Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers face off in a Stanley Cup Final rematch of NHL powerhouses

EDMONTON Alberta AP At the height of his hockey career after winning the Stanley Cup last year with the Florida Panthers Matthew Tkachuk had a message for Connor McDavid at the Edmonton Oilers captain s lowest point of his career in the handshake line instantly following Contest We re gonna see you again next year in it Tkachuk declared McDavid did not think much of it at the time Sitting with a larger-than-life photo of Tkachuk raising the Cup over his left shoulder Tuesday on the eve of the rematch he uncovered it funny to look back on how it s worked out Two good teams then two good teams now McDavid revealed Let s get after it The Panthers and Oilers meet again in the Stanley Cup Final that begins with Challenge Wednesday night in Edmonton looking like two NHL powerhouses on a collision curriculum I presumed that it was going to be us two again Tkachuk reported I think we re the two best teams in the league And if everything would go to plan it would likely be us two again in the finals There were plenty of twists and turns along the way from a series of anticipated and unexpected offseason departures last summer through a long regular season and even playoff stumbles At every turn this spring Florida and Edmonton seemed to flex just the kind of muscles teams need to win when it matters majority The Oilers lost their first two games in the first round They ve won of games since The Panthers lost the first two games of their second-round series and fell behind - in Contest They ve gone - since That kind of dominance made another cross-continental championship series feel inevitable The only question is whether it will end with Florida going back to back or whether McDavid the undisputed best participant in the sport absolutely hoisting the Stanley Cup Winning in the playoffs takes everything you ve got McDavid explained All of our potential is in going into beating the Florida Panthers There should be nothing else on anyone s mind What is the same Edmonton still has McDavid and longtime running mate Leon Draisaitl and they re the top two scorers in the playoffs with and points apiece Florida still has its core led by Tkachuk captain Aleksander Barkov Sam Reinhart and all-world goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky The Panthers are in the final for a third year in a row after falling short against Vegas in when injuries piled up Their confidence has only grown We know how hard it is to make it this far to make the finals Barkov commented The first year we went we were all like Wow this is something new for us I think last year was more like OK we re here again let s do the job This year we knew it was going to be hard but here we are again Every year is a little different but it s the same excitement and same goal We want to win it again What is different Brad Marchand and Seth Jones have joined Florida s repeat bid an injection of star talent by general manager Bill Zito at the commerce deadline Defenseman Niko Mikkola is also much improved Edmonton has certain new faces too after losing young Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to restricted free-agent offer sheets by St Louis in August GM Stan Bowman signed John Klingberg and traded for Jake Walman and Trent Frederic to give the organization more experience for just these occasions We re better equipped this year coach Kris Knoblauch revealed We ve got especially up front a lot more physical players The vibe around the Oilers is also different graduating from just being excited to be in the final to having much more left to accomplish like the Panthers felt last year We ve been here before Knoblauch mentioned We know what to expect We ve seen this band before There s a lot of familiar things about this The Oilers are all-around healthier this time with veterans Evander Kane and Mattias Ekholm back but they lost valuable top-line winger Zach Hyman to injury late last round Hyman is a huge loss in this series for Edmonton ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro revealed You can t take one of your top four or five forwards and say Oh yeah we re just going to replace him with somebody else That will be a critical loss He does so much for them What got them here The regular season was wholly unremarkable for everyone involved Florida lost seven of its last games going into the playoffs and finished third in its division just like Edmonton They each opened every playoff series on the road just the second set of finalists to do that in NHL history after Los Angeles and New Jersey in The Panthers are - and the Oilers - away from home We are very confident at home Ekholm stated We know what our crowd brings and it gives potency every time we play at home But I do think we re confident on the road as well as I know that they are These teams also handled adversity like the Eastern and Western Conference champs they now are The Panthers rallied from their deficit against Toronto and pounded the Maple Leafs in Challenge then left almost no doubt in the East final against Carolina a gentleman s sweep in five The Oilers dug themselves a - hole against the Kings in the first round gave up a goal with seconds left against Vegas in the second and lost the series opener to Dallas in the West final We bounce right back Ekholm commented That s the biggest strength of this unit is just every time we seem to have our backs against the wall we respond and we play our best hockey and bring it the next day I think that s a big part of what I think makes us a bit different AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale Florida contributed to this review AP NHL playoffs https apnews com hub stanley-cup and https apnews com hub nhl Source