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2024 Stanley Cup Finals
258 days after the opening face-off, in the 1,400th game of the 2023-24 season, following 22,500-plus miles travelled in the Stanley Cup Final, and after each team claimed three straight victories in the Final, the stat that will determine a champion is simple: the team that gets one more win.
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Stanley Cup Final Preview June 24, 2024 – 7 STATS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE 18TH GAME 7 IN STANLEY CUP FINAL HISTORY

7 STATS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FLORIDA PANTHERS

Seven stats on the Panthers, captained by Aleksander Barkov, as they take a fourth shot at claiming their first Stanley Cup:

  1. Barkov (8-14—22) and Matthew Tkachuk (6-16—22) share the team lead with 22 points apiece (23 GP), two back of the franchise record for one playoff year (Tkachuk in 2023: 11-13—24 in 20 GP).
  2. Tkachuk (1-6—7) paces the Panthers in points across their eight potential series-clinching games this postseason, while Barkov (3-1—4) and Carter Verhaeghe (3-3—6) share the team lead in goals during those contests. Overall, Verhaeghe has 10 goals this postseason to sit one back of Tkachuk’s club record.
  3. Sergei Bobrovsky will join beloved former Panthers netminder Roberto Luongo, now the team’s special advisor to the general manager, as the second goaltender to play in nine potential clinchers in one playoff year. This is the eighth time Bobrovsky has lost three straight appearances since joining Florida in 2019-20; in four of the previous seven instances, he halted that streak with a victory in his next contest.
  4. Evan Rodrigues (4-2—6) leads all players in this series with four goals, accounting for more than half his goal total this postseason (7-7—14 in 23 GP). Only four active players have scored five goals in a single Stanley Cup Final – Mark Stone (2023 VGK), Brayden Point (2020 TBL), Ryan O’Reilly (2019 STL) and Brad Marchand (2011 BOS) – with each of them ending the series by lifting the Cup.
  5. Brandon Montour had an assist when he skated alongside current Edmonton forward Corey Perry with the Ducks during their 2-1 comeback win against the Oilers in Game 7 of the 2017 Second Round. Montour (2 in 2 GP), Verhaeghe (1 in 1 GP) and Sam Reinhart (1 in 1 GP) accounted for all four Florida tallies in the 2023 First Round finale and are two of six current Panthers with at least one Game 7 goal – the others are Tkachuk (1 in 2 GP), Rodrigues (1 in 2 GP) and Vladimir Tarasenko (1 in 5 GP).
  6. Paul Maurice (4-0) has never lost a Game 7 in his NHL head coaching career and can become the second in League history to earn wins in each of his first five, joining former OHL teammate and colleague Peter DeBoer (8-0). Maurice will work his 1,985th career NHL game (1,848 regular season & 137 playoffs), which would mark the most by a head coach before winning their first Cup.
  7. Florida can become the 24th NHL franchise to win the Stanley Cup and the 15th to claim their first championship on home ice.

7 STATS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EDMONTON OILERS

Seven stats on the Oilers, captained by Connor McDavid, as they aim to complete a historic comeback and claim their first Stanley Cup since 1990:

  1. In a season in which the Oilers have faced adversity from start to finish – following an 8-1 opening-night loss, 2-9-1 start, head coach change and 3-0 series deficit in the Final – captain Connor McDavid has had the most productive season of his NHL career.
  2. McDavid (3-8—11 in 6 GP) needs one point to match Mario Lemieux (1991: 5-7—12 in 5 GP) and Daniel Brière (2010: 3-9—12 in 6 GP) for the most points by a player in their first career trip to the Stanley Cup Final and two to equal Wayne Gretzky’s record for most points by a player in any Final (3-10—13 in 1988). McDavid already has taken down one Gretzky record this postseason (most assists in a playoff year).
  3. Evan Bouchard (6-26—32 in 24 GP) broke Paul Coffey’s record for assists by a defenseman in one playoff year and enters Game 7 with 0-5—5 in the Final. Among active defensemen, only one has had more assists in a single Final than Bouchard: Victor Hedman tallied 1-6—7 with the Lightning in 2020.
  4. Warren Foegele (2-3—5) and Zach Hyman (2-2—4) have collected all their points in this series since Game 3, with Foegele entering Game 7 on a career-best four-game point streak and Hyman a hat trick away from matching the highest single-postseason goals total in League history.
  5. Edmonton’s penalty kill has allowed only one power-play goal against in its past 47 times shorthanded, marking a 97.9% success rate dating to the start of Game 4 in the Second Round. The Oilers are 18-for-19 on the penalty kill in the Stanley Cup Final (94.7%) and can become the third team on record (since 1933-34) to allow fewer than two power-play goals against in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final (BOS in 2019: 17-for-18 on PK; TOR in 1945: 8-for-9 on PK). Overall, Edmonton’s 94.1% penalty kill rate in 2024 is the highest on record in a postseason by a team that played more than two rounds.
  6. The Oilers can become the second team in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup after sitting 10-plus points out of a playoff spot during the regular season. The 2018-19 Blues, which featured current Panthers forward Vladimir Tarasenko, are the only club to accomplish the feat.
  7. The Oilers can become the first team in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) – and second all time – to win the Stanley Cup after facing a 3-0 series deficit in the Final. Overall, only four teams in NHL history have rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to win any round.
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Guest Writer