Oilers unravel as ‘penalty chaos’ reigns in Game 3
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Greg Wyshynski
SUNRISE, Fla. — The Edmonton Oilers were blown out by the Florida Panthers 6-1 in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. They took 21 penalties for 85 penalty minutes, pulled their starting goaltender, had a near line-brawl in the third period, and one of their players was irritated enough to squirt a stream from his water bottle at the Florida bench.
But despite all of this, the Oilers swore that the Panthers, considered to be the NHL’s most agitating team, didn’t get under their skin or in their heads Monday night, as Florida took a 2-1 series lead.
“No, I don’t think so. I think the game obviously got out of hand at the end there. That stuff is going to happen. You look at some of the calls and whatnot, [and] obviously some of them are frustrating,” said winger Evander Kane, who had more penalty minutes in Game 3 (16) than he had in his previous 17 playoff games combined (14).
Kane said when the Oilers tried to match the Panthers’ physicality and instigation, they were penalized, while Florida was not.
“They seem to get away with it more than we do. It’s tough to find the line. They’re doing just as much stuff as we are,” Kane said. “There seems to be a little bit more attention on our group.”
The Panthers had 14 penalties for 55 penalty minutes in the game.
After two tightly played games that left the series tied 1-1 — both of which needed overtime to be settled — Game 3 was a blowout that played right into the Panthers’ hands.
“Right away, I thought we ended up playing what Florida kind of wanted: just a little bit of a track meet, a little bit of grinding, lots of penalties. It was just penalty chaos tonight,” said Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who had his weakest game in weeks — including a puck over the glass delay of game penalty that resulted in Florida’s fifth goal and saw Skinner pulled at 3:27 of the third period.
The Panthers excel at agitation. For the first time in the series, Edmonton took the bait.
Kane took two penalties within 2:41 of the first period and later slashed Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe while Verhaeghe was on his stomach in the third period.
Corey Perry taunted the Panthers as “turtles” and got into a shouting match with fourth-liner Jonah Gadjovich while leaving the ice after the second period. Oilers defenseman Jake Walman had his glove stolen by A.J. Greer, a Panthers fourth-liner who deposited the glove into the bench. Walman responded by taking his water bottle and spraying a stream at Florida’s players while standing at his own bench.
“Yeah, I mean I obviously did that for a reason. I won’t go into the details. It’s just gamesmanship, I guess,” Walman said. “I’ve just got to realize there’s cameras everywhere and they see that stuff.”
With 9:31 left in regulation, Oilers center Trent Frederic went after Florida’s Sam Bennett with a cross-check that broke his own stick. He then grabbed the back of Bennett’s jersey to drag him down. A near line-brawl ensued, with Bennett landing punches on Frederic while he was on the ice being held by a linesman.
“He’s been an animal this whole playoffs,” said Panthers winger Brad Marchand of Bennett. “He’s built for this time of year. Just how competitive he is, how intense, and obviously the physicality piece.”
Marchand, after ending Game 2 in double-overtime with a breakaway goal, started the scoring in the first period, just 56 seconds into the game. He deposited a shot high into the net while Skinner wildly lunged at a puck that was no longer there.
The rest of the first period was a parade of penalties — four for both teams — that didn’t result in anything on the scoreboard until Verhaeghe ripped a shot over Skinner’s right shoulder for a power-play goal and 2-0 lead at 17:45. Edmonton’s Viktor Arvidsson was in the penalty box after goalie Sergei Bobrovsky drew a goalie interference penalty.
“We’ve got to be more disciplined than that. We know better than that. I mean eventually, they’re going to find a way. That’s a great team. We shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit there. It kind of takes the flow out of it, you know?” said Walman.
Perry cut the deficit with a power-play goal 1:40 into the second period, but Sam Reinhart scored his first of the series to reestablish the two-goal lead 1:20 later. As they have done all postseason, the Panthers quickly padded their lead with another goal: Bennett’s 14th of the playoffs, beating Skinner on a breakaway.
“It’s for the Stanley Cup, you know? … There’s not an inch out there. That’s a grown man’s game out there. It’s not for the faint of heart. Guys are putting everything on the line you know?”
Oilers defenseman Jake Walman
Skinner was chased in the third period after the Panthers’ fifth goal, which was scored on the power play by defenseman Aaron Ekblad after Skinner sailed the puck over the glass. After that, Skinner’s night was over.
Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said after the game that he hasn’t made a decision on his goaltending for Game 4, but that he didn’t think Skinner “had much chance on many of those goals” before being pulled.
Evan Rodrigues scored the Panthers’ sixth goal on the power play late in the third period, which was marred by eight misconduct penalties and a slew of other calls as Edmonton tried to send a late-game message.
“Both teams are going to stick up for each other. They care for each other. The core’s pretty much the same for both teams, the drivers of the team are the same for the last three years. They’ll always have each other’s backs,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
Walman said with the stakes this high, emotions were naturally going to boil over.
“It’s for the Stanley Cup, you know? … There’s not an inch out there. That’s a grown man’s game out there. It’s not for the faint of heart. Guys are putting everything on the line you know?” he said.
Edmonton gets two days to reset, with Game 4 Thursday night in Sunrise.
“I thought we got away from our game,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “Part of that it’s due to chasing it a little bit. Part of that is obviously a credit to them. They played well. You find yourself in a hole, you’re going to do some uncharacteristic things and I thought we got away from our game a little bit there.”
If the Oilers are going to earn a split before heading back to Edmonton, they’ll need more from McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, their two superstar forwards and the first- and second-leading scorers in the playoffs.
This was just the 13th playoff game in which McDavid and Draisaitl both failed to record a point. The Oilers are 2-11 in those games. Draisaitl also failed to register a shot attempt in the game for just the second time in 93 playoff career games.
“Obviously it wasn’t our best. Not our best at all. I don’t think our best has shown up all series long,” said McDavid, “but it’s coming.”
NEW YORK — Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber topped Mark McGwire for most home runs among a player’s first 1,000 hits, hitting long ball No. 319 during Friday night’s 12-5 victory over the New York Yankees.
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not,” Schwarber said.
Ten days after lifting the National League to victory in the first All-Star Game swing-off, Schwarber keeps going deep. He hit a pair of two-run homers Friday night, with the first drive, his milestone hit, starting the comeback from a 2-0 deficit. He got the ball back after it was grabbed by a Phillies fan attending with his friends in Yankee Stadium’s right-center-field seats.
“I saw it on the video and then I see the dude tugging,” Schwarber said. “I’m like: ‘Oh, they all got Philly stuff on.’ That was cool.”
He met the trio after the game, gave an autographed ball to each and exchanged hugs. When he went to get a third ball to autograph, one of the three said he just wanted the potential free agent to re-sign with the Phillies.
“You show up to the field every single day trying to get a win at the end of the day, and I think our fans kind of latch on to that, right?” Schwarber said. “It’s been fantastic these last 3½ years, four years now. The support that we get from our fans and it means a lot to me that, you know, that they attach themselves to our team.”
Schwarber tied it at 2-2 in the fifth against Will Warren when he hit a 413-foot drive on a first-pitch fastball.
After J.T. Realmuto‘s three-run homer off Luke Weaver built a 6-3 lead in a four-run seventh and the Yankees closed within a run in the bottom half, Schwarber sent an Ian Hamilton fastball 380 feet into the right-field seats.
Schwarber reached 1,000 hits with eight more homers than McGwire. Schwarber has 36 homers this year, three shy of major league leader Cal Raleigh, and six homers in seven games since he was voted All-Star MVP. He has 33 multihomer games.
“I don’t know where we’d be without him,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Comes up with big hit after big hit after big hit. It’s just — it’s amazing.”
Schwarber, 32, is eligible for free agency this fall after completing a four-year, $79 million contract. He homered on all three of his swings in the All-Star Game tiebreaker, and when the second half began, Phillies managing partner John Middleton proclaimed: “We love him. We want to keep him.”
“He’s been an incredible force all season long,” Realmuto said. “What he’s meant to his team, his offense, it’s hard to put in words.”
A World Series champion for the 2016 Chicago Cubs, Schwarber has reached 35 homers in all four seasons with the Phillies. He’s batting .255 with 82 RBIs and a .960 OPS.
He also has almost as many home runs as singles (46).
Schwarber had not been aware he topped McGwire for most homers among 1,000 hits.
“I had no clue. I didn’t even know it was my 1,000th, to be honest with you,” he said.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The Yankees on Friday acquired third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for minor league pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, the teams announced.
The Yankees assumed the remainder of McMahon’s contract, which includes approximately $4.5 million for the rest of 2025 and $32 million over the next two seasons, a source told ESPN.
An All-Star last season, McMahon, 30, was batting .217 with 16 home runs, a .717 OPS and a National League-leading 127 strikeouts in 100 games for Colorado in 2025. After a dreadful start to the season through April, he has been significantly better, with a .246 batting average, 14 home runs and an .804 OPS. He hit home runs in the first two games after the All-Star break and another Tuesday. He is on pace to keep his four-year 20-homer streak alive.
Defensively, McMahon is a Gold Glove-caliber third baseman whose four Outs Above Average is third in the majors this season. He joins a Yankees club that has been marred by sloppy defense. On Wednesday, the Yankees committed four errors against the American East-leading Toronto Blue Jays.
“He has had some ups and downs offensively this year,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of McMahon. “I know, over the last month, he’s really swinging the bat well, but he’s a presence, and he can really defend over there at third and has for a number of years. So, we’re excited to get him.”
Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez, who began Friday with 36 home runs and an MLB-leading 86 RBIs, could be the best hitter moved before the July 31 trade deadline, but the Yankees were not particularly aggressive in pursuing him, a source told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Though McMahon’s offensive production resulted in a 92 OPS+, which suggests he has been 8% worse than the average major league hitter this season, he’s still a significant offensive upgrade at third base for New York. The Yankees have had Oswald Peraza, one of the worst hitters in the majors, playing third base nearly every day since the club released DJ LeMahieu, another former Rockies player, earlier this month and moved Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base.
Peraza, though a strong defender, is slashing .147/.208/.237 in 69 games this season. His 24 wRC+ ranks last among the 310 hitters with at least 160 plate appearances this season.
McMahon has played his first eight-plus seasons with the Rockies. They selected him in the second round of the 2013 draft. He debuted four years later and became a regular in 2019. By then, the Rockies were descending to the bottom of the NL West. This year, they’re 26-76 and could finish with the most losses in major league history.
He leaves that environment for New York’s pressure cooker and a club with World Series aspirations, a change the Yankees hope can help McMahon.
“Hopefully, the environment is a great thing for him, that he falls into that and doesn’t have to be the guy,” Boone said. “Go do your thing. Go find the role. But it’s our job — my job, staff, coaches, players — to make sure they’re welcomed and get them as comfortable as possible.”
The price for McMahon — and his team control over the next two seasons — was a pair of pitchers who have not reached Double-A.
Herring, 22, has a 1.71 ERA in 89⅓ innings across 16 starts between Low- and High-A this season. He was a sixth-round pick out of LSU in the 2024 draft.
Grosz, an 11th-round pick in 2023, had a 4.14 ERA in 87 innings over 16 games (15 starts) for High-A Hudson Valley this season.
With third base addressed, the Yankees will seek to acquire pitchers to bolster their rotation and bullpen. Luis Gil‘s return should help. The right-hander, who has been out all season because of a lat injury, made his third rehab start Wednesday. Boone said there’s “a good chance” Gil gets another start in the minors before making his season debut.
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