Stanley Cup Final Game Four: Change of Plans

Sooooo... that just happened.

The Stanley Cup was in the building in Edmonton for Game Four of this year's Final. The Florida Panthers were all set to complete the sweep and capture the Cup for the first time in their franchise history. They shut down the Oilers in the first two games, and Game Three was a hard fought battle won by the Panthers. All signs pointed to the Panthers taking Lord Stanley back to the Sunshine State.

The Oilers had plenty to say about that.

The Panthers received the first power play of the game very early, but it would be the Oilers who struck first. Mattias Janmark put one in shorthanded, and then the Oilers killed off the rest of the power play. Moments later, Adam Henrique made it 2-0, giving the Oilers their first multi-goal lead in the series. It looked good for Edmonton, but when Vladimir Tarasenko put Florida on the board, I thought that would put an end to Edmonton's fun. That's it. Florida's coming back. But then, Dylan Holloway gave Edmonton their two goal lead back. The assists: Leon Draisaitl and Brett Kulak. Yes, Draisaitl finally picked up his first career Cup Final point in Game Four, tying him with Darcy Kuemper--the one time Colorado Avalanche goalie.

Oilers led 3-1 after 20 minutes. Were they done? Not even close!

On the Oilers very first shot in the 2nd period, it was 4-1. The scorer? This kid named Connor McDavid. So McDavid finally has a Cup Final goal on his resume, and so would Darnell Nurse, who made it 5-1, with McDavid and Zach Hyman assisting. That was all for Sergei Bobrovsky. He was out, and Anthony Stolarz was in the rest of the way. So yeah, it was a done deal. It clearly got to the Panthers, as we saw Matthew Tkachuk deck McDavid in a scuffle, which resulted in two minutes of a 5-on-3 for Edmonton. During that PP, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the elder statesman of the team, made it 6-1. That was the score after 40 minutes, and Holloway and Ryan McLeod made the score even worse.

The Oilers won Game Four, 8-1. Eight to one. This was clearly Sergei Bobrovsky's worst playoff outing in a while, but this happens to a lot of goalies. We all still remember when Andrei Vasilevskiy gave up seven goals in Game Two of the 2022 Final. A lot of the Oilers' top players got off some schnides in this game. Connor McDavid finally scored in this series, while Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman finally picked up some Cup Final points. Speaking of McDavid, he made history in this game. The assist that he had on Holloway's second goal was his 32nd of this year's playoffs, which broke the franchise record for assists in a single postseason. The previous record of 31 was held by this guy named Wayne Gretzky, whoever he is.

So the streak continues--still no Cup Final sweeps since 1998. Oilers fans had a lot to celebrate in this game, but it's only one. They still need to win three more in a row to pull off the second reverse sweep in Cup Final history. Lord Stanley will be put back in the case now, as the series now returns to Sunrise, Florida for Game Five on Tuesday. But of course, the Cup will definitely be in the building.

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