Why Oilers believe they’re better positioned to win Stanley Cup: ‘This run has felt different’

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DALLAS — Corey Perry stood in the visiting dressing room on Thursday night among the other victorious Edmonton Oilers, wearing a team-issued, trucker-style cap in his customary backward fashion.

When asked why he wasn’t wearing a new Western Conference champions hat like his teammates, Perry scoffed. He won hockey’s holy grail back in 2007, and now he is returning to the Stanley Cup Final for the fifth time in six seasons after the Oilers eliminated one of his former teams, the Dallas Stars, in Game 5. He’s still looking for that elusive second ring.

So, as that fresh-out-of-the-box, eggshell-colored championship hat nestled against his gloves on his locker-stall shelf, Perry focused on the more important things ahead.

“This group, it’s been a want since the end of last year,” he said. “There’s been a lot of thinking about what happened last year and self-reflecting. Here we are.”

The Oilers are back in the Stanley Cup Final again, and with the same opponent, the Florida Panthers, in their way.

Losing 2-1 in Game 7 in Sunrise, Fla., last June was heartbreaking for the returning players who endured it. That defeat has made them stronger, though, more unflappable.

Sure, there was a wobble early in these playoffs, when they lost the first two games against the Los Angeles Kings and were on the ropes in games 3 and 4 at home. But that’s been attributed to all the players returning to the lineup from extended or late-season injuries.

Since they weathered that early storm, the Oilers have won 12 of their last 14 games, often looking dominant while doing so. There have been no season-on-the-line moments as there were last year, when they trailed Vancouver 3-2 and trailed Dallas 2-1, and certainly no 3-0 chasm, as there was against Florida.

“We’re better for going through last year. It was a great learning experience, and it’s really driven us all year. This run has felt different than last year. It’s felt very normal,” Connor McDavid said. “It hasn’t been as emotional.

“That’s put us in a good position. Those games can be emotionally draining. We’re not drained.”

Instead, they’re intensely eyeing the task at hand.

The way the Oilers celebrated on the ice in Dallas after their Game 5 win was akin to how they might rejoice after a convincing win in November. It included subdued gestures of hugs, helmet taps and high-fives. There’s a reason for that.

“We should definitely be proud what we accomplished. We should feel happy with what’s gone on,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “On our mind hasn’t been just to be the best team out of the West. All summer, we weren’t thinking about that. We were thinking about the ultimate prize.”

They acted like a team, which has become old hat for them.

“The first time you go through it, there is a ton of joy and excitement,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “There still is right now, don’t get me wrong, but there is also hunger in knowing what’s coming and the opportunity that’s ahead. We’re all excited to get the next series going.”

They should be.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer heaped praise on the Oilers after being eliminated by them in the conference finals for a second consecutive season.

The Oilers defeated the Stars in six games last year, including wins in the last three games. This time, the series was even more lopsided. The Oilers scored the first goal in each game. They trailed for only one stretch, the final 14:02 of Game 1, when penalties and an inability to kill them proved costly.

“That Edmonton team is better than the team we played last year — deeper, defend harder, harder to play against,” DeBoer said.

What’s truly impressive about the Oilers is, that description wouldn’t have fit for most of the regular season.

They were the oldest team in the league during their 2024 playoff run and only aged more after re-signing most of their veterans and letting go of players in their 20s, such as Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele. They often looked and played slow.

They managed to keep up with the NHL’s elite for the first 50 games, owning the league’s third-best points percentage through the end of January. But they struggled coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break in February. Then injuries started piling up in March. McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, John Klingberg, Leon Draisaitl, Stuart Skinner, Trent Frederic, Zach Hyman, Jake Walman and Troy Stecher all missed time before the end of the season. Evander Kane didn’t even play a regular-season game.

McDavid remained optimistic about the Oilers’ prospects heading into the playoffs, but, for good reason, it seemed like few others shared that feeling. Turns out, the Oilers’ captain was on to something all along.

“It’s been a different experience. Some teams get really hot down the stretch, and they ride it all the way through the playoffs,” McDavid said. “For us, it’s come together in the playoffs. We’ve been building and building and building our game. We’re starting to see some of our best hockey.

“Our best hockey is still in front of us, which is a great thing.”

They’ve gotten contributions from everyone on the roster. Skinner and Calvin Pickard have each won six games in net. Two players who are now extra defenseman, Stecher and Ty Emberson, have both chipped in. Jeff Skinner became the 19th Oiler to score a goal after he did so on Thursday in his return to the lineup after being held out for 14 games.

Hyman likely being out for the Stanley Cup Final because of injury certainly hurts. But at least they got Ekholm back for his playoff debut in Game 5. They’ve never had so many quality options to backfill crucial personnel losses. Right winger Connor Brown, sidelined for the last two games with an injury, is skating, too.

“Our depth has been incredible,” Draisaitl said.

“We’re deep. We’re a different team,” Perry said. “There are different players in here, a different feel. But you still have to go out and do the right things, and everybody has to continue to pull on that rope.”

Add it all up, and the Oilers should be in a stronger position to take on the Panthers and earn revenge. That doesn’t mean they’ll win. The Panthers might be a better team, too, with the additions of Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, and given how they steamrolled the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final.

This marks the 12th Cup Final rematch in league history. Generational talents Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby flipped the script the last two times it happened. Gretzky and his Oilers bested the New York Islanders in 1984 after being swept the previous year. Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings in seven games after losing in 2008.

Maybe McDavid and the Oilers will make it happen again.

“We’ve got as good a chance as they do,” McDavid said of the Panthers.

McDavid decided to touch the Clarence Campbell Bowl to commemorate the Western Conference championship after not doing so last year, just in case that provides a little extra luck.

Luck, superstitions or hat choices have little to do with why the Oilers are back in this spot, though.

For the better part of the last 14 games, the Oilers have played like a berth in the Stanley Cup Final was preordained. They’ve made good on their main mission.

“We spent seven months getting ready for this playoff run,” Knoblauch said of the October-to-April dress rehearsal. “It was on our mind since we lost that last game. It was a long, tough summer. Training camp, regular season, it was just punching our card, showing up, wanting the playoffs, just having another opportunity.”

The Oilers finally have that now. All that’s left for them to do is finish the job.

(Photo: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)

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