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After throttling the Edmonton Oilers, 6-1, at home Monday evening, the Florida Panthers host Game 4 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals tonight at 8 PM ET. The five-goal defeat was the worst for the Oilers in the championship round since a 5-0 defeat to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 almost exactly 19 years ago.
After two back-and-forth, overtime affairs in Edmonton, the Panthers held court at home, where they are surprisingly just 5-3 this postseason. The Oilers fell to 6-4 on the road, losing for the second time since dropping the first two games of their first-round series at the Los Angeles Kings.
Florida now stands two wins from becoming just the third franchise this century – joining the 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins and 2020-21 Tampa Bay Lightning – to repeat as champions. Edmonton, meanwhile, is just two defeats away from extending its own and Canada’s misery. The Oilers have not won a Stanley Cup since 1990, and no Canadian franchise has hoisted the cup since 1993.
Let’s break down each team’s Game 3 performance while previewing tonight’s Game 4 matchup with our Oilers @ Panthers NHL pick.
The Oilers picked the wrong time to have their worst performance of the entire postseason. After beating Sergei Bobrovsky four times and forcing him to make 42 saves in Games 1 and 2, they barely tested the two-time Vezina Trophy Monday night. He made 32 saves but didn’t face much pressure.
Corey Perry scored for the second straight game and fourth time in five contests. The 40-year-old’s 9 goals are second only to Leon Draisatl’s 10 this postseason for Edmonton. Stuart Skinner allowed 5 goals for the second straight game before getting pulled in the third period for Calvin Pickard. Skinner made 18 saves, but he’s allowed 13 goals in three games this series after surrendering just 14 goals over eight games in the past two series combined.
Connor McDavid (6 goals and 25 assists) and Draisatl (10 goals and 19 assists) are still 1-2 in the NHL in scoring this postseason, but McDavid was held without a point for the first time in eight games, and Draisatl didn’t record a point for the first time in nine contests. McDavid had 5 assists, while Draisatl recorded 3 goals and an assist in the first two games of this series.
Bouchard had an assist Monday night. He continues to lead all defensemen with 7 goals, 15 assists and 22 points in the playoffs.
Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett both scored for Florida yet again Monday night. They have both lit the lamp in all three games in the series, with Marchand becoming the oldest player in league history to score in the first three games of a Stanley Cup Finals.
The 37-year-old Marchand continues to sip from the Fountain of Youth, a la Perry. He has 8 goals and 10 assists. Those 18 points represent the most in a postseason for the Halifax native since he helped lead the Boston Bruins to win the Eastern Conference and reach the Stanley Cup in 2019. Meanwhile, the legend of Sam Bennett’s 2025 postseason continues to grow. The center, who had 25 goals the entire regular season, leads the NHL with 14 postseason tallies. He has scored in four straight and 6-of-8.
Both Marchand and Bennett have four goals this series, and they had plenty of company Monday night as six different players scored. Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues and Carter Verhoeghe each had a goal and an assist, while Eetu Luostarinen added 2 assists.
Bennett has scored in 12 of the Panthers’ 20 playoff games. Florida is 10-2 when he has lit the lamp. With McDavid’s and Draisatl’s points streaks ending, Bennett’s goal-scoring prowess is the most consistent stat to bank on going into tomorrow night.
Look for Bennett to stay hot and add to his postseason tally with another goal.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.