By: Amalie Benjamin
NHL.com Senior Writer
As Matthew Tkachuk went down the handshake line at the end of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, a closely contested series between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers that went to Game 7, he had a message for his opponent.
He said it to Connor McDavid, to Stuart Skinner, perhaps to others, when he congratulated them on a hard-fought best-of-7 series the Panthers once led 3-0 before the Oilers almost came all the way back.
“We’ll see you in the Finals next year, Stu,” Tkachuk said to Skinner. “You guys are too good.”
Just less than a year later, those two teams are back in the Stanley Cup Final, a rematch between the champion Panthers and the runner-up Oilers that begins with Game 1 at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
It wasn’t just something Tkachuk said, not a platitude.
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“I believed that it was going to be us two again,” Tkachuk said. “I think we’re the two best teams in the League. And if everything would go right, it would probably be us two again in the Finals. I have that confidence in our team and they were the best team that we played last year in the playoffs. I stand by that. I believed it at the time. And here we are again.”
It’s an experience the Panthers can use. The Oilers too.
“You think about it all summer,” Tkachuk said. “You think about this moment of getting back with a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup again. And we’re the two lucky teams that get to do it. I mean it’s so hard, too, and very few players are able to get a chance at one, even, so if you would have asked both of us in the middle of the summer if we have a chance to play for the Stanley Cup again, a rematch, we would both race to sign that paper.
“It’s here. They’re an unbelievable team. It’s going to be a great battle. They’re, I’m sure, champing at the bit to get another chance at it.”
Though there are a lot of similarities between the teams that faced off last season, it’s not entirely the same. And there’s no guarantee the outcome will be either.
“I think from a personnel standpoint, I think there are some new pieces and some key pieces on each team that weren’t there last year,” Tkachuk said. “… It is a rematch, and there’s a lot of similar faces, but there’s some fresh blood on both sides that are going to be very hungry and going to be difference-makers in this series.”
It was something Florida coach Paul Maurice noted, too, that both teams are better than they were last season, better in ways specific to what the teams needed to improve upon. And they have.
“I’m going to say that both teams are deeper this year,” Maurice said. “So, that’s a change for them, for us. I think they are further along in their defensive structure and we’re actually a little further along in our offensive structure. And when you look at the strengths clearly last year, you’d say their offensive game was elite. They put up eight on us one night, so they can score some goals, but our defensive structure’s pretty good too.
“Those were our strengths and then we just added to what might have been perceived as our weaknesses. We’ve gotten better at those, so both teams are better. Both teams are deeper. Both teams I think have made improvements on what would be their weaknesses, but they’ve maintained their core strength in doing so.”
