June 18, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

After suffering heartbreak at the hands of the Florida Panthers last year, many people believed that the Edmonton Oilers would get their revenge this year. Alas, it wasn’t to be for the Oilers. The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season, becoming the first team to do so since the Tampa Bay Lightning did it in 2020 and 2021. They also became the first team to lift the Stanley Cup on home ice in consecutive seasons for the first time since the Oilers did that in 1987 and 1988.

Related: Callouts, Standouts, and Shoutouts: Panthers clinch consecutive Stanley Cups with convincing Game 6 win

Five-on-five play

This really was a battle between two elite five-on-five teams. The Panthers typically defend better, and the Oilers typically produce more scoring chances. Well, it clearly didn’t end up being very even. The Panthers dominated five-on-five play with their forecheck and neutral zone play. The Oilers had a hard time breaking out of their zone cleanly, and they couldn’t get through the neutral zone with speed. If they did, then the Panthers were able to shut it down in their own zone for the most part. The Panthers seemingly always had a defender in position to make a play on the puck or the puck carrier quickly. They anticipated where the puck was going based on where their teammates were applying pressure, and they read off each other well. They executed at an incredibly high level. The Oilers also had too many defensive breakdowns and too many poor decisions at the offensive blueline that led to goals against.

I said that special teams would be a big part of this series, and they were. The teams each got 23 powerplays in the series. The Oilers scored four powerplay goals, and the Panthers scored seven. The big difference between these special teams groups entering the series was the Panthers penalty kill vastly outperforming the Oilers penalty kill, and that played out in the series. It’s really hard to win a Stanley Cup when your penalty kill is less than 70% like the Oilers’ was in this series (69.57%). The Oilers powerplay converted at a 17.39% rate, which is pitifully low by their standards; but it put a dent in a Panthers penalty kill that was at 87.9% in the playoffs entering the series. That’s how good the Panthers penalty kill was.

Sergei Bobrovsky’s .919 save percentage in the Stanley Cup Final says all you need to know about the goaltending battle in this series. Stuart Skinner had short stretches of good play, but it wasn’t enough in the end. He was pulled from Game 4, and Calvin Pickard admirably came in and stole that game for the Oilers; but then he faltered in Game 5. Skinner got the net for Game 6 and was unable to deliver.

Callouts

I can’t pin this series loss on any one player. This would be a pretty long section if I was to start naming individuals. The team as a whole didn’t play well enough to win the series. Slow starts cost the Oilers dearly though. The Panthers scored first in five of the six games, and they outscored the Oilers 9-0 in the first period of the last four games. They had one amazing comeback, but you can’t expect to come back from multi-goal deficits against the Panthers every night.

Standouts

Leon Draisaitl led the Oilers with eight points in the series. He came through with two massive overtime goals to give the Oilers their only two wins of the series. Draisaitl was their most determined player in Game 6 as well.

Corey Perry was second to Draisaitl with three goals in the Stanley Cup Final. He led the Oilers in expected goals for percentage in all situations. That’s saying something considering some of the stars on this team and the fact that Perry turned 40 during this playoff run.

Shoutouts

Vasily Podkolzin scored two goals in the series, which was good for third on the team. He got rewarded for putting his head down and playing his typical hard brand of hockey even when things weren’t going well for the team.

Wrap

I have to call a spade a spade. The Panthers were far and away the best team in this series. The Oilers need to tip their caps. The media was proclaiming this to be the greatest final in the history of the sport after the first two games were decided in overtime, but the Panthers pulled away after getting the double overtime goal in Game 2. The reality is that both Oilers wins came in overtime. They did not win a single game in regulation. Three of the four Panthers wins were by three or more goals. This series didn’t end up being close.

The Oilers certainly missed Zach Hyman, and it was clear that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor Brown weren’t at 100%. I would be shocked if Mattias Ekholm was truly fully healthy as well. My gut tells me that he was good enough to play since it was the Stanley Cup Final, but he wasn’t fully healed. Honestly, I don’t think it would have mattered if the Oilers were fully healthy in this series because the Panthers were simply superior.

The depth scoring that the Oilers enjoyed in the first three rounds basically disappeared in the Stanley Cup Final, but the Oilers still sawed off the five-on-five goal share with the Panthers when Draisaitl and Connor McDavid weren’t on the ice. Any success the Oilers have comes when those two dictate the terms. The two superstars produced two points between them in Game 5 and Game 6. That’s not enough when the lights are shining the brightest and the games matter the most.

A major key to the series was the games at Rogers Place. The Oilers were 6-1 at home entering the series, and the Panthers were 8-2 on the road. Having home ice advantage was supposed to be a big advantage for the Oilers, but that’s not how it turned out. The Panthers won Game 2 in double overtime, and they won Game 5 handily to go 2-1 at Rogers Place. That Game 5 effort was really disappointing considering the Oilers had home ice advantage in a best of three situation.

Congratulations to the Panthers. They are deserving champions. The Oilers will have to continue to wait for another opportunity to lift the Stanley Cup.

Related: Oilers vs Panthers II: Stanley Cup Final preview