It’s the two most beautiful words in sports: Game Seven.
And the winner-take-all showdown for the Stanley Cup tonight in Sunrise is truly going to be something special. Some have suggested this might be one of the biggest games in NHL history, and the circumstances suggest there’s at least some truth to that.
An Edmonton Oilers victory and they become the first Canadian club to capture the championship since 1993, putting a punctuation mark on a season that began with a 2-9-1 record, included a coach firing and rebounded with the best player on the planet putting up eye-popping performances and breaking records once thought untouchable. They would also become just the second team in NHL history, and the first since 1942, to erase a 3-0 series deficit in the Final.
On the flipside, the Florida Panthers are trying to stave off what would be one of the ugliest collapses we’ve ever seen and reach hockey’s promised land for the first time. In many ways, this is a legacy-defining game for former Jets head coach Paul Maurice. Either he pulls his squad out of this stunning free fall, or he wears this like a Scarlet Letter.
The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat. Sixty minutes (or more, if required, and wouldn’t that be fitting) to cap off a 2023-24 season that has seemingly gone on forever and has now bled into summer.
“A lot of people weren’t so interested in the Final when it was 0-3, but now I’m sure a lot of people will be tuning in,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said following Friday’s 5-1 win inside raucous Rogers Place to turn this best-of-seven series into a best-of-one.
“That’s why sports is amazing, because the unthinkable can happen. We’re in a spot where we thought it could happen, when nobody else believed that it could. Now we’ve got an opportunity. That’s all you can ask for.”
At this point, the mental game might be as compelling as the on-ice product.
The Oilers are playing fast and loose, and why not? Nobody expected they would be here, which they’ll remind you about at virtually every single media availability.
“I know we’ve surprised a lot of people, but I don’t think we’ve surprised anybody in the room. You know, we felt we could do this,” said Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch.
“The last few games it has been like we have been playing on borrowed time. A lot of people wrote us off down 3-0,” added Oilers forward Adam Henrique. “We’ve just been enjoying the last few days of the season, have a few more left and we’re trying to enjoy it, just embrace the spot we’re in.”
There’s not a lot of joy to be found around the Panthers, who could use a parade of sports psychologists and maybe an exorcist right now. How did a club that was so firmly in control after three straight wins by a combined score of 11-4 now drop three straight games by a whopping margin of 18-5?
If Maurice has the answers, he’s not sharing them publicly.
“Right now if you walked into the room, there won’t be a lot of happy people,” he said following Game 6 in the media centre, where the sounds of jubilant Oilers fans still inside the rink could be heard loud and clear over his unusually subdued tone.
“I’m not worried about what it does tonight. It doesn’t have to be right tonight. You’ve suffered a defeat, you feel it, it hurts. You lick your wounds and we start building that back tomorrow. But who you are tonight means nothing to who you’re going to be two days from now.”
Maurice, who spent parts of nine years in Winnipeg before resigning in the middle of the 2021-22 season with the Jets in a prolonged tailspin, has been extremely reflective during this playoff run.
The 57-year-old hockey lifer is in this third Cup Final, and you get the sense he doesn’t know if it could be his last.
He’s 0-for-2 so far, and the idea of coming this close only to have it slip away would seem to be soul-crushing.
On Thursday evening, shortly after his Panthers arrived in Edmonton, Maurice held court with a few dozen members of the media. He was in good humour when he spotted a Free Press scribe in the pack, joking that “there’s no security here, clearly.” It was classic Maurice, who has been a one-man comedy routine at times.
He took a more serious tone a moment later when the writer asked him a big-picture question about having Jamie Kompon at his side, just as he did with the Jets. Kompon’s wife, Tina, has been battling cancer for many years.
“He’s an incredibly strong man. It’s real. The things they go through and yet he comes to work the exact same way every day is inspirational. You have a hard time walking in feeling sorry for yourself when you know what he and Tina are fighting every day for 10 years,” said Maurice.
“For me, we have different brains. He is hyper-disciplined in the way he thinks and the way he produces. I think we’re a great pair together. He’s just an incredible human being.”
Maurice, who got his head coaching start in 1995 at the age of 28, has let his emotional guard down at times in discussing hockey’s role in his life.
“I’ve kind of spent more time understanding the perspective of it all, my cosmic insignificance, and then I also allow myself to take the pressure and be a part of it,” he said prior to Game 6.
Now, the ultimate pressure-cooker, with the entire hockey world watching.
With the line between success and failure so razor-thin, it’s hard to predict how this might go given how rare a situation this is. Only two teams have ever erased a 3-0 deficit in the Cup Final. As mentioned, the 1942 Maple Leafs managed to win a fourth straight (against the Red Wings). Three years later, Detroit rallied against Toronto to force Game 7, then lost.
That’s the end of the list.
“Oh, the emotions change. The mood changes. Both teams get to come to the rink with a certain amount of freedom, right?” Maurice said.
“There’s nothing left to be concerned about. It’s all energy. It’s everything you’ve got in a short period of time. So, the context changes. Both teams will try to get to their identity as best they can. Both teams get that opportunity to feel fired up. Game 7, Stanley Cup Final, it is set for every young man’s dreams. Nobody ever dreamt about a Game 4 overtime winner. It’s always Game 7.”
The stuff of dreams, for sure. But also nightmares, for whichever team ultimately comes up short.
X: @mikemcintyrewpg
Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.
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