Paul Maurice, Panthers Postgame: Florida Makes Charge, Lose to Edmonton Oilers in Cup Final rematch

Paul Maurice, Panthers Postgame: Florida Makes Charge, Lose to Edmonton Oilers in Cup Final rematch

just came down ill before the game. We we expect him to travel with us tomorrow which should be good for Nashville. What was the the difference in the second half of this game despite the outcome? I don’t I don’t think there was a whole lot of difference straight through the game other than they had a lead so they would they would protect a little bit and so we had the chance to push a little bit harder but um shots are 128 for them in the first but we missed the net 13 times so we’re in the right end um generating enough. I don’t particularly. We generated enough to win. We just gave up too much to expect to. How big was Terasovs keeping you? It was good. Well, you know, we made four or five really big saves. We’re we’re pushing at that point, so we’re not in our defensive structure as much as like. So, we give up more than we want to in that part of the game. Um, and he had to make those saves to give us a chance to be able to come back. How’d you like your second period down 3-1 before the 4-1? Yeah. Reacted. Yeah. No, I I I liked it. Like I the way we started hitting the net a little bit and started getting to the net a little bit harder. I don’t think that that’s a period that you’re going to expect if you just play your game, it should look like that. I I you know, they’re they’re sitting on 4-1 with a lot of hockey left and and then you can play with a little bit more freedom and you can you can do some things. It’s 4-1, so you might as well. Um and then you need your goalie to make a bunch of saves like Danny did. So, it’s it’s not a template for winning hockey games to play that way. Um, we should be able to play as aggressively, but we can’t give up, you know, even the four or five I don’t think we gave up a tremendous amount. We gave up four or five chances in the back half of that game. Probably generated 12 to 15. I think we’d be pretty excited about that most nights, but you uh you can’t give up four or five. And stepping in for Blanda seemed to be Yeah, I thought it was right on. I mean, you get you get moved up the food chain there in in the National Hockey League. be playing against a completely different kind of player and and I thought he he was trying to win the game so he wasn’t passive and he wasn’t tentative by all. He was aggressive, physical. I liked his game. Paul, when people could look at this game and say it obviously meant more to it meant a little bit more than one of 82 would for Edmonton for obvious reasons. Are you guys Don’t you get that from everybody? I mean, isn’t it when you guys come to town or somebody comes in here, don’t you feel like you’re getting that? Yeah. Somebody’s trying to knock you off. we are in general you’re going to get a heightened awareness coming in cuz we’ve had a pretty good especially when you go on the road like you they know that um you’ve had a pretty good run so what to expect from our team you get the other team’s best I’m not sure that that was theirs and they’re reeling a little bit they played a whole lot of road hockey it certainly was not a defensive struggle out there was a struggle at times but not defensively uh your thoughts on the Londell line just with like Mackie particularly that line was really flying on tonight. Yeah, we moved them off the matchup. There’s a big difference between playing against the other teams best and not when we moved him off. Mackie was skating very, very well. They were dangerous. They had chances and just the thought process behind making the goalie switch when you did. Yeah, he had had enough. You know, I think like our team, Bob’s so very consistent and so very strong. Uh there’s no point in leaving him like we’re down 4-1. We’re going to open up our game. And uh so it’s a great time for Danny to go in. He came in off a really great performance the last time and he’s scheduled to play in Nashville so he gets some work. Got to tune him up before he plays. Thank you, coach. Checkers. So,

Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice meets the media after his team lost 6-3 to the visiting Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise on Nov. 22, 2025.

The Panthers beat the Oilers in the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup Final.

Edmonton led 4-1 early in the second with Daniil Tarasov coming in; he stopped all 12 shots he faced. Edmonton led 4-3 going into the third and scored its final two goals into an empty net.

Anton Lundell and Mackie Samoskevich each had a goal and an assist for Florida, which was playing without defenseman Aaron Ekblad.

Sam Reinhart extended his scoring streak to six games with a goal that made it 4-3 in the second.

Florida is off to Nashville and will play the Predators on Monday night.

Video Courtesy Florida Panthers / @FlaPanthers / Panthers Vision

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