How is Florida Panthers hockey country taking Edmonton’s 4-3 OT win over their favourite team? What are they blaming the loss on?
The mainstream media, social media and podcasts were full of theories. Here are some of the highlights, with some neutral commentary included as well:
Bill Horosz of the On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
Too many players were MIA last night. Barkov, Tkachuk are two that come to mind. There were a lot of others. Barkov with several mistakes. Very uncharacteristic.
Florida fan *WADDLEVILLE* @WADDLEVILL61682
They cheated y’all. It’s all good though. Only win they’ll have.
Florida fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
Nico Sturm in for Nosek next game. My goodness what a costly mistake. I miss Kevin Stenlund.
Cats ‘N Rats podcast host Kirby Lupul
The Panther fans — and rightfully so — were pounding our chest coming into this series: ‘We have the depth.’ Well, our depth guy kills us in overtime with the delay game penalty. Their depth guy Arvidsson gets his second goal of these playoffs. And Ekholm, who re-enters into the lineup, they get a defenseman goal. They kind of killed us at our own game plan tonight, our blueprint tonight.
Florida fan kyle @Kylepuck16
We didn’t lose the game because of the penalty in overtime so stop blaming Nosek.
Florida fan Adam @AGBRSports
I’ve got nothing good or positive to say.
Florida fan Erik 😺🏆🐀 @erik_on_hockey
The good news is, this is among the worst Florida has looked this postseason, so I expect a big response from them. It ain’t over yet
Cody Stevens of the Cats ‘N’ Rats podcast
This was probably the first time in this post-season that I felt the Panthers looked fatigued, namely Gustav Forsling… He’s not really playing that well.
Florida podcaster T.J. Peterson, the Panther Pourri podcast
I thought that it was a very even game until Edmonton just seemed to have gas at the end of the game that the Panthers didn’t have. The only real explanation I have for that is the fact that the Panthers just flew across the country and the Oilers didn’t have to. The flight from Dallas is just not as far and they (the Oilers) get to sleep in their own beds for all the subsequent days. And they also did it like five days ago, whereas the Panthers flew to Edmonton like two days ago… A team that is as top heavy as Edmonton should not be the one that looks like they have the gas, as opposed to the Panthers having nothing left in their tanks, when the Panthers are supposed to be the deeper team.
Florida Panthers Insider George Richards @GeorgeRichards
The Florida Panthers had never lost a playoff game under Paul Maurice when leading after the first or second. Until tonight. Leon Draisaitl scores the first and final goal as the Oilers take Game 1 of the Cup Final in OT.
Florida player Brad Marchand
Have to move on. It’s one game, can’t get stuck in the past. We’ll regroup, refocus and move on to the next one.
Host Armando Velez of the Locked On Panthers podcast
Man, the amount of zone time that we saw that second line have, but just couldn’t hit the net. There were so many opportunities where Tkachuk would win a board battle, feed Carter Verhaeghe, shoots wide of the net. And there were times where there was even no screen… I felt like there was a lot of panic.
Florida sports radio WQAM Josh Appel, quest on Locked On Panthers podcast
This team does not lose games when they have the lead. They don’t lose games when they have multi-goal leads. And so this is just a really, really tough one to swallow for a variety of different reasons.
Panthers fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
The overtime mistakes and dead legs were bad. But it never has to get there if the Panthers play with an ounce of urgency in the third. To come out at only get two shots on goal the entire third period was completely unacceptable
Bill Horosz of the On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
Panthers were taken off guard by the Oilers being physical last night. That won’t happen again. With that they also need to establish a consistent forecheck. It was almost nowhere to be found in Game 1.
Cats ‘N Rats podcast host Kirby Lupul
I’m going to take a little solace in the fact that we played our game. We didn’t get run all the building.
Cody Stevens of the Cats ‘N’ Rats podcast
We’re kind of downplaying the revenge factor (for the Oilers) and in over time that is when you’re quicker to pucks — I think that’s when it comes into play.
Florida fan Dylan @miamiguydylan
The Oilers beat Bob on the glove side for all 4 goals tonight. Just something worth noting.
Related: Florida star goalie Bobrovsky has just one weakness, expert says
Florida fan mathias @MathiasMejia_
panthers had an off night and still were able to take a fiery edmonton team to OT. they’ll be ok
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky
There were lots of good things. We put it behind us and get ready for the next game. The next game is a big game.
ESPN’s ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ @Arda
Leon Draisaitl in the Stanley Cup Final:
2024: 0 goals in 7 games on 16 shots on goal
2025: 2 goals in 1 game on 4 shots on goal
Florida fan @VinMasiDylan @miamiguydylan
Panthers played a fantastic second period and then something just changed. Played terrible the rest of the game.
Florida fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
(Fourth line players) Nosek, Greer, Gadjo needs to be a package. If they’re not all in the game, none can be in the game. That line was god awful tonight
Florida fan Dylan @miamiguydylan
Stupid penalty by Nosek leads to that. Going to cry
The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun
What we saw Wednesday night was two heavyweights trading punches and counter-punches, the margins razor-thin between two teams so used to dominating their opposition for longer stretches in these playoffs… An opening win meant a lot to an Oilers team that dug an 0-3 series hole a year ago. But believe me when I say this is going the distance between two unbelievably evenly-matched teams. Game 1 told us that.
Panthers fan Adam @AGBRSports
Like there was no need for that Nosek penalty. Time running out in the period He had time and space. Just play it up the ice, clear the zone. Don’t throw it into the stratosphere.
Vancouver hockey commentator Thomas Drance @ThomasDrance
Brilliance from Draisaitl and McDavid. Wow. Probably a pretty good sign for the Oilers in the big picture of this series that they were able to comeback and win in a game that was largely dictated by the Florida forecheck.
Bill Horosz, host On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
Players seemed very calm and matter of fact during postgame interviews. A little too calm for my taste. Paul Maurice was heaping praise on Nosek for what he did in Game 3 vs. Toronto and said we wouldn’t be here (Finals) if it wasn’t for him.
Panthers fan TONY-O @MojoFilter64
Seth Jones with the overplay on the side boards near the blue line on RNH caused this play (the winning OT goal) to happen ….. should have forced him inside toward Marchand but he didn’t.
Panthers fan Koby Doran @Lyteskin_Prince
Reinhart, Barkov, Ekblad all being ghost in the most important games lol. Might as well play Bennett line and Marchand line 60 minutes.
Panthers fan Robbie @GVGC1970
Panthers were the better the team. Never easy on the pp when they’ve got McDavid and Drisital. Panthers in six. 👊
Florida podcaster T.J. Peterson, the Panther Pourri podcast
The Arvidsson goal. That’s the individual mistake that I feel like was the most costly in the entire game. I know that Bobrovsky was slightly screened, but there was at least one and probably several other times where Stuart Skinner had a partial screen on him and he still managed to make a save. Stuart Skinner outplayed Bob tonight. That can’t happen. Bob makes $10 million…(But) that’s not repeatable. What happened with Bob giving up the weird goals? We haven’t really been seeing him do that. So there’s no real reason to think it’s going to happen again.
Panthers fan Dr. Debunker@doctordebunker
Tkachuk @TKACHUKycheese_ lost this game for us. Watch this guy on the ice. Slow as molasses. He’s clearly hurt. Not the same player. Give someone else a shot and sit this one out big guy…Get Tkachuk off the ice . Guy is clearly playing hurt and it shows. Not skating. Put someone else in who gives us a chance
Florida fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
Boy there’s nothing I love more than a Matthew Tkachuk Great Clips commercial after he just spent the evening doing absolutely nothing of value in Game 1 of the Final
Panthers fan ZeroTrust Capo @The_CyberDon
You can’t make a terrible mistake like that. Nobody was even pressing you Nosek!!!
Panthers fan M33 @Moore33Gaming
What a stupid way to lose a game.
Bill Horosz of the On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
Don’t sit on a lead. When you get a couple of goals past Skinner, dial up the pressure even more. Panthers failed to do that. With that Panthers need to have a net front presence to screen Skinner and deflect shots/handle rebounds.
Host Armando Velez of the Locked On Panthers podcast
It wasn’t really a lot of time where the Panthers really had the ice tilted in their direction… The amount of misconnections that the Panthers were having with breakouts out of their own end in overtime, I counted at least five times where they iced the puck. And I’m just scratching my head right here. I’m just thinking, ‘Oh man, this could spell some bad news for the Panthers.’
Panthers fan zubic @zubic_eth
What an absolute fumble after being up 2 goals 😭
Panthers fan John Ricard @johnricard
Could the media gush any more for Edmonton and McDavid? It was gross.
Florida fan Big Hits 🇺🇸🎸🏒⛳ @young5skiers
Head up… It took a penalty call late in overtime to give the Oilers a chance to win the game. If I’m Florida, I’m feeling pretty confident 😎
4 dubs till B2B Florida Panthers championships! @SazonBailando
Woke up feeling like I got stabbed last night. That OT Oilers goal killed me.
ESPN’s John Buccigross BucciOT.Com @Buccigross
14 of the previous 18 Game 1 OT winners have gone on to win the Stanley Cup Final.
Florida fan FL PanthersMuse @flpanthersmuse
Bobby last night:
— .913 SV%
— 42 saves
— 4 GA
— 11 high-danger saves
Kept us in it🙏🏻
Florida fan Adam – 🙀🏆 @FlaPnthrsPunk
Bob deserved better. Must win in Game 2. 😾
Florida Panthers player Sam Bennett
It was a one-goal game, a tight game. It could’ve went either way. They had a good push in the third.
New York hockey columnist Stan Fischler @StanFischler
Game One more than lived up to its billing and then some. The two best teams battle into overtime. A 7 game series would be hockey fan’s delight!
Florida podcaster T.J. Peterson, the Panther Pourri podcast
The only thing that is truly ingrained with me is how much (Florida) fell apart and how much they looked like they were skating in quicksand at the end of the game. A sign of the fatigue of playing 400 games. But it doesn’t really feel like that’s the right answer when the Oilers have played what, six or seven fewer games because of the fact that they were in the Cup Final last year and how quickly the Panthers got to the Cup Final the year before. And the fact that (Edmonton) are the most top heavy team at this stage… Shouldn’t a team like that be experiencing significant fatigue when, you know, they’re playing forwards 30 minutes a game? Is it the jet lag? You got to find an explanation.
My take
1. The Grade A shots count tell the story of Edmonton winning this game.
Edmonton was the better team in the first, seven Grade A shots to four for the Panthers.
Florida was the better team in the second, five Grade A shots for them to two for the Oilers.
And Edmonton dominated after that, 10 Grade A shots to three for the Panthers.
In the end, this game wasn’t that close, Edmonton with 19 Grade A shots, Florida with 12. Edmonton deserved this win, full stop.
2. Edmonton came out hitting, showing Florida they will not be pushed around and will be doing plenty of the pushing. The presence of a healthy Evander Kane, who made key physical plays around the net on two Oilers goals, was critical for the Oilers.
Kane took up where Zach Hyman left off, throwing nine hits, a few of them punishing ones, including a nasty shot on top Florida d-man Aaron Ekblad early in the game.
What Kane brings to the Final — what he couldn’t bring last year due to injury — is invaluable. Every Oilers is two inches taller and twenty pounds heavier when they’re on the ice with him, but he’s also got plenty of back-up as well with Vasily Podkolzin, Darnell Nurse, Corey Perry, Trent Frederic and a line-up full of committed, determined veterans.
Florida isn’t used to a team that can bully back, I’ll suggest.
3. Florida showed in the second that their forechecking can take over a game. The persistent onslaught and aggressive pinching by the Florida d-men at the offensive blueline was unlike anything the Oilers had faced in the 2025 playoffs. But it failed to result in enough greasy goals for Florida. To win, the Panthers needed one more shot to bounce in off someone or something.
4. After the game Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch insisted that he’d make the same coach’s challenge again that he did on Florida’s first goal. I hope not.
Perhaps Knoblauch had yet to see the complete replay, but it was clear that Bennett was tripped up by Brett Kulak’s skate and fell into Stuart Skinner due to that.
Was Bennett looking for that contact, looking for an excuse to flop into Skinner? Maybe. Likely.
But the skate-on-skate happened, it tripped up Bennett and it was an iffy challenge at best. The Oilers should own that. They screwed up.
5. As for any suggestion that the Oilers cheated, I don’t get it. Fans of both teams were mad about the referees. I saw a Mikkola slew foot on McDavid that I didn’t like. But Florida fans were up in arms about an alleged Oilers too-many-men-on-the-ice situation that they felt the refs missed.
Such is playoff hockey.
Nosek’s penalty was a clear and obvious call to make, and one that the refs couldn’t pretend they didn’t see.
6. The winning goal was a thing of beauty, a testament to the calm, the cool, the experience and the brilliant skill of the Oilers power players.
It started with the trademark Ryan Nugent-Hopkins backhand back pass off-the-boards to Evan Bouchard at the blueline (how many times have we seen that play?), then saw RNH and Perry both make no-look passes, the Virtuous Cycle climaxing in Connor McDavid setting up Leon Draisaitl for his Executioner’s Shot.
The deadliest duo and the most lethal shot in hockey struck again.
Draisaitl scores on 34 per cent of his Executioner’s Shots that hit the net, something we’ve been tracking at the Cult since 2019-20.
drai
At the Cult of Hockey
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