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The Edmonton Oilers are back in the Stanley Cup Final this year. And they know their opponent very well. Edmonton is set for a Finals rematch with the Florida Panthers. This series begins on Wednesday night as the Oilers host the Panthers in Game 1 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
This Oilers team is a bit different from the iteration we saw a year ago. Edmonton has not received historic, record-breaking performances from the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard. Those three players dominated the postseason in 2024. And those playoffs ended with McDavid becoming the first player since Mario Lemieux to score 40+ points in a single postseason.
Their production may not be historic in nature, but it's certainly still elite. McDavid is four points from reaching the 30-point mark, for instance. Draisaitl is five points off that mark. Bouchard, meanwhile, leads all defensemen in points this postseason.
What has changed is the team's depth. They enter the Stanley Cup Final with seven players having scored 10 or more points this postseason. One of these players, Zach Hyman, will not participate in the Final. In any event, the six remaining skaters are still more than the team had last postseason.
The Oilers are a deeper scoring team and have improved their defense. Goalie Stuart Skinner has also turned in some incredible performances. While his lackluster performances could sink the team, there is another flaw the Oilers need to address. If they don't, they may be watching the Panthers celebrate a second straight Stanley Cup in 2025.
Oilers need to improve their penalty kill
Last year, there was no better team all around on special teams than the Edmonton Oilers. They had one of the best penalty-killing performances in recent memory. They led the way with a 94.3% penalty kill success rate. Their power play was also elite, as they finished second in the entire postseason with a 29.3% success rate.
This year, Edmonton remains elite on the power play. In fact, they enter the Stanley Cup Final with a better mark than they finished with last year at 30%. If this team gets on the man advantage, they are usually able to find the back of the net. However, their penalty killing success hasn't been close to the same this time around.
The Oilers boast a penalty kill success rate of 66%. This is the third-worst mark of any team to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And it's a far cry from what they did in 2024. More importantly, it's nowhere close to the postseason-leading 87.9% penalty kill rate of the Panthers.
The good thing for Edmonton is that they are a lot more disciplined this year. Their penalty minutes have declined drastically, going from 268 last year to just 125 in 2025. If Edmonton can keep itself out of the penalty box, it will be in good shape to win the Stanley Cup.
Of course, this is easier said than done in the Stanley Cup Final. Tensions run high at this stage of the postseason, given the stakes. In these first three games, we may see a ton of penalty calls. If they can withstand that, they could play more freely in the latter stages once the refs put their whistles in their pockets a bit more.
The Oilers are on the brink of the ultimate glory the NHL has to offer. The talent on this team is undeniable, and that alone gives them a fighting chance. To maximize this chance, though, they need to be able to kill off penalties in this series against the Panthers.
