Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has an impressive start to his NHL coaching career with back-to-back Stanley Cup appearances, but he is far from satisfied after two straight finals losses to the Florida Panthers.
Florida lifted the Stanley Cup again in Miami after a 5–1 victory over the Oilers on June 17. Edmonton fell short in the series 4–2 after a 4–3 loss the previous year.
“There’s no silver lining to this, it’s still heart-wrenching,” Knoblauch told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s very difficult to handle right now. We were maybe the underdogs going to the L.A. series, underdogs against Vegas and the Dallas series. It hurts right now, and I don’t think it’s gonna let up for a while.”
Oilers star center Connor McDavid likened the series to “banging our head against the wall.” McDavid and company grabbed the early edge with a 4–3 overtime win in Game 1 on June 4 but dropped the next two games. The Oilers won Game 4 in overtime again, 5–4, on June 12, but Florida then outscored Edmonton 10–3 in the final two games to finish off the series.
“Obviously, their forecheck was great,” McDavid told reporters on Tuesday. “They tilted the rink. They were able to kind of stay on top of us all over the place.”
“Never really able to generate any momentum up the ice. Kept trying
the same things over and over again, banging our heads against the wall,” he added. “Credit to them. They played well.”
Four Florida skaters tallied 23 points apiece in the playoffs, which included center Sam Reinhart, who capped the postseason run with a four-goal hat trick on Tuesday. Conn Smythe Trophy winner and center Sam Bennett was one of two Panthers to tally 22 points in the postseason.
“We kept on saying we want to try and win a 2-1 game and we never found a way to do that, obviously,” McDavid said. “They have great players. How many guys had 20-plus points in the postseason? They’re as deep as it comes.”
Ironically, Edmonton had two skaters with more points in McDavid and fellow center Leon Draisaitl, who each had 33 points. Neither Oilers goalie could stop the Panthers enough at the end of the day regardless of how Edmonton switched between Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard in net.
“For sure there are lessons,” Skinner told reporters on Tuesday. “Lessons as individuals, how you can show up better, how you can react better in certain situations. Also, as a team we need to learn from this right away. Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating.”
Edmonton will likely have its core again for 2025-2026 as the team seeks a seventh straight winning season and playoff appearance. The Oilers have made it past at least the first round every year since 2021.
“We still have a lot of confidence and belief,” McDavid said. “I don’t think people thought we were going to make it this far. We believe and we came up just short again.”
Draisaitl agreed. The 11-year veteran has spent his entire career in Edmonton, so he has been through the lean years before this current run.
“The takeaway is that we didn’t win,” Draisaitl told reporters on Tuesday. “Nobody cares. Like, nobody cares. We didn’t win, so try again next year.”
Knoblauch acknowledged that “it’s gonna be a long summer” this time.
“We felt that we could have won it all. Getting so close last year and getting so close this year,” Knoblauch said, “a lot had fallen into place and it did very early in the playoffs. I’m very, very happy about the guys. They gave a tremendous effort.”
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