EDMONTON — In the long and storied history of the NHL, teams that have raced out to a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final have gone on to win in the series in 27 of 28 such instances.
If you fire up social media, that’s a statistic that many are talking about right now.
But not the Florida Panthers.
With a chance to sweep the Edmonton Oilers and claim their first-ever Cup, the Panthers aren’t putting the cart before the horse heading into Game 4 at Rogers Place on Saturday.
“We don’t look at that stuff,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said on Friday. “You guys do. I’m sure a lot of other people do, but we don’t. Come in today, have a nice recovery day and do what you can to get ready for tomorrow. We’ve done such a good job of having that simple one-game mindset. Win the first period. Win your first few shifts. That’s all you’ve got to do tomorrow. It’s a really calm, chilled and relaxed group today. We’ll use that to our advantage.”
Of the aformentioned 27 teams that took a 3-0 lead and went on to hoist Lord Stanley, twenty of them completed the sweep. After taking their own 3-0 lead with a 4-3 win over the Oilers in Game 3 on Thursday, the Panthers are confident they can be the twenty-first team on that list.
After all, they’ve certainly looked like champions through three games.
Especially on defense.
Entering the series averaging 3.50 goals per game in the playoffs, the Oilers have mustered just four goals in the series against the Panthers. Doing a stellar job of limiting Edmonton’s top players, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman have all yet to light the lamp.
Usually feasting on the power play, the Oilers, who led the NHL with a 37.3% success rate with the extra attacker entering the series, have also gone 0-for-10 against the Panthers.
Between the pipes, Sergei Bobrovsky has been playing like a man that could have his named eventually etched into the Conn Smythe Trophy. Starting with his 32-save shutout in Game 1, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner has turned aside 82 of 86 shots during the series for a .953 save percentage.
Per the NHL, Bobrovsky’s save percentage is currently the best in the history of the Final.
“We’ll keep staying with the moment,” Bobrovsky said when asked about closing out the series. “A great win for us tonight. We’ll enjoy tonight and get ready for the next moment.”
That next moment could be the biggest in franchise history.
While the Panthers have four chances to close out the Oilers, the sooner is always the better.
And while it’s been “one game a time” from the moment the playoffs started, there’s no question that the mood and atmosphere heading into Game 4 will be a little bit different.
Paul Maurice plans to cross that bridge when he comes to it.
“I don’t know yet,” the Panthers head coach said when asked about how he’ll approach the day. “We finished playing then got up this morning and did some video with players. What we’ll do is, we’ve got a structure for our day-to-day. We talk about this all the time, so this isn’t the first time they’ve heard it: handle your day. We have a structure for that.
“Tomorrow, through the morning skate and the team meal and things, just kind of move around the players and feel where they’re at. I won’t do it today, and then I’ll take stock of where I’m at mentally, where my thoughts wander to in this situation. Do I need to rein myself in and focus? If I’m going through it, there’s a chance something in the room is. I’ll base a lot of what I’ll do and what I’ll say and how we’ll act tomorrow on that.”
After coming up just short in last year’s Stanley Cup Final, one thing is for sure.
The Panthers have earned every inch on their path to this moment.
“It’s going to be a great game tomorrow,” forward Anton Lundell said.
Who’s ready for puck drop?
