Oilers believe despite miscues, 3-0 hole: ‘No quit’
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
EDMONTON, Alberta — Stuart Skinner hasn’t given up on the Oilers‘ Stanley Cup dream.
“It is disappointing being down 3-0. We’ve got to let that reality sink in,” the goaltender said after the Florida Panthers‘ 4-3 win in Game 3 of the Cup Final on Thursday night. “I’m not too sure what the stats are on coming back in it, but if anyone can do it, it’s the Oil.”
Here are the stats: Teams that go up 3-0 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final have won 27 of 28 series. The only exception was in 1942, when the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied to defeat the Detroit Red Wings.
Of those 28 series, 20 of them ended in sweeps. The Panthers are trying to get the broom out in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since the Red Wings eliminated the Washington Capitals in four games in 1998.
Even if the Oilers manage to send the series back to South Florida with a Game 4 win, 25 of those 28 series have ended in no more than five games.
But the Oilers still believe.
“I think we’ve showed that we can beat this team,” said coach Kris Knoblauch, whose Oilers are now 0-5-0 against the Panthers this season.
“I think there’s a lot of belief in that. It’s not like we’re getting outplayed and we’re just [saying], ‘That team’s better than us.’ We can string together a lot of wins. We’ve shown it,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt in our room.”
Knoblauch pointed to two eight-game winning streaks in the regular season and a 16-game winning streak from the end of December into January.
“There’s frustration that we’re down, but there’s a difference between frustration and quitting. There’s absolutely no quit. There’s a belief that we can do this, so we just need to keep pushing,” he said.
Edmonton did push in the third period Thursday, getting greasy goals from Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod to cut the Panthers’ lead to 4-3. But the critical takeaway from Game 3 was that the Oilers were down 4-1 entering the third period — on home ice, in a must-win game, against a team with a plus-15 goal differential in the final frame during the postseason.
Their undoing came in an embarrassing 6:19 stretch in the second period when Florida scored three goals. The Oilers had just tied the game at 1-all on a Warren Foegele breakaway goal. But a turnover by Skinner allowed forward Eetu Luostarinen to find Vladimir Tarasenko to make it 2-1, deflating the crowd at 9:12.
It was 3-1 at 13:57, as solid forechecking by Matthew Tkachuk helped force a Darnell Nurse turnover that Sam Bennett snapped into the net for his seventh of the playoffs.
Aleksander Barkov capped the scoring for Florida at 15:31, converting a 2-on-1 chance that the Oilers allowed to start from deep inside their attacking zone.
“After they got that second one, they just kind of got on a roll. We let them take that momentum and stride with it,” Skinner said. “They got two more quick ones. Just kind of silly mistakes that don’t need to happen.”
The mistakes piled up for Edmonton. The goals for their star players have not. Foegele, Broberg, McLeod and Mattias Ekholm have goals. The five leading scorers in the playoffs — forwards Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and defenseman Evan Bouchard — do not.
Those five players also run the Oilers’ power play, which has been powerless this series against the Florida penalty kill, which is 10-for-10. Edmonton’s power play entered the series clicking at over 37%, best in the postseason.
McDavid has hit the score sheet, with assists on three of the four Oilers goals in the series. The Oilers star is on pace to become just the second player since 1967-68 to have a point on at least half of his team’s goals in the postseason. The only other player to do that was Wayne Gretzky for the Oilers in 1988.
But the other players have yet to score a point in the Stanley Cup Final. Draisaitl took responsibility for his surprising lack of production.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating. of course. I pride myself on being good in the playoffs and playing well and just can’t seem to get anything going. So yeah, I obviously have to look in the mirror and try to be better,” said Draisaitl, who entered the Final with 28 points in 18 games.
He said the Oilers made it too easy for Florida in Game 3.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit today. Made some individual and collective mistakes that they immediately took advantage of,” he said.
But like the rest of his team, he still believes they can rally, against all odds.
“We’re a good offensive team. They’re doing a good job, but we’re still getting our looks. It’s just when you’re chasing the game for a big chunk of the night, it’s hard to come back,” he said. “It’s a steep hill right now, obviously. No choice but to take it one game at a time. Try and get one win in Game 4 and go from there.”
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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