For the second year in a row, the Stanley Cup Final will feature the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers, just the fifth time in post-expansion NHL history. The question is whether it will be a revenge series a la the 1984 Edmonton Oilers and the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, or a repeat winner like the 1969 and 1978 Montreal Canadiens. We asked Oilers fans what they thought would happen this time around.

Want to take part in Sunday Census polls? We send them out every week on our Twitter at @oilrigEDM. Follow along or send in ideas for the next poll!

Predict the Stanley Cup Final! What will the final result be in this year’s battle between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers? 👀

— The Oil Rig (@oilrigEDM) May 30, 2025

Oilers in six or seven

Given this is an Oilers blog with (presumably) a majority of Oilers fans as their followers, it isn’t really surprising that 91.6% of them chose the Oilers winning the series.

Further, given last year’s series, and just playoff series in general, it’s not surprising that two-thirds of those votes went to the Oilers winning in six or seven. After all, only five Finals have ended in five or less games in the salary cap era.

Although, both the Panthers and Oilers have won two of their three series these playoffs in five games, so clearly both of them have the ability to close out a series quickly. What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Probably a six- or seven-game series.

Oilers in four or five

Again, this is an Oilers blog, so I think you have to take the 30.8% of votes for Oilers in a four or five with a grain of salt.

Although…the Oilers did win four straight games against both the Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars, and were interrupted from doing the same against Vegas due to an own goal with 0.4 seconds left on the clock.

They also did have eight separate five games stretches over the regular season where they won four of those five, so again, not exactly uncommon for this team. Maybe not so farfetched after all?

Panther in six or seven

8.4% of people had the Panthers becoming the first repeat champions since…the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021. Okay sure, that is very recent, but before that you have to go all the way back to…Pittsburgh in 2017. Okay, sure, those were four years apart, and this year would be also be four years since Tampa’s back-to-back victory. But that doesn’t mean anything, right?

6.9% of these clearly pattern focused voters think it will take until the latter half of the series for them to do it though, which again makes sense as mentioned above. The takeaway here is that most people think this will be a long series, as one would expect when two of the best teams in the league are facing off.

Panthers in four or five

1.5% of our voters are either Panthers fans, anti-Oilers fans, or Oilers fans who have been beaten down so bad by the Decade of Darkness that pessimism doesn’t sound like a strong enough term for how badly they expect things to go for the team.

While Florida did win two of their series in just five games as well, they haven’t four games in a row in a series like the Oilers did. Does that actually mean anything? Probably not, but it’s something at least. Especially considering the Oilers needed to win four in a row last year to win the Cup and came up just short. Clearly they took that lesson to heart this year.

Florida only had seven five game stretches during the regular season where they won four games, one step behind the Oilers. Granted, two of those stretches included wins over the Oilers, so that probably evens it up.

Either way, very few people think this would be the result, and for Oilers’ fans’ sake (and possibly lots of NHL fans’?) let’s hope this isn’t the case.

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