on a trickler, an actual droplet 
of water onto Stuart Skinner. Skinner for reasons I may never fathom, maybe he didn’t see the 
thing. Kind of important if you’re a goalie. Stops it with his chest and lets it bounce in 
front of him. To the captain and Selke winner and highest paid player on the Florida Panthers, 
Sasha Barkov. He sends it to 57 goal scorer Sam Reinhart. It’s a tap in. It’s three nothing. It’s 
over. After two, the Panthers lead 3 nothing. The Oilers have already come back from a three nothing 
deficit in this series! It was the first time it had been done since 1919. I’d love to believe 
in magic. I really would here. And that’s what I talked about, the Oilers needing magic in order 
to somehow for seven and bring this thing back to Edmonton. A three goal deficit in the third period 
against Florida?! Not last year’s Florida either. This year’s Florida, who was somehow better!
You’re not doing it. You’re simply not doing it. They didn’t even really have many chances. A 
few clap bombs from distance. Bobrovsky stopped them all. Like, this is the problem. Like games 
one and two like really set us up for failure here. Really set us up for disappointment. And 
game four, dude. We had three overtimes in the first four games. We had four periods of overtime 
in the first four games. This series was tight. It was back and forth. It was exciting And it 
featured the unlikely and extraordinary. Only for the Panthers to mop the Oilers 10-3 in games 
five and six. It wasn’t in the realm of close! It wasn’t in the same galaxy as close! Reinhart 
empty netter with like seven minutes to go, because the Oilers got to try something. Doesn’t 
work. Reinhart gets another empty netter. He’s got four goals tonight! The only thing the Oilers 
can even sort of kind of hang their hat on is Podkolzin ended the shut out for Bobrovsky. But by 
the time the final horn goes, it’s 5-1 Panthers. There – the celebration began. Panthers on the 
bench like didn’t have their equipment on for the final minute of the game! Listen, last game 
I talked about the idea between winning and being the best, and how they’re not the same. The best 
team doesn’t always win. And you can win without being the best. Again, miracle on ice. American 
hockey fans should be very familiar with this. If we play them 10 times, they might win nine but not 
tonight. If a team beats you nine times out of 10, they’re the better team. But if it’s a one game 
winner or take all – you can pull that off! It is theoretically possible to be outshot 50 to 
one and win one- nothing. What’s the point of being the team who outshoots the other 50 to 1 if 
you lose? What do you hang your hat on ‘well we were the better team We just didn’t get it done’ 
for the rest of your life? No you’d rather be the winner. And I said all that because to me, after 
four games, definitely after five, the Oilers were clearly the second best team in the series. 
But here they were with an opportunity to force seven. You got to win two more games, somehow, 
someway against a team that’s better than you. Not even a wild amount better than you! You’ve 
already beaten them twice! You can pull that off. You can win a Stanley Cup as the second best 
team. And in this game the Florida Panthers said “No you extraordinarily can’t.” 
Listen, a lot is being said after this game about the legacy of Connor McDavid, and 
Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard a little bit, Stuart Skinner definitely. At the end of the day 
– while a lot of those criticisms are valid – the Florida Panthers were far and away the better 
team. Barkov on your top line with Reinhart, two guys nominated for the Selke and you throw 
Evan Rodriguez in there, that’s nice. You have Sam Bennett who leads the playoffs in goalscoring on 
your second line and he’s out there with Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe. Like that is more 
than good enough to be the top line on most teams. Third line of Lundell, Luostarinan and you add 
Brad Marchand to the mix at the deadline. That’s at least a second line on most teams! At least! 
And you got a fourth line that’s big and mean and fast and aggressive and on rotation basically. 
Here’s a stat for you, the Florida Panthers – as a team – have won a trophy in every single season 
of Anton Lundell’s four season NHL career. 2022 President’s Trophy. 2023 they won the Eastern 
Conference even though they didn’t win the Stanley Cup. The next year they win the Stanley Cup. 
This year they win the Stanley Cup. 23 years old, 46 points in what is already 77 career Stanley 
Cup playoff games. Utter two-way dominance from that player. Dude you add Seth Jones to what is 
already a fairly ridiculous dcore. You have Sergei Bobrovsky. Who is Sergei Bobrovsky. You don’t 
have to turn to Vitek Vanachek because nobody elbowed Bobrovsky in the head hard enough to make 
him barf. You have one of the most impressive rookies from this past season Mackie Samoskevich 
not even playing! They were the deepest team. They were the meanest team and they were the best team.
Listen I made no secrets about I, I didn’t want the Florida Panthers to win. I didn’t because I 
don’t like them. They’re the best. Like how could you even argue? Now here’s my thing about the 
Florida Panthers and their style though and fans of every single team should heed what I’m about 
to say. You’ll often hear this “Oh the NHL It’s a copycat league, It’s a copycat league.” Ye-Yeah 
you should build the best team in the NHL. If, if that’s what you’re copying, sure. But a lot 
of people I think take the wrong lessons from the Florida Panthers. I mean they’re they’re 
fast. They’re defensively un unbelievable. I was about to say responsible. They’re a lot more 
than responsible. But what everyone thinks about them is how mean they are, how physical they are, 
how brutal they are and how they injure guys. Dude the Conn Smythe Trophy went to yes the league’s 
leading goal scorer in the playoffs but also a guy who injures players fairly regularly And 
gets away with it! So if you’re trying to build the Florida Panthers I mean what what what are 
you building? Here is something that I think is always good advice – Listen to what the league 
tells you through its words and its actions. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is how 
it always goes but this year I mean I, I have no notes for the way it ended. There were 33 power 
play opportunities in the first three games of this series. That is spread between the Oilers and 
the Panthers. 33. 11 power play opportunities per game for the first three games of the Stanley Cup 
final. Tonight there were NONE. “Oh that’s hockey. That’s how it’s always been.” Just cuz that’s 
the way it’s always been, doesn’t mean it makes any sense whatsoever! You had 33 power play 
opportunities spread between both teams?! The Panthers got some! It doesn’t even mean the Oilers 
would have won or done anything. They might have lost by more if there were power plays in this 
game. If this game where Connor McDavid had to basically wear three men at a time, there – it’s 
not to say the Oilers would have done any better. But to have 33 power play opportunities, 11 
power play opportunities per game through the first three games of the Stanley Cup final, To 
have the clincher have zero, is humiliating and embarrassing for any league that has the delusion 
of calling itself professional sports. So what am I saying? That the Florida Panthers only won 
because the league just let them cheat? Oh you’re in the neighborhood, but you’re not quite 
there. We’ve known for years – regular season they’re calling everything. Early, regular season 
they’re calling everything. And it goes down over the months. Beginning of the playoffs comes and 
they kind of call a lot. But it’s not first round, second round, third round, fourth round. It’s 
not that. It’s the beginning of the first round and oh the end of the first round. And oh back 
up. Second round It goes down down down. Oh back up! No wonder the Panthers are an absolute boa 
constrictor the later you get in the series. But, the Florida Panthers simply built a team 
around the understood rules of the NHL and those rules are – the deeper you get into the 
playoffs, the deeper you get into any series, the fewer rules there are. So a player like 
Matthew Tkachuk can thrive. A player like Brad Marchand can thrive. A player like Sam Bennett 
can thrive. This season, Sam Bennett scored at 0.33 goals per game with 25 goals in 76 games. 
During the playoffs, Sam Bennett’s goal rate nearly doubled at 0.65 goals per game with 15 in 
23. In the same amount of regular season games, if you round up he would have had 50 goals. This 
is a guy with a career high of 28. This dude is going to go into free agency and he’s going 
to make a billion dollars. He does not have a 30 goal season to his name. He, He just 
hit a career high of 51! Points! Not goals, points! And I tell you what, teams are going to 
go out and they’re going to try to get bigger and stronger this off season and they’re going to go 
about it all wrong. Sam Bennett. Without looking, without looking, how big is the guy? How big is 
he? Height, weight tell me. Hockey DB has him listed at 61 193 pounds. Man’s not even two bills!
This is one of the most vicious, feared players in the league who doubles his goal rate in the 
playoffs?! What’s going on! Remember in 2023 when the Panthers went to the Stanley 
Cup final but lost against the Vegas Golden Knights we made a big deal about Jonathan 
Marchessault winning the Conn Smythe, he was the only player on the Vegas Golden Knights who 
wasn’t at least 6 feet tall. The man’s 5’9, which is much shorter than Sam Bennett, 185 lbs. 
Bennett has 8 lbs on Jonathan Marchessault. Eight. Meanwhile he’s captain elbow and captain punch 
you in the face and captain cross check and captain whoops a daisy fall on your goalie because 
he’s bigger? What what what is he tougher? No, he’s just willing to do the things that you 
aren’t. He’s not afraid of what you’re going to think about him after he does something awful to 
you. He’s not afraid of what the fans or the media or anybody is going to say about him. And he’s 
not afraid of breaking the rules even if they’re called. Neither is Matthew Tkachuk. Neither is 
Brad Marchand. Neither is – Aaron Ekblad was out there skating like an EASHL character who 
just clicked hit too early. The Panthers have some tall players. They’re not a particularly tall 
team. They got some heavy players. They’re not a particularly heavy team. But they are the meanest, 
most vicious group of bastards in the NHL. And if you sit around whimpering and moping and waiting 
for the league to adjust and to call penalties, especially deep in series, and to suspend 
guys – you’re going to be waiting forever! Sit in your stall. Sit in the locker room. Look 
around it. Look in front of you. Look to your left Look to your right. That’s who’s there to 
help! That’s it! No one else is coming through those doors. It’s not like the Panthers 
are the only team to benefit from these things! Roope Hintz cross-checked Nathan 
MacKinnon in the neck. Darnell Nurse broke Roope Hintz’ foot. Hence missed a game because 
he literally could not stop bleeding. That is a real thing. Then he played the next game where 
Evan Bouchard slashed the broken, bleeding foot! That was probably more broken and more bleeding 
after that slash. Should the league call things differently? Yeah, like absolutely yeah. Are they 
going to? Absolutely not! You are not going to win anything calling up the league and going in the 
media and whining and complaining. But you know what you can try. You can try! You can try to 
change the rulebook over months and years and decades. But you know what’ll probably take 
less time and be a lot more satisfying? Punch them back. The league has instructed the 31 non 
Florida Panthers teams – This is okay. Everything you saw over the past two months? Good to go! Go 
for it! And the number one offender of everything was awarded with the Conn Smythe trophy. This is 
not salt or sour grapes with the Florida Panthers. This is me congratulating them for apparently 
being the only team in the NHL that’s truly paying attention. Here’s some questions and 
also just tweets that I saw over the course of the night. This one just says true pain. It’s 
the Leafs up 3-1 over the Florida Panthers in game three within the second period. The Leafs 
would go on to lose four of the next five games, including that one. And then there’s this one that 
I really hate but everyone was asking it – “Were the Leafs the Panthers toughest opponent? 
I mean they had to take out our starting goaltender.” Yep. Yep. What – What happened 
by the way? What happened? Nothing. Nothing happened. So it’s okay. Do what Sam Bennett did. 
Like if you’re not cheating you’re not trying. And no one tries harder than the Panthers. 
And no one tries harder than Sam Bennett. And he was rewarded for it! Do what he did. It’s 
fine. A lot of you are not willing to do that, because like I don’t know you’ll feel bad about 
it or what? Okay well you don’t have to win then. Let the bad guys win every time right? “Oh 
they’re the big mean-” Well then quit whining about it. “They should change the rule.” They 
probably should. They’re not, punch them back. Anyway were the Leafs the uh Panthers toughest 
opponent? No, I think it was the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers won three series and came back 
to this one. Man, man, man, here’s the scary answer, You could argue the Leafs were the 
toughest opponent for the Florida Panthers, I don’t think any of the four opponents uh that 
the Panthers faced were close, They murked Tampa, murked them. Just wrecked the Hurricanes. Like it 
was depressing. Leafs through two games? They look great! They look great! They came out amazingly 
in game three! But then here’s the thing – They were the toughest opponent for the Panthers then. 
Through the first two and a half games of that series? Yeah, toughest opponent. The Panthers 
rocked them, destroyed them the rest of the way with the exception of one game. Destroyed them, 
demolished them. On home ice, on the road, didn’t matter. Rocked them, destroyed them, ripped them 
limb from limb. And then the Oilers again, tight, real tight through the first four games. And then 
the Panthers outscored them 10-3 in games five and six. That’s a chance to go up 3-2, and a chance 
to win the Cup. Two biggest games of that series, Panthers kill them. Nobody the Panthers played, 
whether it took five, six, or seven games was close to beating them. Not even close. So 
if the Leafs were their toughest opponent, yeah sure great. It means nothing. They were not 
close. This is Producer Drew tweeting “The worst part about the Panthers winning the Stanley Cup 
in six games is that Leaf fans will believe this makes them the second best team.” Followed by 
a tweet from Nick Alberga, “If there’s anything I’ve gathered over the past two weeks it’s that 
the Toronto Maple Leafs were the second best team in the National Hockey League this season.” 
Honestly even if that were true, which it isn’t. Even if it were true, I do not care. Do you get a 
parade for having your season end a month ago? No, it ended a month ago! This is an insane reminder 
“Literally none of this happens if the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t lose to one of the worst Chicago 
Blackhawks teams of all time in 2023. I’m sick.” So what you might forget, this is the sixth 
straight year that a Florida team has been in the Stanley Cup final. It’s the third straight year 
the Florida Panthers have been in the Stanley Cup final. The Florida Panthers in 2023 do not even 
qualify for the playoffs if Pittsburgh simply wins a regular season game at the end of the season 
against the Blackhawks, who stunk. Stunk. But the Penguins choke. The Panthers end up squeaking in. 
They go down 3 nothing to the all-time winningest Boston Bruins, storm back, win three straight, win 
the series and go on to win the Eastern Conference and go to the Stanley Cup final. The experience 
that the Panthers gained from that 2023 run had to be instrumental in winning the Cup in 2024 which 
had to be instrumental in winning the Cup in 2025. 2025 probably doesn’t happen without 2024, 
which probably doesn’t happen without 2023, which does not happen without the Penguins choking 
against the Blackhawks in a game that could have guaranteed them a playoff spot! This is why we 
watch the games. It’s unbelievable. Tkachuk says on TNT that he tore his adductor off the bone and 
had a hernia on the same side. It’s a muscle on the hip. Hockey players. Here’s a question. 
“Should the Leafs sign Corey Perry next year and then scratch him once they get to the Finals?” 
That’s actually kind of brilliant. Corey Perry has done something that will never happen again. He 
is one and five in Stanley Cup finals. He, so he’s been to six but since he won in 2007 he’s lost 
five straight. He’s lost five out of the last six Stanley Cup finals. He did it on four different 
teams! The Stars, the Habs, the Lightning, and now the Oilers. He wore three different 
jersey numbers over that time. That is absolutely, without a doubt, unequivocally, never going to 
happen again. People are talking about feeling bad for Perry, McDavid, the guy I feel worst for? 
Zach Hyman. Ah man what difference would he have made in this series? Oh I think he would have 
made a big one. He would have made a big one. The longer the series went the more obvious it 
became that the Oilers were completely outmatched depth wise against the Panthers. Does having 
Hyman even it out just enough that maybe maybe you squeak out another goal here, another goal there. 
You maybe stop a goal here. You maybe for seven, maybe you win game five. And maybe it’s the 
Panthers who need to force seven. We’ll never know. This is a great tweet. “I’m shocked Paul 
Maurice lifted the cup. I mean the players won it. They don’t see – They don’t want to see some guys 
in suits lift the Cup do they? Paul Maurice is- Yeah whatever. He’s a back-to-back Cup champ. He 
can say whatever he wants. Panthers were playing hurt man. Aleks Barokv had a hand cut open in 
game one. Sutures came apart twice before it was glued shut. Disgusting. Sam Reinhart had a grade 
two MCL sprain. And Matthew Tkachuk again the adductor tore off the bone. Here’s a nasty one. 
“Where was McDavid’s best?” This is in response to McDavid saying “I don’t think our best has 
shown up all series long but it’s coming.” Dude, uh there were two Panthers draped over this 
man at any given moment. And not all of it was clean. Not all of it was like “Ah I get a 
little skin on him.” It was blatant holding, blatant interference, blatant hooking and this is 
what he deals with every game. If the Oilers had any kind of depth whatsoever, that certainly 
would have helped the situation. I kind of hated Draisaitl and McDavid being on the same 
line because it only exacerbates a problem. A problem that has been around since the dawn of 
time! You do not have enough beyond those two. Losing Hyman makes that even worse! Once it 
became obvious it wasn’t working in game six, I would have split those two up. Connor McDavid 
has 150 playoff points in 96 career Stanley Cup playoff games. He only had seven goals in 22 
games this playoff run, for sure. He had 26 assists though. Last year he had 34, but keep in 
mind McDavid played three fewer games this year. Yeah I don’t know. Did McDavid play his best in 
the final couple games of the series? No I don’t think so. I also don’t think he was the problem. 
Draisaitl and McDavid had 33 points each. Bouchard had 23 He’s unreal. Nugent-Hopkins very impressive 
20 points. After that? Perry did have 10 goals, yes but 14 points. Evander Kane 12, Hyman 
11. Gosh they missed him. The Panthers had six players hit 20 points in these playoffs! 
Reinhart, Tkachuk, Verhaeghe all had 23. Bennett, Barkov had 22. Marchand, 20, He was an animal in 
the Stanley Cup final. Luostarinan had 19. Lundell 18 Rodriguez 15 Ekblad 13 And he missed the first 
couple games! 21 different Panthers had at least a point in these playoffs. The only exception Nico 
Sturm didn’t get one. That’s it. Forget points 19 different Panthers, 19, had a goal. Want to 
know something unreal though? I just checked. The Oilers? 20. All I know is in game five and 
six of this series if it wasn’t Connor or Leon out there I wasn’t afraid that the Oilers were 
going to score. “What do you think Corey Perry is thinking right now?” Just a barrage of swear 
words and about how he got the brakes beaten off him by Pavel Datsuk all those years ago. “Matthew 
Tkachuk on Connor McDavid When you have a player that good and that talented he’s going to win the 
Stanley Cup one day wherever it is.” Dude forget what they do on the ice. The Florida Panthers, 
this year’s Florida Panthers behind the mic, are the most sadistic knife twisting freaks 
I’ve ever seen in my life. Matthew Tkachuk knows exactly what he’s doing there. They’re like 
– Bro you won! You won! No – But just like 2024 it’s not enough. We head into the off season. 
We have a number of questions. Where does Sam Bennett end up? I think he’s staying in Florida. 
Where does Aaron Ekblad end up? I think that’s a little bit more complicated. Where does Brad 
Marchand end up and for how much? And, Connor McDavid is eligible for a contract extension 
July 1st. How long does that take? And if you’re an Oilers fan how long does it take you to get 
concerned? Not uh to make a bad day worse for you. My friends, that is it for Cup Check, and 
therefore that is it for my 18th season making videos after hockey games. Thank you 
very much for watching. Click like if you like this video and the season. Click subscribe 
if you really like this video and the season. Tell all your friends – Steve Dangle podcast is 
still going strong on the SDPN YouTube channel. And guess what? We’re gonna have a stream next 
Friday, June 27th, during the first round of the NHL draft. It’s just a quick break, get a couple 
Z’s, maybe even lie down. You know a little bit and then we’re right back to it. Congratulations 
to the back-to-back champ Florida Panthers. I don’t like you. I don’t like you at all. And 
that’s the biggest compliment I could pay you.

Steve Dangle recaps and analyzes Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers on their 2nd straight Stanley Cup victory!

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