McDavid, Oilers 'never found a way' against Panthers in Stanley Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Connor McDavid sat in the same locker room where his heart was broken one year ago after losing in the Stanley Cup Final. And just like last season, he was forced to go through those same emotions again on Tuesday.

McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers listened to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman present the Florida Panthers with the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season following a 5-1 loss in Game 6 of the Final at Amerant Bank Arena.

Again, it was not Edmonton’s year.

“We lost to a really good team,” McDavid said. “Nobody quit, nobody threw the towel in, but they’re a heck of a team. They’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason.”

The Oilers were looking to extend the series to a deciding seventh game like they had last season, when they rallied from a 3-0 series deficit before ultimately losing 2-1 in Game 7.

But like it had for most of the series, Edmonton was forced to play from behind after falling behind 2-0 in the first. And despite managing two come-from-behind overtime victories in the series (Games 1 and 4), it eventually caught up to them.

“Their forecheck was great, they tilted the rink,” McDavid said. “They were able to stay on top of us all over the place and we were never really able to generate any momentum up the ice. We kept trying the same thing over and over again, banging our heads against the wall. Credit to them, they played well.”

Edmonton needed to play a flawless game to stave off elimination against Florida, which thrives on exploiting mistakes.

But in the first period, the Oilers bobbled two pucks at the blue line, and both ended up in the net. Then in the second period, goaltender Stuart Skinner casually blockered aside a soft shot right onto the stick of Aleksander Barkov, who quickly passed to Sam Reinhart -- with the puck deflecting in off his skate -- to extend the lead to 3-0.

“We kept on saying we want to try and win a 2-1 game and we never found a way to do that, obviously,” McDavid said. “They have great players. How many guys had 20-plus points in the postseason (six)? They’re as deep as it comes.”

Looking back, the Oilers could be commended for getting back to the Final after limping into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a laundry list of injuries, including to McDavid and forward Leon Draisaitl, toward the end of the regular season.

But after losing the first two games against the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference First Round, everything came together for Edmonton.

It won four straight to get past Los Angeles before eliminating both the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars in five games to set up the rematch in the Final, this time with home-ice advantage.

The Oilers could not make the most of the advantage, however, losing two of the three games at Rogers Place.

“There’s no silver lining to this. It’s still heart-wrenching, it’s very difficult to handle right now,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Just because we were maybe the underdogs going into the L.A. series, the underdogs going against Vegas and the Dallas series, it hurts right now and I don’t think it’s going to let up for a while.”

Needing just 10 games to get through Vegas and Dallas, Edmonton looked primed to win its first Stanley Cup championship since 1990, particularly with home-ice advantage for the first time this postseason.

Edmonton got off to a good start with a 4-3 overtime win in Game 1, and it came close to extending the lead in the series before losing 5-4 in double overtime in Game 2.

The Oilers then responded to a 6-1 loss in Game 3 by rallying from three goals down to win 5-4 in overtime in Game 4, setting up the chance to move within one win of the Cup at home in Game 5. But like the majority of the series, Edmonton came out flat in that game and lost 5-2.

Then came Tuesday, when the third period essentially served as a victory lap for Florida.

Down 3-0, Skinner was pulled for the extra attacker with seven minutes to go in a last-ditch effort to ignite a comeback. Reinhart, though, would score into the empty net shortly after at 13:26 before adding another empty-net goal at 14:55 to make it 5-0.

Forward Vasily Podkolzin scored for the Oilers at 15:18, but all that accomplished was ending Sergei Bobrovsky’s shutout bid.

“The takeaway is that we didn’t win,” Draisaitl said. “Nobody cares. Like, nobody cares. We didn’t win, so try again next year.”

With Draisaitl set to begin an eight-year, $112 million contract ($14 million average annual value) he signed on Sept. 3, and McDavid expected to sign another long-term contract with one season remaining on his current eight-year deal, the championship window should stay open for Edmonton.

Along with Draisaitl and McDavid, the Oilers have most of their core coming back next season.

“I think so,” McDavid said. “We still have a lot of confidence and belief. I don’t think people thought we were going to make it this far. We believe and we came up just short again.”

As was the case last season, the Oilers will look to learn from this experience and apply it in their pursuit of that elusive championship.

“For sure there are lessons,” Skinner said. “Lessons as individuals, how you can show up better, how you can react better in certain situations. Also, as a team we need to learn from this right away. Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating.”