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Panthers get clobbered 8-1 by Oilers, series heads back to Sunrise for Game 5

Jun 15, 2024; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) celebrates goal with teammates in the second period against the Florida Panthers in game four of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

The Florida Panthers came completely undone and got destroyed 8-1 by the Edmonton Oilers in an utterly uncharacteristc, awful performance at Rogers Place in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Florida’s woeful night could pretty much be summed up by the comedy of errors on the first goal they allowed the Oilers in each of the first two periods of the rout.

A kneeing penalty on Darnell Nurse, which probably should’ve been a major, gave the Panthers an early power play. After Matthew Tkachuk caught the post and Sam Reinhart did the same on the rebound, a terrible step-up by Carter Verhaeghe allowed Connor Brown to depart the Edmonton zone 2-on-1 with Mattias Janmark. Brandon Montour belly-flopped to try to take away Brown’s passing lane and crashed into Sergei Bobrovksy, taking him completely out of position, and Brown was able to slip the puck in front, where Janmark was able to chip it home off a diving Aleksander Barkov, much to the delight of the crowd at the 3:11 mark.

Adam Henrique deflected Janmark’s centering pass past Bobrovsky 4:37 later to give the Oilers their first two-goal lead of the series. Janmark sped into the zone after slipping the check of Niko Mikkola at the blue line.

The Panthers got back into the game after that, tilting the ice for a bit and getting on the board when Vladimir Tarasenko tipped Gustav Forsling shot off the ice and in at 11:26. That’s goals in back-to-back games for Tarasenko.

Right after that, Verhaeghe had a glorious chance for atonement, but he didn’t properly place his shot off a 2-on-1 with Sam Bennett, and the puck went back in the path of Stuart Skinner instead of towards the near post, enabling the goalie to make a key highlight reel save on what should’ve been a goal.

With the Panthers slower fourth line out, Aaron Ekblad inexplicably decided to give Leon Draisaitl a couple feet of space behind him, and got burned when Brett’s Kulak perfect pass found the dangerous German. Draisaitl moved into the Florida end and centered to Dylan Holloway, who lit the lamp with a fantastic drag-backhand finish that Bobrovsky couldn’t quite seal off 3:22 after Tarasenko’s goal.

Despite, being down two, the Panthers did have some quality chances in the first, outshooting the Oilers 14-10, and one would’ve figured they’d get back to something resembling their brand of hockey in the middle frame and mount a comeback.

Nope. Instead Matthew Tkachuk decided to relight Edmonton’s fuse by bumping a pass to no one in the middle of the ice after Ekblad stepped up to level Warren Foegele. Evan Bouchard took Tkachuk’s gift and found Zach Hyman at the Florida blue line and he hit Connor McDavid in stride, and then the best player on the planet notched his first of the series by taking a few strides before firing the puck of the near post and in.

The game was essentially over at the point and the Panthers would have to waive the white flag 3:36 later after Nurse whistled McDavid’s drop pass by Bobrovsky 3:36 later.

Anthony Stolarz came in to mop up and surrendered goals to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Holloway and Ryan McLeod. The Nugent-Hopkins goal was Oilers’ first power-play goal of the series and it took them having a 5-on-3 and a bit of puck luck to finally break through.

McDavid finished the game with four points and broke Wayne Gretzky’s long-standing NHL record for most assists in the postseason with the primary on Holloway’s second of the night. McDavid now has 32 assists and 38 points during the playoffs. The 38 points are the most by an active NHL player.

The Panthers performance was one of, if not the worst game they have played all season and highly reminiscent of Game 4 of the first round when they had a chance to sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning on the road and instead got blasted by a 6-3 count. The defense was shoddy to the point of non-existence and a lot of quality looks were not converted. The Oilers looked every bit the Wesrtern Conference champions while the Cats resembled a beer league team. It felt like they csimply gave up after the McDavid goal and just wanted to get out of Edmonton. Save those missed goals for the next game. They’ll be needed. This was simply one for the scrap heap.

Stanley Stuff

  • The OIlers got at least a point from 15 of their 18 skaters in the Game 4 demolition. Forwards Connor McDavid (1G/3A), Dylan Holloway (2G/1A), Mattias Janmark (1G/1A), Zach Hyman (2A) and Leon Draisaitl(2A) produced multipoint games.
  •  With his second shorthanded goal, Janmark is the first Edmonton player to score multiple shorthanded goals in a postseason since Todd Marchant (3) did so in 1997. 
  • This was Florida’s first loss since Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers. The Panthers have only lost back-to-back games once in these playoffs.
  • The goaltending section of the box score was as follows: Stuart Skinner made 32 saves to pick up his 12th win of the potseason. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 11 of 16 shots and Anthony Stolarz, seeing his first action of the playoffs, finished with 16 saves.
  • Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour paced the Panthers with four shots apiece, but did not finish. Darnell Nurse led the Oilers with six and did.

Talking Points