This Stanley Cup Final is Shaping Up to be One of the Greatest Ever

Just like Thunder in Five before it, Panthers in Five went down in flames on Thursday night with Florida blowing a 3-0 lead and falling to the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 in overtime. The good news is that we are now guaranteed at least two more games in this series and just got to see one of the most thrilling games in the history of the Stanley Cup Final. It started with a dominant first period by Florida with Matthew Tkachuk scoring a pair of power play goals and Anton Lundell adding an even-strength score in the final minute when Edmonton turned over the puck behind its own net.

The second period saw three Edmonton goals with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse flipping the puck over Sergei Bobrovsky’s shoulder and Vasily Podkolzin netting the equalizer on a backhand shot that was set up by Nurse’s wraparound try. Just as important as all the scoring, though, was backup goalie Calvin Pickard stonewalling the Panthers and keeping their total at three while the Oilers caught up. Florida stayed aggressive throughout the game, with one of its best chances coming midway through the second period when Lundell intercepted a pass on the forecheck and skated into the slot with no one but Pickard in front of him. Pickard came up with a monumental stop to keep the score 3-1, and Nurse scored the Oilers’ second goal of the night a minute later.

After Edmonton had tied the game, the Panthers controlled the action and looked to be on the way to scoring the game’s seventh goal, but they were denied over and over. Even with Pickard leaving the net wide open thanks to a brilliant pass from Carter Verhaeghe to Tkachuk, defenseman Mattias Ekholm stepped up and acted as a second goalie to keep the go-ahead goal off the board. Instead, it was the Oilers who broke the tie with Jake Walman slamming home a massive slap shot from the right circle after a Florida own-zone turnover caused by Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark.

It was setting up to be a supremely frustrating night for Florida, but after 40 scoreless minutes, it finally broke through when Sam Reinhart scored with just 20 seconds remaining in regulation. Reinhart tried to feed Tkachuk in the slot, but the puck trickled back to him on the left side of the net, where he slid the puck past Pickard’s pad for the cathartic equalizer. Reinhart’s score was the second latest game-tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history with the latest coming just days ago when Corey Perry tied Game 2 with just 18 seconds on the clock. This series is going down in the books one or way or the other.

Just like how Edmonton lost after Perry’s dramatic goal in Game 2, Florida would fall in this one when Leon Draisaitl attempted a one-handed backhand pass to Corey Perry on the edge of the crease. Instead of finding Perry, though, the puck deflected off of Florida’s sliding Niko Mikkola and got by Bobrovksy, who could not close the five hole in time. It was Draisaitl’s fourth overtime winner of these Playoffs and his second of the series. He is mega clutch, but so was Pickard, who made another incredible save minutes earlier when Mikkola fed Sam Bennett for a one-timer from the right circle. Pickard got just enough of the puck with his glove to deflect it off of the crossbar and keep Edmonton alive. That is just torture for Florida fans.

Just like that, we are set up for an incredible weekend of sports with Oklahoma City trying to even the NBA Finals against Indiana on Friday night before the Stanley Cup Final shifts to Edmonton for Game 5 on Saturday night. Plus, we’ve got the U.S. Open during the day, and Oakmont is already making fools of all of the players out there.

As a New York Rangers fan, I’m often left feeling like a fool, but on Thursday the franchise did the responsible thing and traded Chris Kreider to Anaheim in order to create some cap space for a veteran squad that missed the Playoffs this season. Kreider has been an amazing player for the Rangers during his 13-year career and he is the team’s all-time leader in postseason goals with 48, but he is also 34 years old and carries a cap hit of $6.5 million for each of the next two seasons. New York didn’t get back much in mediocre prospect Carey Terrance and a pick swap that exchanges the Ducks’ third-rounder for the Rangers’ fourth-rounder this year. This is all about dumping salary and getting younger to speed up the rebuild process. Soooooo exciting.

I may have lost with Florida and lost a franchise player with Kreider, but at least the Mets won. They beat Washington 4-3 to complete a second straight series sweep, but Kodai Senga injured his hamstring and Ryne Stanek and Edwin Diaz nearly blew a four-run lead in the ninth, so it was pretty maddening as far as wins go. This is why the phrase “I’ll take it” was invented. My day could have been a lot worse had Diaz not recovered in time to get a pair of ground outs after the Nationals put the go-ahead run in scoring position.

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