EDMONTON, Alberta — There was lots of chatter at the Florida Panthers’ breakfast on Sunday, the morning after the Edmonton Oilers blew them out 8-1 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final to send the series back across North America.
As lopsided as that loss was in their first chance to close out the NHL’s best-of-seven title showdown, the Panthers return home to South Florida up 3-1 with another opportunity to win the first championship in franchise history in front of their home fans.
“It’s all about us (needing) to manage the losses,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Obviously it only counts as one win. It doesn’t matter how much you lose, 2-1 or 8-1, so just obviously we need to bounce back. We need to recover now and think about the next one.”
The next one is Game 5 on Tuesday night in Sunrise, where there is sure to be a packed house with a crowd anticipating some hockey history. So far, 21 of the NHL’s 32 teams have won the Stanley Cup, and Florida — which debuted in the 1993-94 season — is looking to become the 22nd.
To finish the job, though, some adjustments will need to be made after a letdown in which Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled for allowing five goals on 16 shots and the Oilers dominated just about every facet of the game, scoring short-handed, on a 5-on-3 power play and six more times at even strength.