April 21, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final on June 24, 2024 had the potential to be the biggest game in NHL history. The Florida Panthers went up 3-0 on the Edmonton Oilers in the series, but the Oilers stormed back to send the series to a seventh and deciding game. No NHL team had won the Stanley Cup after trailing 0-3 in the series since the Toronto Maple Leafs did it in 1942. Canada had not seen a Stanley Cup winning team in 31 years. It was also the first chance for Connor McDavid to win his first Stanley Cup. That’s not how the evening unfolded though. The Panthers won their first Stanley Cup that night.

Despite losing the series, McDavid was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced McDavid as the winner, much to the dismay of the pro-Panthers crowd. McDavid didn’t come back out to the ice to accept the award. In what was a peculiar scene, the Conn Smythe Trophy sat on a decorative table on the ice for what felt like an eternity. The trophy was there, but that part of the ceremony seemed empty.

What we didn’t see until the fall was what was happening in the Oilers locker room while the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Stanley Cup were being presented. Amazon’s Faceoff: Inside the NHL series took fans inside the locker room for that moment. McDavid was told that he won the Conn Smythe Trophy, but he chose to stay in the room with his temmates. The room was filled with a harsh silence as the players processed having lost that game. McDavid openly wept while sitting in his stall next to his best friend Leon Draisaitl, who did hid best to comfort his captain.

“Empty” is a great descriptor of the feeling in that locker room. The Oilers battled back from a tough start to their 2023-24 season and earned their playoff spot. They beat the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the third straight year, they took down the Vancouver Canucks in a stressful seven-game series, and they beat the Dallas Stars in a hard-fought six-game series. They experienced the emotional high of having gotten to the final series and the extra pressure and stress that comes with that. They fell flat on their faces by falling behind 0-3 in the series. Then they charged back and forced a Game 7. They had the city of Edmonton and all of Oil Country behind them, galvanized by their mutual desire for their Oilers to bring home the greatest prize in sports. After all the stress, the anticipation, the excitement, and the drama, they ended up leaving empty handed. The Oilers left it all out there, and McDavid’s emotions after that showed us how much it meant to him and how much it hurt. I believe he and the Oilers truly left that locker room empty.

The team added two shiny free agents in Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner a week after that loss. They also made a general manager change last summer, which didn’t officially happen until after the free agency hoopla had come and gone. New Oilers GM Stan Bowman’s first priority was to sign Draisaitl to an extension. Then he was faced with an unprecedented double offer sheet to the team’s two emerging young players, and both players sailed on to the St. Louis Blues.

The Oilers had another slow start to the season, but they eventually got things going in the right direction. They were one of the best teams in the league through the middle of the season, but injuries started to rear their ugly head. McDavid, Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, John Klingberg, and Troy Stecher all missed time due to varying ailments down the stretch. Trade deadline acquisition Trent Frederic only played 7:10 in one game for the Oilers after being acquired due to a high ankle sprain. Jake Walman, the Oilers’ biggest deadline addition, was also hurt near the end of the season. All of this on top of the fact that Evander Kane didn’t play a single second of hockey during the regular season. After all the dust settled on the regular season, the Oilers ended up finishing third in the Pacific Division and earning themselves yet another first round matchup with the Kings.

Related: Oilers vs Kings IV: Series Preview

The Panthers’ mantra during last year’s playoffs was “Redemption”. They lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers find themselves in the same place as the Panthers were last year, with a painful Stanley Cup Final loss etched in their memories and thoughts of redemption on their mind as they get set to embark on another playoff journey.

It would be poetic if the Oilers were to finish the job this year like the Panthers did last year, but they also understand just how hard it is to get there. The Western Conference is full of fantastic teams, and whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference will be a worthy adversary in the final.

The Oilers will be facing some adversity out of the gate because of injuries. Mattias Ekholm will miss the entire first round and possibly more. As noted earlier, many important players were hurt down the stretch. McDavid told reporters that the team is healthy, but I have a hard time believing that these injuries are all suddenly gone now that the playoffs are here. It’s common for players to play at less than 100% this time of year, and I have a suspicion that many of the Oilers’ best players will be doing exactly that from the word “go” this spring. They would never use it as an excuse, but they’re humans. Injuries have an impact on performance, it’s that simple. That doesn’t mean that they can’t win, but it makes the task that much more difficult.

Accomplishments are that much sweeter if there’s adversity to overcome along the way. The Oilers have had their fair share of adversity in the McDavid era, and they will have to face more of it before they ultimately accomplish their goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

We know that McDavid, Draisaitl, and the Oilers want to win more than they want anything else in the world. They don’t ever want to feel the heavy emptiness they felt after Game 7 again. Now they’re full of motivation fuelled by the anger and disappoinment of last June. They’ve waited ten long months to start working their way back to that grand June stage. The Oilers’ road to redemption starts tonight in Los Angeles.