Oilers aware of ‘elephant in the room’ for Stanley Cup Final rematch against Panthers

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers fell one goal short in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers last season and understand the stakes won’t be as high when the two teams play for the first time since then at Rogers Place on Monday (8:30 pm ET; TVAS, Prime, NHLN, SCRIPPS).

Still, the rematch could provide an indication of whether the two teams are headed for another collision course in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“It’s a regular-season game in the middle of December, so it’s not like it’s some kind of Stanley Cup rematch or anything,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said. “But that being said, it’s going to be on everybody’s mind on both teams. We’re all going to be aware of that elephant in the room and I think the intensity and the energy is going to be up for sure.”

Getting to Game 7 of the Finals after trailing 3-0 in the series, only to lose 2-1, took some getting over the Oilers. The disappointment bled into this season with Edmonton losing its first three games and five of seven (2-4-1) before gaining traction. Edmonton (18-10-2) is on a five-game winning streak and 8-2-0 in its last 10 games with impressive wins against the Tampa Bay Lightning (2-1), Minnesota Wild (7-1) and Vegas Golden Knights (6-3).

“I like our game right now, I think we’re playing well and we’re starting to find our roles a little bit,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “We’re starting to find our rhythm a little bit better and we had good teams going and we’re looking to continue that.”

Draisaitl and captain Connor McDavid are both working their way up the NHL scoring race. Draisaitl has 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in his past 11 games and is tied for fifth in the league with 45 points (22 goals, 23 assists) in 30 games this season.

McDavid has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in his last 11 games. He is tied for eighth in the NHL with 41 points (14 goals, 27 assists) in 27 games, nine behind Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, who leads the league with 50 points (13 goals, 37 assists) in 32 games.

“We are playing well, many good things are happening; special teams is starting to come together, we’re getting great goaltending,” McDavid said Monday morning. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in here, we believe in our group, we believe we’re a good team, but you’ve got to go out and show it, you’ve got to play well. We felt like we did a lot of good things like we didn’t get rewarded early and it’s nice to see the wins coming in.”

McDavid said that even though Edmonton and Florida only play twice during the season, the teams developed a rivalry because of their epic Finals series.

“We played them many months ago though, seven times in a row you want to form a rivalry,” McDavid said. “It hasn’t been that long. Having said that, it’s a new year, a lot of turnover on both teams and we’ll see, hopefully we’ll get a big win tonight.”