June 24, 2024 • 8 mins
NO NHL team has come back from 3-0 down to win a Stanley Cup Final since the Toronto Maple Leafs did it against the Detroit Red Wings in April 1942. Now, 82 years later, the Edmonton Oilers may change that history.
12PM NZT FLORIDA PANTHERS HOST THE EDMONTON OILERS IN A WINNER-TAKE-ALL GAME 7.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Whether it's gum boots or rugby boots.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Country Sport Breakfast has your covered on gold Sport,
your home of live commentary. Sixteen past eight Here Tuesday
morning on gold Sport, we are talking ice hockey. We
don't often do that here on the show, but we're
doing it today. No NHL team has come back from
threes zip down to win a Stanley Cup Final since
the Toronto Maple Leaves did it against the Detroit Red
(00:26):
Wings in April of nineteen forty two. Eighty two years later,
the Edmonton Oilers may change history. Twelve o'clock New Zealand time,
midday today, Florida Panthers hosts the Edmonton Oilers in a
winner takes all game. Joining us on the CSB this morning,
North American correspondent Toby Kerr.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Morning Toby, Good morning Brian. What an exciting day to
be on with you here talking hockey mate.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
This is amazing. Since losing the first three games, Edmonton
went on to win the next three and outscored the
Panthers too by combined scores eighteen to five en route
to try tying the series up three games apace is
all the momentum still with Edmonton, Tybee.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know what you would you would think so at
this point and I think that a lot of us
here after they went down to three games to none,
we kind of gave up on it. And it was
the same with the NBA Finals, right we had another
three to zero series and that one ended without very
much drama, and we kind of thought we were heading
for the same thing. But the thing is this Edmonton team,
even in the three losses, they had looked pretty good.
(01:30):
They had outshot Florida in two of the three games,
and sometimes by a significant margin. Florida's goaltending had.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Just been better.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So you saw the path for the Oilers to come
back this whole time.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Did we think it was gonna happen?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Absolutely not, But now that they're here, you know, it's
hard not to kind of think that they're going to
carry it all the way through at this point into
a Game seven victory and snapped Canada's long drought without
a Stanley Cup since nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
But we'll see, very excited to see what happens this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Edmonton's led Bacona MC. Probably a lot of people in
New Zealand wouldn't know that name, But he's a generational talent.
Is he the key for Edmonton? Plays well? He could
hold the cup up at the end of the game.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
He absolutely is, And I think that a lot of
the narratives around the Stanley Cup Final have to do
with Connor McDavid. He's been a great player. Generational, I
think is the exact right word. He's the next one,
if you will, in hockey. But hockey is a sport
ice hockey where you really don't have a one player
who can dominate. You don't have a sort of Lebron
James in basketball who can take over a game in
(02:30):
the same way.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's so team oriented.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
You still can only spend about a third of the
game on the ice and affect the play so much
as one star player. So he's certainly at the center
of all of these stories, and he's been very, very
good recently for them. And then you can just see,
even as someone who's newer to ice hockey, if you're
going to watch the game this afternoon, you'll be able
to tell who Connor McDavid is right away.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
He's the biggest, fastest, best one.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So you really have to think that this would be
a big, a big step for him and becoming an
all time great in NHL history if he needs to
that first Stanley Cup, particularly because he plays for the
Edmonton Oiliers, where the great one is when we call
him Wayne Gretzky a one so often, so this would
really be a significant moment in his career if they
got that done.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
On the other side of the ice, the Florida Panthers
winning the first three then losing three stride. What went
wrong for them.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well, I think a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Again, the wins and the losses for this Florida team
comes down to goaltending. Now they have a thirty five
year old goaltender named Sergei Bobrovski who's in net. And
if you told us a few years ago that the
Florida Panthers were in the Stanley Cup Final, it probably
would not have thought that Sergei Lebrovski would still be
the man in net doing it. They signed him to
a massive contract as a free agent a few years ago,
but then they drafted a young player named Spencer Knight
(03:44):
who appeared to be the future of the team, and
his career has been derailed for a couple of reasons.
So you have the old guy Bribrowski in there, and
in the beginning he was stealing the series for them.
He had a great playoffs and he was really the
difference in two of the three games to start the series.
Not that he's been bad, he had a bad Game four,
but he's looked at least human, he's looked mortal. And
(04:05):
the Oilers, who've probably had the majority of the chances,
they're excellent in the counter attack. Florida will get a
chance and if they don't score, suddenly Edmonton's back the
other way with a really good opportunity in Bobroski hasn't
been bad, but he has been beatable now and certainly
after there was an eight to one drubbing in Game
four that started to change. And here we are where
(04:26):
the last game he's allowed at least five goals. Each
of the last three games there have been several empty
net goals there.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So not all his.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Fault, but Bobroski and the Panthers, I think, really need
to have a lockdown defensive effort to stop Edmonton here
because the Oilers offense is just firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Florida is not a place you would associate with ice hockey.
Imagine there's not a lot of ice down Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Well, yes, this is true, and remarkably because of the
expansion the NHL in the nineties really made a big
effort to expand to the southern United States, and the
last five years, out of the Eastern Conference, it's been
a team based in Florida, either the Tampa Bay Lightning
or the Florida Panthers. And the Panthers have never won
a Stanley Cup, but they've been there three times now
(05:10):
this is their third one, including last year when they
were an upstart team that made it all the way there.
Now they probably came in as the favorites. And interestingly enough,
it's not a traditional hockey market. You're certainly not playing
hockey outside in Florida, and their arenas sort of in
a swamp in the middle of nowhere. But they have
a sneaky hardcore fan base. It's really become trendier, especially
(05:31):
with the team's success recently. So this Florida team, they
would certainly like to push it over the top, and
if they lost, it would be a historic collapse. You
mentioned eighty two years since the last time that's happened,
and we've only even had a team go to a
seventh game after being up three to nothing ten times
in NHL history. But the good news for Florida Panthers
is that most of the time, the team that's lost
(05:53):
three straight actually wins the game seven, and somewhat counterintuitively
and overwhelmingly, the home team has the advantage in the
game seven situations. So there's some reason for optimism here
for the few Florida Panthers fans that do exist.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Why have the Canadian sides had such little success in
recent times on the last thirty years.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
It's a great question.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's certainly one that we've mulled over plenty here. You know,
the reality is that most of the biggest representation of
players in the league continues to be Canadians. So it's
plenty of Canadian players winning, just not wearing Canadian uniforms.
There in Canadian jerseys. So there are thirty two teams
in the NHL and seven of them are Canadians, So statistically,
(06:36):
you would think we'd be due for one. But to
be honest, Brian, it's been a lot of bad luck.
There's really no crime or reason for it. We've had
several Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup Finals since that
ninety three Montreal Canadians victory. The Oilers have been there before,
the Flames Montreal Canadians a few years ago. But to
be honest, I think it's just a lot of luck
(06:57):
at curse as we will call it here, and there's
a chance though this afternoon that curse is finally broken.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
All right, Toby, Who's gonna win? And why?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, I gotta say it.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I'm a pessimist, Adam Adam Cooper has me on every
Saturday morning here and I'm always picking against the Canadian teams,
and I gotta do it again. I think Florida is
a more complete team. I think that they're a more
well rounded team. They have the finals experience. The bounce
back from Edmonton is huge, but now suddenly with them
coming all the way back to Game seven, the pressure
is actually back.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
On the Oilers.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
As I would see it, I think that this Florida
team does find a way to stave off what would
be a humiliating series defeat.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Here.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They're just more complete and their head coach Pal Maurice
has been here before, whereas on the other side, it's
just a young team all around for Edmonton, with a
lot of flaws, most notably they're goaltending. So if it's
one reason I like the goaltending better on Florida, I
like the experience, I like the home team.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
The history says them.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So I'm sorry for anybody to turn it on Canada
breaking the curse here, but I'm picking the Florida Panthers tonight.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Let's say read it too, Panthers.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Fantastic, Toby, thank you for joining us today. I love
it when it comes down to a decider like that
Game seven. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Enjoy nothing better than playoff hockey. Always happy to talk
about it.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Thank you, Brian Absolutely Toby Kerk Canadian sports journalists
Whether it's gum boots or rugby boots.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Country Sport Breakfast has your covered on gold Sport,
your home of live commentary. Sixteen past eight Here Tuesday
morning on gold Sport, we are talking ice hockey. We
don't often do that here on the show, but we're
doing it today. No NHL team has come back from
threes zip down to win a Stanley Cup Final since
the Toronto Maple Leaves did it against the Detroit Red
(00:26):
Wings in April of nineteen forty two. Eighty two years later,
the Edmonton Oilers may change history. Twelve o'clock New Zealand time,
midday today, Florida Panthers hosts the Edmonton Oilers in a
winner takes all game. Joining us on the CSB this morning,
North American correspondent Toby Kerr.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Morning Toby, Good morning Brian. What an exciting day to
be on with you here talking hockey mate.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
This is amazing. Since losing the first three games, Edmonton
went on to win the next three and outscored the
Panthers too by combined scores eighteen to five en route
to try tying the series up three games apace is
all the momentum still with Edmonton, Tybee.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know what you would you would think so at
this point and I think that a lot of us
here after they went down to three games to none,
we kind of gave up on it. And it was
the same with the NBA Finals, right we had another
three to zero series and that one ended without very
much drama, and we kind of thought we were heading
for the same thing. But the thing is this Edmonton team,
even in the three losses, they had looked pretty good.
(01:30):
They had outshot Florida in two of the three games,
and sometimes by a significant margin. Florida's goaltending had.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Just been better.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So you saw the path for the Oilers to come
back this whole time.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Did we think it was gonna happen?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Absolutely not, But now that they're here, you know, it's
hard not to kind of think that they're going to
carry it all the way through at this point into
a Game seven victory and snapped Canada's long drought without
a Stanley Cup since nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
But we'll see, very excited to see what happens this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Edmonton's led Bacona MC. Probably a lot of people in
New Zealand wouldn't know that name, But he's a generational talent.
Is he the key for Edmonton? Plays well? He could
hold the cup up at the end of the game.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
He absolutely is, And I think that a lot of
the narratives around the Stanley Cup Final have to do
with Connor McDavid. He's been a great player. Generational, I
think is the exact right word. He's the next one,
if you will, in hockey. But hockey is a sport
ice hockey where you really don't have a one player
who can dominate. You don't have a sort of Lebron
James in basketball who can take over a game in
(02:30):
the same way.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's so team oriented.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
You still can only spend about a third of the
game on the ice and affect the play so much
as one star player. So he's certainly at the center
of all of these stories, and he's been very, very
good recently for them. And then you can just see,
even as someone who's newer to ice hockey, if you're
going to watch the game this afternoon, you'll be able
to tell who Connor McDavid is right away.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
He's the biggest, fastest, best one.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So you really have to think that this would be
a big, a big step for him and becoming an
all time great in NHL history if he needs to
that first Stanley Cup, particularly because he plays for the
Edmonton Oiliers, where the great one is when we call
him Wayne Gretzky a one so often, so this would
really be a significant moment in his career if they
got that done.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
On the other side of the ice, the Florida Panthers
winning the first three then losing three stride. What went
wrong for them.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well, I think a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Again, the wins and the losses for this Florida team
comes down to goaltending. Now they have a thirty five
year old goaltender named Sergei Bobrovski who's in net. And
if you told us a few years ago that the
Florida Panthers were in the Stanley Cup Final, it probably
would not have thought that Sergei Lebrovski would still be
the man in net doing it. They signed him to
a massive contract as a free agent a few years ago,
but then they drafted a young player named Spencer Knight
(03:44):
who appeared to be the future of the team, and
his career has been derailed for a couple of reasons.
So you have the old guy Bribrowski in there, and
in the beginning he was stealing the series for them.
He had a great playoffs and he was really the
difference in two of the three games to start the series.
Not that he's been bad, he had a bad Game four,
but he's looked at least human, he's looked mortal. And
(04:05):
the Oilers, who've probably had the majority of the chances,
they're excellent in the counter attack. Florida will get a
chance and if they don't score, suddenly Edmonton's back the
other way with a really good opportunity in Bobroski hasn't
been bad, but he has been beatable now and certainly
after there was an eight to one drubbing in Game
four that started to change. And here we are where
(04:26):
the last game he's allowed at least five goals. Each
of the last three games there have been several empty
net goals there.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So not all his.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Fault, but Bobroski and the Panthers, I think, really need
to have a lockdown defensive effort to stop Edmonton here
because the Oilers offense is just firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Florida is not a place you would associate with ice hockey.
Imagine there's not a lot of ice down Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Well, yes, this is true, and remarkably because of the
expansion the NHL in the nineties really made a big
effort to expand to the southern United States, and the
last five years, out of the Eastern Conference, it's been
a team based in Florida, either the Tampa Bay Lightning
or the Florida Panthers. And the Panthers have never won
a Stanley Cup, but they've been there three times now
(05:10):
this is their third one, including last year when they
were an upstart team that made it all the way there.
Now they probably came in as the favorites. And interestingly enough,
it's not a traditional hockey market. You're certainly not playing
hockey outside in Florida, and their arenas sort of in
a swamp in the middle of nowhere. But they have
a sneaky hardcore fan base. It's really become trendier, especially
(05:31):
with the team's success recently. So this Florida team, they
would certainly like to push it over the top, and
if they lost, it would be a historic collapse. You
mentioned eighty two years since the last time that's happened,
and we've only even had a team go to a
seventh game after being up three to nothing ten times
in NHL history. But the good news for Florida Panthers
is that most of the time, the team that's lost
(05:53):
three straight actually wins the game seven, and somewhat counterintuitively
and overwhelmingly, the home team has the advantage in the
game seven situations. So there's some reason for optimism here
for the few Florida Panthers fans that do exist.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Why have the Canadian sides had such little success in
recent times on the last thirty years.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
It's a great question.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's certainly one that we've mulled over plenty here. You know,
the reality is that most of the biggest representation of
players in the league continues to be Canadians. So it's
plenty of Canadian players winning, just not wearing Canadian uniforms.
There in Canadian jerseys. So there are thirty two teams
in the NHL and seven of them are Canadians, So statistically,
(06:36):
you would think we'd be due for one. But to
be honest, Brian, it's been a lot of bad luck.
There's really no crime or reason for it. We've had
several Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup Finals since that
ninety three Montreal Canadians victory. The Oilers have been there before,
the Flames Montreal Canadians a few years ago. But to
be honest, I think it's just a lot of luck
(06:57):
at curse as we will call it here, and there's
a chance though this afternoon that curse is finally broken.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
All right, Toby, Who's gonna win? And why?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, I gotta say it.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I'm a pessimist, Adam Adam Cooper has me on every
Saturday morning here and I'm always picking against the Canadian teams,
and I gotta do it again. I think Florida is
a more complete team. I think that they're a more
well rounded team. They have the finals experience. The bounce
back from Edmonton is huge, but now suddenly with them
coming all the way back to Game seven, the pressure
is actually back.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
On the Oilers.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
As I would see it, I think that this Florida
team does find a way to stave off what would
be a humiliating series defeat.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Here.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They're just more complete and their head coach Pal Maurice
has been here before, whereas on the other side, it's
just a young team all around for Edmonton, with a
lot of flaws, most notably they're goaltending. So if it's
one reason I like the goaltending better on Florida, I
like the experience, I like the home team.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
The history says them.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So I'm sorry for anybody to turn it on Canada
breaking the curse here, but I'm picking the Florida Panthers tonight.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Let's say read it too, Panthers.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Fantastic, Toby, thank you for joining us today. I love
it when it comes down to a decider like that
Game seven. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Enjoy nothing better than playoff hockey. Always happy to talk
about it.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Thank you, Brian Absolutely Toby Kerk Canadian sports journalists
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