In a pivotal Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers took a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers with a hard-fought 4-3 victory. Aleksander Barkov was instrumental for the Panthers, scoring the game-winning goal and contributing an assist, while Sergei Bobrovsky’s stellar performance in goal with 32 saves sealed the win. The Oilers, now on the brink of elimination, faced the media with head coach Kris providing insights into the game and the team’s mindset.
Kris highlighted the momentum-shifting moments, particularly in the second period when the Oilers had multiple scoring opportunities but failed to capitalize. “Take away the momentum, you know, I think about the second period and how well we started,” Kris remarked. “We had a couple of breakaways, some really good slot chances, and then, you know, we don’t score on those. I like where we were going after the Foegele scored that huge goal. I really liked our team, the execution, the energy. We had some really good chances to go ahead, their goalie made some nice saves, and then they dump a puck in and we’re down 2-1. That was a tough one.”
Addressing the team’s difficulty in finishing plays, Kris pointed out that luck plays a significant role in scoring, emphasizing that the Oilers have been creating enough chances but have struggled with the final touch. “Over a course of time, there’s always luck involved in the chances that you get,” Kris explained. “For chances, two of the three games I think we’re at or above our expected goals for how many chances that we’re creating. Besides Game 2, that was a lot lower, but Game 1 and 3, we’re playing well enough to score goals. We’re putting ourselves in a good enough position to score goals. The finishing is just a lot of it is confidence, shooting the puck, and hopefully, the third period will give us some confidence that we actually had a push and we can put it in the net.”
When asked about the types of goals needed to beat a goaltender like Bobrovsky, Kris noted that traffic and chaos around the net are essential. The Oilers have to continue creating these challenging scenarios to find success. “You need traffic, you need to create chaos around the net with rebounds and pucks going off skates,” Kris stated. “We’ve seen those in the playoffs for and against us. I thought we showed that urgency and determination to get to the net. We just got to continue to do that.”
Despite the daunting 3-0 deficit, Kris drew on the Oilers’ successful streaks during the regular season as evidence that the team can turn things around.
“I think there’s a lot of belief,” Kris asserted. “You look at our season this year, and we’ve had two eight-game winning streaks, we’ve had a 16-game winning streak. When things go well, we can really turn it up. I think we’ve shown that we can beat this team. It’s not like we’re getting outplayed and that team’s better than us. Everyone in that dressing room feels the same way I do – we can string together a lot of wins. We’ve shown it. The stakes are a little bit higher, we’re playing a better team than we would in the regular season, but I don’t think there’s any doubt in our room.”
Kris acknowledged the frustration that comes with being down in the series but emphasized that the team is not quitting.
“If there’s any time to have frustration, it would have been 4-1 going into the third period,” Kris noted. “There’s a difference between frustration and quitting. There’s absolutely no quit. There’s a belief that we can do this, so we just need to keep pushing.”
Kris hopes this momentum carries forward into the next game. “The pucks went in the net. We were talking in the staff or the coaches’ room, and we’ve had more breakaways in these three games than we’ve had throughout the rest of the playoffs. We’re getting our chances. Hopefully, now there’s a point where they’re going to go in, and we saw a little bit of that in the third period.”