It is formally summer season, and the perfect two groups in hockey in the course of the winter months of the 2023-24 NHL season are nonetheless enjoying.
Whichever crew wins Recreation 6 — and Recreation 7, if vital — of the Stanley Cup ultimate between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers that resumes in Alberta on Friday night time is not going to solely be a crew forever as hockey’s champion. Will probably be a uncommon crew for all seasons, too.
Let’s clarify: Summer season started within the Northern Hemisphere on Thursday. That makes this the fourth time within the final 5 years that the NHL season has stretched into the summer season months and the sixth time that it is occurred in league historical past.
However the Panthers or Oilers — or each — will be part of a really quick checklist of groups to win video games in fall, winter, spring and summer season in the identical NHL season.
“We’re extremely fortunate, for positive,” Panthers ahead Ryan Lomberg mentioned. “We had been speaking in regards to the different day, that groups that have not made the playoffs have been at house for a pair months now.”
The primary two cases of Cup ultimate video games getting performed in summer season — 1995 and 2013 — had been as a result of these seasons began late on account of labour strife and no video games had been performed within the fall. The 2019-20 season began within the fall 2019 and ended within the fall 2020, however noticed no video games performed in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020-21 season stretched into summer season however did not begin till mid-January so, once more, no fall video games had been performed.
There have been two groups in NHL historical past — the 2021-22 Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning — to win video games in fall, winter, spring and summer season in the identical season. That 12 months’s schedule noticed a slew of postponements due to the pandemic and the Stanley Cup ultimate stretched into the summer season. Colorado went 2-1, Tampa Bay 1-2 following the June solstice that 12 months.
The winner of Friday’s Recreation 6 of this 12 months’s Cup ultimate in Edmonton will grow to be the third crew in NHL historical past to win a recreation in fall, winter, spring and summer season in the identical hockey season. (And if it is the Oilers, meaning the Panthers may have one other likelihood to affix that checklist in Dawn, Fla., on Monday night time in Recreation 7.)
Because the Edmonton Oilers tackle the Florida Panthers within the Stanley Cup ultimate, right here’s a glance again on the final time Edmonton received the title — 1990.
For the file, if we take a look at the precise meteorological seasons inside this hockey season, the Panthers and Oilers have been comparatively shut record-wise all 12 months:
- Video games performed within the fall — Florida 18-12-3, Edmonton 14-15-1.
- Video games performed within the winter — Edmonton 27-6-4, Florida 27-7-2. (No crew had a greater file within the winter months this season than the Oilers and Panthers did.)
- Video games performed within the spring, together with playoffs — Florida 22-12-3, Edmonton 22-15-2.
“Extremely fortunate and lucky to be on this place,” Lomberg mentioned.
The one time the Stanley Cup has been handed out later within the calendar 12 months has been seasons affected by a strike, lockout or the pandemic. The final time the Oilers received it, in 1990, it was Could 24.
Kane skates
Evander Kane, who has been scratched the previous three video games due to the sports activities hernia he had been enjoying via, took half in Oilers follow on a fifth line, which might point out he isn’t penciled in to play in Recreation 6.
Coach Kris Knoblauch was not able to make any declarations, constant together with his habits all through the sequence, saying he had not but talked to athletic coach T.D. Forss to see how Kane was feeling.
“We have now received some issues to consider,” Knoblauch mentioned. “However we now have prospects.”
Recreation 6 Historical past
Each groups are 2-0 in Recreation 6 to this point in these playoffs. Edmonton beat Vancouver 5-1 and Dallas 2-1; Florida beat Boston and the New York Rangers, every time by a rating of 2-1.
All-time, Edmonton is 17-9 in Recreation 6 and 10-7 at house in Recreation 6s. Florida is 6-3 all-time within the sixth recreation of a sequence, 2-3 when that contest is on the highway.
The Edmonton Oilers have lastly managed to win a highway recreation within the Stanley Cup finals in opposition to the Florida Panthers and drive a Recreation 6 again at house in Edmonton. CBC’s Sam Samson adopted the crew to Dawn, Fla,. and breaks down the win and the way followers are feeling about dragging the sequence again to Alberta.
Lengthy Season
One crew will set a file, the opposite will tie a file on Friday.
Recreation 6 of the Stanley Cup Remaining is Edmonton’s 106th contest of the season, tying the 2005-06 Oilers for essentially the most in a season (together with playoffs) in franchise historical past.
Will probably be the one hundred and fifth of the season for the Panthers. That is a Florida single-season file; the 1995-96 Panthers performed 104 video games.
The NHL file for video games in a season is 108, carried out on six events, most just lately by the St. Louis Blues of their 2018-19 Stanley Cup title season.
