(Fort Lauderdale) It’s the greatest offer a team can receive at the start of each season: reaching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and, as a bonus, playing it in front of its fans.
A party that will decide everything.
“Yeah, 32 teams are on board with that idea,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
This is the reality for Maurice and the Panthers. On the one hand, the Panthers lost a 3-0 lead against the Edmonton Oilers in this final. On the other hand, there is always the seventh game, Monday evening at Sunrise.
And before his team took off for the five-and-a-half hour flight home from Alberta on Saturday, Maurice insisted his team would focus on the opportunity in front of them, not the opportunities that have were wasted with consecutive defeats of 8-1, 5-3 and 5-1.
“I know it’s 3-3. The concerns of the previous three games certainly didn’t affect Edmonton and it won’t affect us. »
There are many statistics circulating in the media and on social networks at the moment, and none are in favor of the Panthers. The Oilers became only the third team in Stanley Cup Final history to lose 3-0 and force Game 7.
Being the first team since 1942 to blow a 3-0 lead in the final is the kind of thing that could haunt the team for a long, long time. A setback will inevitably raise questions about the future for many people within the organization.
The loss could also bring a sudden end to the momentum the Panthers have built over the past four years, after spending much of the previous two decades at the bottom of the standings.
A victory would solve all the problems.
“Accepting [the situation] is the key to success,” Maurice said. I feel positive. Both teams can be excited. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is every young man’s dream. No one ever dreamed of winning Game 4 in overtime. »
“It’s still game seven. »