But amidst all the noise of navigating a stage as big as this one, keeping their focus on the present and what they can control will be major points of emphasis for the Oilers against a Panthers side that’s one year removed from losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Final.
Oilers’ trade-deadline acquisition Adam Henrique was a rookie in 2012 and scored the game-winning goal for the Devils in Game 7 of the Third Round against the Rangers to send them to the Stanley Cup Final, but his early experiences have yet to be replicated.
Henrique scored two goals in the 2012 Final against Los Angeles before waiting 12 years for his next playoff tally, only making it to the playoffs once between then and now in 2018 as a member of the Ducks before joining the Oilers this past March via trade and scoring in Game 6 of the First Round.
The decade-plus gap for the 34-year-old between chances at the Cup is helping reinforce the message inside the Oilers locker room that they need to seize upon their opportunity, because you never know what’ll happen the next year, the year after that, or the year after that.
“It doesn’t feel like that long ago, but I was a rookie and I guess I didn’t fully understand what it takes every single year to get there,” he said. “You think, ‘Okay, we’ll just be in the playoffs again next year and hopefully get back here and have another opportunity’. But that doesn’t happen. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes and there’s so much that changes every single year.”
Defenceman Mattias Ekholm remembers his run to the 2017 Final with the Nashville Predators, losing in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins after falling behind 2-0 in the series early. The Swede was one of many fresh-faced players on a Predators’ roster when it came to playing in the Final, boasting only one player (Mike Fisher, ’06-07 Senators) who’d been there before.
Ekholm believed the inexperience was a mental hurdle that his team couldn’t overcome before they were two games down heading back home to Nashville.
“I think the way my every final is different,” he said. “I think we had one guy or something that had seen a Final before. One thing that maybe we did, consciously or not, but we obviously got off to a rough start. We lost both on the road and it was almost like it took a game and a half before we figured out, ‘Oh, we have to play hockey, too. It’s not just a big All-Star Game or a big showcase, so that’s something that I remember that be a lesson.”
“But come eight o’clock Eastern on Saturday, we’ve got to be dialled in and ready to go because if you dip your toe in the water too long, it’s over in a heartbeat.”
