Stanley Cup Final blog: Connor Brown

Edmonton Oilers forward Connor Brown will be keeping his own blog throughout the 2025 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers. He will check in regularly with behind-the-scenes access.

In his second entry after a 5-4 double-overtime loss in Game 2 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Brown talks about how close things have been and the magic of Corey Perry, who scored with 18 seconds left in the third period to tie the game. It was the latest tying goal in the history of the Cup Final. The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 heading to Florida for Game 3 on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

The margins are very thin out there; two really good teams. That being said, I don’t think we have played our best yet. It’s on us to get to our best.

These overtime games are marathons, and we’ve had two of them in a row now.

In the overtime, you want to be cognizant of not giving up breakaways, and we were. Stuart Skinner bailed us out on a few chances, and they were able to capitalize there with Brad Marchand in the second overtime.

We had some looks too. Those games are fun to be a part of more than anything. Definitely fun to be part of. We kept the crowd on their toes but obviously were looking for a different result.

You have to have a short memory in the Stanley Cup Final.

It’s definitely exciting hockey. It’s two really good teams, two deep teams. I think it’s only going to get more and more fun. I don’t think it’s going to get looser; it’s going to be a tight series going forward. We need to understand that and play accordingly.

Corey Perry is unbelievable with what he is able to do with his skill set. To do that at his age (40), he’s got such a great brain for the game and such a good knack for scoring. We are lucky to have a guy like that in our room.

He’s a big, lumbery guy and he has such a long reach and he’s not easy to tie up. You kind of feel like you have him and he always seems to have his hands free and has the ability to make plays. That makes him so effective.

That was a big goal for us to tie it up. It’s too bad we couldn’t finish up, but we are in a good spot going into Game 3.

After Perry scored, the locker room was high, but steady. We were just looking to get the next one. We are a business-like group in here. We have a high sense of belief and we never think we are out of a game, so moments like that don’t shock us. Everyone was just looking to get the next one. It didn’t come tonight.

I think the first two games have been pretty chaotic. I think that is the way they want to play too. They are in your face and causing a lot of chaos.

As the series goes on, we will learn more and more of what works and we’ve done a really good job as a group in that we’ve gotten better in every series as it has gone on. I expect that to continue.

Now, it’s off to Florida for Game 3. I think we will have some good sleeps for sure on that flight, but guys are in great shape and build up all year to be able to play these type of games.

We have a couple of days off between games, so we will be ready to rest up and regroup.

We’ll be ready to go for Game 3.