Stanley Cup Final Game One: Game Eight, and Some of Nine

Already, it looks like the sequel is on its way to topping the original.

For the first time in 16 years, a Stanley Cup Final rematch got underway, as Game One between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers took place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. For the second time in this arrangement, TNT has the Final here in the States, with simulcasts on TruTV and Max. The Panthers--who won last year's Final in seven games--are looking to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions, and become the first team since the Penguins in 1991 and 1992 to win their first two Cups in back-to-back fashion. For the Oilers, they're looking to party like it's 1990, as they're attempting to win their first Cup in 35 years, and also end Canada's Cup drought at 32 years.

Stuart Skinner was in net for the Oilers against Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers, and the scoring happened quick! In just 66 seconds, Leon Draisaitl made it 1-0, with the assists coming from Kasperi Kapanen and Jake Walman. Scoring first has been a regular thing for the Oilers lately in the 2025 playoffs, and it's served them well to this point. Both teams pressed, and then we had our first power play of the game, and it went to the defending champs. That was killed off, but later on, the Panthers tie it up. It looked like Goalie Interference from, who else, Sam Bennett, so Kris Knoblauch challenged. One problem. The interference was caused by Brett Kulak, whose bump into Bennett caused all of the contact. Goal, which was credited to Bennett (Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk assisting)--counts, and Florida gets another power play.

Florida scores on this PP, and it's Brad Marchand. It's 2025, and Brad Marchand scores in the Final for the Panthers--a sight nobody had on their 2024-25 Bingo Cards. Assists came from Nate Schmidt and Evan Rodrigues, the latter having scored four times in last year's Final. So the Panthers take the lead for the first time, and that 2-1 score holds up after 20 minutes. Second period starts, and exactly 120 seconds in, it's Bennett again. Yep, Hell froze over, folks. Bennett actually found the net twice in a game. Schmidt and Verhaeghe assisted, Florida leads 3-1, but they don't enjoy their two-goal lead for long, as Victor Arvidsson scores just 77 seconds later. Vasily Podkolzin and Evan Bouchard with the assists, and the 3-2 score manages to hold up for the rest of the period.

As I watched the third period, I was already enjoying this game so much. This was a good and close game, but I was sensing a shift. The Oilers seemed to have momentum in the third period, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they would tie this up. That matter of time came at 6:33, and it was Mattias Ekholm with the equalizer. The assists: Connor McDavid and Kasperi Kapanen, so the 2024 Conn Smythe winner was on the board. Close calls took over the rest of the period, and after 60 minutes, we had something we never had in last year's Final: overtime.

I was really happy for this, because neither Conference Final had overtime, and again, none of the seven games in last year's Final had OT. The overtime was crazy, both teams really had chances. The goalies did their part to keep their teams in it, but with 1:43 left in OT, delay of game called on the Panthers--puck into the glass. The time was winding down and I was expecting double OT, but Leon Draisaitl said, "Nein!" Draisaitl shot a beauty that went past Bobrovsky, McDavid and Corey Perry with the helpers, and that was all she wrote.

The Edmonton Oilers won Game One, 4-3, in overtime, with Draisaitl's goal coming with 31 seconds left in the fourth period. With the win, the Oilers have a series lead in the Cup Final for the first time since their last win in 1990. Despite each of their last two appearances going seven, the Oilers never had a series lead in either appearance. This was the first time that Game One of the Cup Final went to OT since 2022, and we know what happened there. Regarding the shots on net, it was 14-7 Oilers in the first period, 17-8 Panthers in the second, 14-2 Oilers in the third, and 10-6 Oilers in OT. All of that resulted in a spectacular performance for Bobrovsky, but it was still somehow not enough.

The Oilers have four OT goals in the 2025 playoffs, and Draisaitl has three of them. The Oilers also came back from a 3-1 deficit to win this one. They have been coming back from a lot of shit during this run, and it's resulted in the Oilers now moving three wins away from their sixth Stanley Cup. This is my fifth year writing Cup Final game recaps on Vocal, and so far, in that span, the winner of Game One has always gone on to win the Final. Overall, since the Stanley Cup Final was converted to a best-of-seven format in 1939, the team who won Game One went on to win the series 76.5% of the time (65 times out of 85 occurrences). So the Oilers have history on their side. We will see if it works out for them as the Final progresses.

Game Two is Friday in Edmonton.

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