2025 Stanley Cup Final Preview: The second Stanley Cup Final rematch of the 21st century sees a red-hot Oilers team put it all on the line against the best Panthers team yet.

Almost eight months worth of NHL action leads to this. Can the Edmonton Oilers finally bring the Stanley Cup north of the border? Or will the Florida Panthers become the second team in six seasons to win back-to-back championships?

The Oilers are on a run … and they’re hungry for more. Also, why history may be on Edmonton’s side. 

It’s clear that this is a far different Oilers team not just from last season, but even from earlier in the postseason.

After Game 2 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, the Edmonton Oilers, down 2-0, had given up 12 goals. The offence was still good, scoring seven goals over those two games and almost earning Edmonton Game 1, but the goaltending from Stuart Skinner was porous. After switching him for Calvin Pickard, Edmonton came back and won their series against LA and when Stuart Skinner returned to the pipes after an injury to Pickard, overall, he looked good, earning three shutouts in the seven playoff games that followed and winning all but one of those seven games. 

In all, since Game 2 of Round 1, the Edmonton Oilers have a 12-2 record; they only needed five games to close out each of the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights in the following rounds. They have also scored six goals or more in four of their wins, while only failing to score at least four goals on four occasions. In addition, in these playoffs, Edmonton has only lost once when scoring four goals or more. That one loss was in Game 1 of their series with the Kings, and Edmonton won the eight other games played with such a condition in mind. 

With the Oilers only gaining more momentum heading into this Stanley Cup Final, it seems like the Panthers are going to be in for a far different test from the one they faced last year. 

Meanwhile, the Florida Panthers are fielding their best team yet. A second-straight Stanley Cup would finish the job for the Cats. 

Speaking of the Panthers, it’s been kind of a roller coaster playoffs for them. Despite only losing five times on the way to their third straight Cup Final, the Panthers have had their fair share of tests on the way. Specifically, five of their twelve wins to get to the Final were decided by two goals or less, the Cats needed to come back in Game 5 of their Conference Finals series against Carolina, and they got pushed to seven games by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who the Panthers blew out on the road twice by matching 6-1 tallies. 

Regardless, this is still a really good Panthers team. Even with offseason losses, the acquisitions of Brad Marchand and Seth Jones have paid dividends for the team's performance, especially with regard to depth scoring. Take Brad Marchand for example; the former Boston Bruin is fourth on the team in playoff points this postseason, firmly ahead of established Panthers like Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell. 

In terms of goaltending, Sergei Bobrovsky has had his runs of bad goaltending this year, but he’s still been able to make the big saves. In his team's second-round series against Toronto, Sergei Bobrovsky gave up at least four goals in each of the first three games. Since then, for the remaining four games, Bobrovsky gave up a total of four goals, with the Panthers scoring a total of fourteen over that stretch. And in the first three games against Carolina, he also only gave up four goals. 

With all this said, it’s clear that the Panthers have had yet another strong run to the Stanley Cup Final, and the opportunity is there for the team to not only continue the state of Florida’s run of dominance in the 2020s but also to cement a dynasty and win their second Stanley Cup in three seasons.

Series X-factors:

Edmonton: Corey Perry + the power play

With Zach Hyman likely out for the remainder of the postseason as a result of an upper-body injury, it’s going to be the responsibility of forwards like Corey Perry to step up in his place. 

So far, he has. Among other depth pieces, Corey Perry was able to score a goal in the absence of Zach Hyman, helping to power Edmonton to a series-clinching win in Game 5. 

And the one scary thing about Edmonton? Their power play has only started to get going in their Western Conference Finals series against Dallas; the onus will be on Florida to stay out of the box and keep the physicality in check against an increasingly potent Oilers power play.

Florida: Sergei Bobrovsky

It’s clear that Florida has the goalie advantage once again. However, Edmonton is capable of neutralising that by outscoring their defensive inferiority; when the Oilers score more than four goals this postseason, they have an 8-1 record in such games. 

With that said, Sergei Bobrovsky has only given up more than four goals on three occasions - in Game 3 of Round 1 against Tampa Bay and in the first two games of the Panthers’ second-round series against Toronto. 

If he can keep his form up, then as long as the Panthers are able to keep scoring at the rate they are, having scored at least five goals in seven of the last ten games, the path to four wins against Edmonton should be a somewhat-clearer one. 

Final prediction:

This series could go one of three ways. Either both teams are unable to score and this series ultimately becomes a goalie-dogfight, both teams can’t stop scoring and we see a lot of shootout games, or one team completely grabs the upper hand and dominates. 

That said, I can’t really see Edmonton going down 3-0 and having to come back once again. This is a far hungrier and improved Oilers team that has been here before, and they will know how to win these Cup Final games. 

If this series is decided by goaltending and defence, then the Panthers are going to have a slight advantage on that front. If it is decided on offence, then the edge belongs to Edmonton. On paper, either team's advantage offsets the other, making this series a tough one to call. 

I think that if Edmonton is going to win this series, they have to come out swinging, and they’ve proven they can do that in these playoffs. I think they’ll take two of the first three games, with their two wins coming in dominant fashion, but the Panthers will force it all the way to Game 7. At that stage, it’s anyone’s game. But we’ve seen Oilers stars step up and win games before - Connor McDavid did score the game-winner for Canada in the Four Nations gold medal game against an American team with the likes of Matthew Tkachuk. 

In a Game 7 on home ice, I see Connor McDavid stepping up in a big way to lead the Oilers' offence to a series-clinching win, bringing the Stanley Cup to Canada for the first time since 1993. 

Prediction: Oilers in seven

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Article written by Noah Guttman