Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers are closer than they've ever been to winning a Stanley Cup, but the quest for a first-ever championship seemed very far away when the team plane was stuck in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. The Cats were delayed by more than three hours trying to get across the country and north to Canada due to heavy storms, The Athletic's Chris Johnston reported.
The retinue eventually touched down in Edmonton exactly three hours and 16 minutes late, and approximately 22 hours before puck drop on Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers on Thursday night.
And Maurice, who is two wins away from truly cementing himself as one of the best coaches in the history of the sport, shared yet another brilliant soundbite ahead of the contest.
“The coaches put on seven pounds yesterday, that's the only ramification,” said the always-entertaining bench boss about Florida's travel delays. “We ate 12 meals.”
Maurice always knows how to keep things light, which is exactly what he did after what must have been a miserable travel day for the Panthers. But now safe and sound in Edmonton — presumably with a decent sleep — Florida will be locked in on trying to take a stranglehold on the series on Thursday.
Panthers looking to keep the good times rolling on the road
Although the Panthers weren't the better team in Game 1, they utilized a Sergei Bobrovsky masterclass and timely scoring to grind out a 3-0 victory. And two nights later, they started looking a lot more like the team that has come out of the Eastern Conference in each of the past two seasons. The Oilers had just one high-danger opportunity at 5-on-5, and the Panthers came from behind to take a 4-1 win and 2-0 lead in the series.
In their last two Stanley Cup Final appearances combined, the Panthers were able to manage just one win. They were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the 1996 SCF, and defeated in five games by the Vegas Golden Knights last year.
This time around, Florida is already well on its way to a maiden championship. Only five teams facing a 2-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final have come back to win in 54 attempts — giving the Panthers a 90.7 percent chance of winning their first Stanley Cup.
Thursday night's tilt is nothing shy of a must-win for the Oilers, who will host a championship game for the first time since 2006. Edmonton lost in a heartbreaking Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes that year; the franchise remains without a title since 1990.
Kris Knoblauch's team will certainly be more rested after flying from Florida to Edmonton on Tuesday and having two full days to prepare for Game 3. It'll be very interesting to see if the delays will affect the Panthers, who have lost just twice on the road this postseason.
Puck drops just past 8 p.m. in what promises to be another thrilling contest between two organizations desperate for a championship.
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