SUNRISE, Fla. — By the time he was old enough to watch NHL games growing up in Sweden, Oliver Ekman-Larsson began dreaming about playing in the Stanley Cup Final.
Now he’s here, a member of the Florida Panthers in a best-of-seven series against the Edmonton Oilers that marks the farthest distance between two teams in a final in NHL history.
That would not have mattered to that kid yearning to be in this spot.
“I would probably go back and forth to Sweden if I got a chance to play in the Stanley Cup Final,” Larsson said.
OK, it’s not quite that far, but the 2,543 miles between the home arenas for the Oilers and the Panthers eclipses the record set by the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks in 2011, a series that went the full seven games. Four years after that, the Oilers drafted Connor McDavid in the same home arena they’ll play Game 1 in Saturday night, a full-circle moment for the current face of the sport.