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.”
The Carolina Hurricanes have reached a three-year, $9.5 million extension with forward Taylor Hall through the 2027-28 season.
The team announced the signing Wednesday, a day after the Hurricanes closed out the New Jersey Devils in their first-round playoff series. It marked the seventh straight year that Carolina has won at least one postseason series.
Hall, 33, acquired in a blockbuster January deal that included Mikko Rantanen‘s arrival, scored the first of Carolina’s four second-period goals that helped it erase a 3-0 deficit before winning in double overtime. He’s a 15-year veteran who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP in the 2017-18 season.
“Taylor has proven to be an outstanding fit for our team, and we are thrilled that he is excited to make Raleigh his home for another three seasons,” general manager Eric Tulsky said in a statement. “He’s been a solid veteran presence in the locker room and a difference maker on the ice.”
Hall had 18 goals and 24 assists in 77 regular-season games between Chicago and Carolina, and also had two assists in the five-game series win against New Jersey. He had missed most of the previous season due to knee surgery and was making $6 million this year with free agency looming, then led Carolina skaters with four power-play goals in the regular season after his arrival.
The Hurricanes acquired the 2010 No. 1 overall draft pick on Jan. 24 in the three-team deal that snagged Rantanen from Colorado, though they later sent Rantanen to Dallas with forward Logan Stankoven as the primary trade-deadline return when it became clear Rantanen was unlikely to sign long-term to stay with Carolina.
Hall and Tulsky are scheduled to address reporters by Zoom later Wednesday.
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Greg Wyshynski
Utah Hockey Club officials wouldn’t confirm whether “Mammoth” was their new name after it allegedly leaked on the team’s official YouTube channel Tuesday night.
Fans and media noticed that the channel’s handle was changed from “@UtahHockeyClub” to “@UtahMammoth,” on both its landing page and URL. The channel was soon deactivated and remained so on Wednesday morning, but not before screenshots of the name change went viral.
Utah Mammoth was one of three finalists featured in a fan vote at Delta Center to help determine the permanent name of the team, which played its inaugural season in 2024-25 after SEG purchased and relocated the former Arizona Coyotes franchise. Fans voted with iPads located at stations around the arena that featured the names, logos and potential branding for each option.
Originally, the three names voted on were Utah Mammoth, Utah Hockey Club and Utah Wasatch, which was quickly swapped out for Utah Outlaws after the team saw early vote returns.
Mammoth made the final four in the initial fan vote last year.
Utah HC executives wouldn’t confirm or deny that Mammoth will be the team’s new nickname.
Mike Maughan, an executive with Utah HC owner Smith Entertainment Group, said on Wednesday that “progress continues on exploring all three of the name options that were chosen as finalists by our fans. We’re fully on track to announce a permanent name and identity ahead of the 25-26 NHL season and look forward to sharing that with our fans when we do.”
When pressed for an explanation on the alleged YouTube leak, Maughan would only say, “We’re fully on track to announce a permanent name and identity ahead of the 25-26 NHL season.”
One NHL source told ESPN that the revelation for the team’s new name and logo could come before the NHL draft in late June. This year’s draft is a “decentralized” event, meaning that teams will be making selections from their own sites rather than in one central location. That opens the door for Utah to have an event in Salt Lake City with team officials around the draft.
In other Utah HC news, the team announced Wednesday that Delta Center, home to Utah HC and the Utah Jazz, will be undergoing a renovation to optimize hockey sightlines while maintaining the proximity of basketball fans to the court using a state-of-the-art retractable seating system. It’s a multiyear project that will also create a new main entrance and outdoor plaza.
The first-of-its-kind seating system accommodates a nearly 12-foot variance in elevation between rink and court endlines to offer optimal sightlines for both the NBA and NHL. Every seat in the lower bowl will have a complete view of the ice at the start of next season — the team estimates that 400 seats currently can only see one goal net during games.
The new hockey configuration adds capacity behind the goals and above and around the event tunnels on the north and south side of the lower bowl and improves access to seating behind the boards.
When all renovations are complete, seating capacity for hockey will increase from 11,131 to approximately 17,000 — with every seat in the upper and lower bowls having full views of both goals — and capacity for basketball will increase from 18,206 to nearly 19,000 seats.
“Delta Center was built for basketball. When you come and put the size of an ice sheet in that venue with those sight lines, the geometry just doesn’t work. So that’s where you come up with the riser system configuration. You come up with raising the floor 2 feet,” said Jim Olson, president of the Jazz and executive representing SEG on all facilities projects.
“We are absolutely protecting the basketball experience, but then also creating a great hockey experience where all the seats can see all the ice,” he said.
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