Neither the Florida Panthers nor the Edmonton Oilers are where they want to be heading into their Stanley Cup Final rematch on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena (7 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, NHLN, SNW, CITY, SN360).
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery during the preseason. Forward Matthew Tkachuk, the emotional heartbeat of the team, hasn’t played since this season undergoing offseason surgery. He’s not expected back until sometime in January.
Not surprisingly, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are 11-8-1 and find themselves in fifth place in the Atlantic Division.
The Oilers are 9-9-5, sixth in the Pacific Division, and like the Panthers, enter Saturday outside the playoff picture.
They also had a significant injury, with forward Zach Hyman missing the first 19 games of the season because of a wrist injury he sustained during last season’s Western Conference Final. He returned last Saturday and has two assists in four games.
They also have had issues defensively, allowing 3.57 goals per game, which is fifth worst in the NHL. They also have a minus-16 goal differential.
To say each team is seeking its identity and hoping to get back to its game from the previous two seasons would be a colossal understatement.
So, when the teams who met in the Stanley Cup Final the past two seasons face off for the first team this season, it’s not odd to wonder which is more likely to find its way and be in position to forge another deep run. That is the question before senior writer Dan Rosen and senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke, the co-hosts of the “NHL @TheRink” podcasts, in the latest installment of State Your Case.
