BLOG: Oilers aren't about to let Stanley Cup opportunity go to waste

EDMONTON, AB – Get ready to run the gauntlet that is the Stanley Cup Final.

For the Oilers' players who have been lucky enough to have been there before, and even win the whole thing in Corey Perry's case, it's all gas and no brakes to the final game unlike anything else they've experienced over their careers.

From the extra interviews and media attention off the ice to the heightened emotions and the pressure on it, thanks in large part to the experiences of Mattias Janmark, Mattias Ekholm, Adam Henrique and Corey Perry in the Oilers dressing room, there's a clear message being communicated to their teammates when it comes to putting everything on the line to lift Lord Stanley:

Manage those emotions and stay focused on the task at hand, because these opportunities don't come around every year.

"It's a lot of emotions involved, especially when you win the Conference Final and you get the trophy and whatnot with the hats and everything," said Mattias Janmark, who played in the 2020 Final with the Dallas Stars. "There's a lot of emotions involved."

Janmark was with the Stars during the bubble season at Rogers Place when they lost in the Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games, having been unable to experience the authentic feeling and vibe from making it this far with no fans in the building – or even outside for that matter.

That was until Sunday night, when the Swedish forward was driving home post-game and shared a special moment with his mom, who made the trip to Edmonton for the final rounds of the 2024 Playoffs and reminded him how special it is to be able to share this moment closely with family, friends and teammates.

"I have my mom here, so she was here for the last game and we drove home and she was pretty much filming the whole ride home saying she was going to remember it forever," he said. "So I think that part of it gets a little more special here. Whenever you go on a run like this, it's special wherever you are."

But amidst all the noise of navigating a stage as big as this one, keeping their focus on the present and what they can control will be major points of emphasis for the Oilers against a Panthers side that's one year removed from losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Final.

Oilers' trade-deadline acquisition Adam Henrique was a rookie in 2012 and scored the game-winning goal for the Devils in Game 7 of the Third Round against the Rangers to send them to the Stanley Cup Final, but his early experiences have yet to be replicated.

Henrique scored two goals in the 2012 Final against Los Angeles before waiting 12 years for his next playoff tally, only making it to the playoffs once between then and now in 2018 as a member of the Ducks before joining the Oilers this past March via trade and scoring in Game 6 of the First Round.

The decade-plus gap for the 34-year-old between chances at the Cup is helping reinforce the message inside the Oilers locker room that they need to seize upon their opportunity, because you never know what'll happen the next year, the year after that, or the year after that.

"It doesn't feel like that long ago, but I was a rookie and I guess I didn't fully understand what it takes every single year to get there," he said. "You think, 'Okay, we'll just be in the playoffs again next year and hopefully get back here and have another opportunity'. But that doesn't happen. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and there's so much that changes every single year."

Defenceman Mattias Ekholm remembers his run to the 2017 Final with the Nashville Predators, losing in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins after falling behind 2-0 in the series early. The Swede was one of many fresh-faced players on a Predators' roster when it came to playing in the Final, boasting only one player (Mike Fisher, '06-07 Senators) who'd been there before.

Ekholm believed the inexperience was a mental hurdle that his team couldn't overcome before they were two games down heading back home to Nashville.

"I think the way my every final is different," he said. "I think we had one guy or something that had seen a Final before. One thing that maybe we did, consciously or not, but we obviously got off to a rough start. We lost both on the road and it was almost like it took a game and a half before we figured out, 'Oh, we have to play hockey, too. It's not just a big All-Star Game or a big showcase, so that's something that I remember that be a lesson."

"But come eight o'clock Eastern on Saturday, we've got to be dialled in and ready to go because if you dip your toe in the water too long, it's over in a heartbeat."

For Corey Perry, part of his draw before signing with the Oilers beyond his ability as a pest around the opponents' net was his veteran post-season experience from winning with the Ducks in 2007, along with making an NHL-record five trips to the Stanley Cup Final as a member of five different teams – four of which in the last five years.

The 39-year-old knows what it takes to compete and succeed in the emotionally and physically charged environment of the Final and echoed the sentiments of his old Ducks' teammate Henrique, mentioning that five separate trips to the Final haven't felt like enough after winning only one with the Ducks in '07.

"It was 17 years ago. It's a while," he said. "I didn't have that opportunity to play for [another] Stanley Cup until five years ago, so 12 or 13 years in between, and you never really know if you're going to get back there. Every year goes by and you're out in the First Round, Second Round, Third Round, and you just say, 'Oh, maybe next year' and they just keep adding up.

"So like Adam said, you can't take anything for granted. This being my fourth trip in the last five years to the Final, it's a lot of work to get here. But at the end of the day, when you have the chance to lift it over your head, it's all worth it."

There's also the added pressure of being the last Canadian team left standing, representing the nation's best chance to bring the Cup north of the border since 1994 after Perry & the Montreal Canadiens came the closest in 2021 before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games.

While it will be much more exciting than his COVID-impacted season in Montreal, the Oilers aren't piling any extra pressure upon themselves as Canada's last hope, because once the Final begins, there's nothing left to think about except the result.

"It's not quite the same, so it's a different atmosphere and different animal when you have fans and everything," Perry said. "We're not putting extra pressure on ourselves to end this drought of Canada. We're just focusing on ourselves and what we have to do and what's at stake. Everybody knows what the drought's been out there. It's been talked about and we all know it, so it doesn't need to be said anymore. It's just a matter of what we have to do."

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch is into the Stanley Cup Final for the first time as a rookie bench boss in the NHL and will be relying on that experience just like his players when it comes to helping navigate the emotional and physical rigours of trying to win a championship.

In addition to all the extra-curriculars that come with competing for the Stanley Cup, this Final will also be the longest distance between two competing teams – approximately 4,090 kilometres from Edmonton, AB to Sunrise, FL – so that's one more thing to add to the list of things that need to be managed by the Blue & Orange. 

In the head coach's eyes, you can't have enough guys who've been through it all.

"I think the more guys, the better. The Stanley Cup Final is different," he said.

"There's more media requests, there's more interviews and there's just more attention. There are more things in the papers, and I think it's good to have those guys who've gone through it all to just settle everything down and make it feel like just a regular game because we want our players to worry about playing the game when they're on the ice.

"If you get too caught up in everything else that's going on, guys often get distracted. But having those guys who've gone through it before just eliminates those distractions and allows everyone to just control the controllables.

"Control what's important, and what's important is just playing your game."