The Edmonton Oilers are not yet in serious trouble despite being down 2-0 to the Florida Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final — they still haven't lost at home. But the Oil are firmly in must-win territory when puck drops on Game 3 at Rogers Place on Thursday night, which will be the first SCF game in Alberta since 2006.
And Edmonton's lineup could look a little different for the monumental tilt. The availability of both Darnell Nurse and Evander Kane for Thursday night is up in the air, head coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed.
“You’re going to have to wait and find out,” the bench boss said after the morning skate, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
The hockey insider made it clear that “there is more concern about Kane’s health than Nurse’s,” although the two players are clearly battling through injuries. Both were absent from Edmonton's practice on Wednesday.
Nurse played just over four minutes in Monday night's Game 2 after taking an awkward hit from Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues. The team's second-highest paid player ($9.5M AAV) has struggled mightily in the postseason, being on the ice for 26 of Edmonton's 50 goals against. But he is still an important piece of this roster.
Kane amassed 10:33 of time on ice on Monday, registering two penalty minutes while finishing minus-3 in the 4-1 defeat. He's also clearly been dealing with an undisclosed injury, and there's a real chance he misses Game 3.
Whoever is available when puck drops from Rogers Place on Thursday night, the Oilers have no choice but to triumph if they want any hope of bringing a first Stanley Cup since 1990 to Edmonton.
Oilers can't afford to go down 3-0 to Panthers
The Oilers might not yet be in serious trouble, but they certainly aren't in great shape. Teams facing a 2-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final have won just five times in 54 attempts — giving the Panthers a 90.7 percent chance of winning their first Stanley Cup.
What the Oilers will have going for them is a raucous home crowd that has waited 18 years for a Stanley Cup Final game. The last tilt came in Game 6 of the 2006 SCF, a series Edmonton lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Fast forward nearly two decades and it's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading the charge. But the two superstars — and playoff leading scorers — have failed to score on Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky through two games. If that doesn't change, this is going to be a short series.
“I think it's going to be special,” Draisaitl said about his expectations for the atmosphere in Game 3, per The Athletic's Chris Johnston. “But we've got to give them a reason to be special, right?”
That is certainly true; the Oilers will badly want to score the first goal — like they did in Game 2 — but get different results in front of the home crowd.
It's probably the biggest game for the franchise since Game 7 against the Hurricanes nearly two decades ago, and it'll be interesting to see just how much the crowd motivates the Western Conference champions on Thursday.
Follow Us
Subscribe