Oilers Locker Room Takes a Page Out of Florida Panthers Before Stanley Cup Finals Rematch

Believe it or not, it isn’t the number of career goals or Hart trophies that assures any given team a Stanley Cup final; it is, instead, a healthy locker room culture built on the foundation of humor. The Florida Panthers have been sharing insights on their locker room energy for a while, but we’re now getting an idea of what things look like for Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, which, at this point preceding the Stanley Cup series, seem to be quite similar to their opponents, the Florida Panthers.

In a recent interview with TSN, Ryan Rishaug, the Oilers reporter, spoke about how things have changed emotionally for the Oilers this year because the pressure of last year is in the past and they don’t have such high expectations on their shoulders anymore. “I think there’s a natural pressure that would be on a player like Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, right?” Rishaug said, naming the captain and alternate captain who have both spoken on this subject, “These are world-class players and the expectation is they’re going to find a way to win a Stanley Cup, so I do think there’s this natural pressure that’s just always going to be there until they do. I think they felt that pressure last year; why wouldn’t you? It’s your first Stanley Cup final yet; here we are a year later and they’re not doing these things for the first time.”

Both McDavid and Draisaitl have spoken about the emotional maturity and confidence gained from last year’s experience, with Draisaitl saying about difficult situations, “We’ve certainly, you know, handled those situations really well this year through experience, through the last couple years.” But, until now, we didn’t really have a sense of ‘how’ well the Oilers were handling it until a video surfaced that showed Connor Brown jumping out of a cupboard in the locker room to announce the team’s lineup.

Credits: Instagram/Edmonton Oilers

Speaking on the subject, Rishaugh added, “I talked to Connor Brown about that; he had to sit in that cupboard for 20 minutes! He said he’s not claustrophobic at all, but like there was some commitment to that bit from Connor Brown, a guy that wasn’t even in the lineup but you know he was hanging out on his phone waiting for his cue, and he hopped out. It’s a great piece of video but an indication that the group is making a conscious effort to keep it light, right?” Which makes sense; the now viral moment was obviously planned and thought through for a reason, and perhaps it was this. “Because of all that pressure,” Rishaugh continued, “the outside world looking at this team wondering when it’s going to happen, I think they’re doing a better job of kind of shutting that out, keeping it even keel keeping it loose and we’ll see how that manifests itself this time around because we all remember the way the series started last year.” It clearly seems like the Oilers are trying out something different, even with Connor McDavid posting a set of photos to his Instagram of the Oilers vs. the Stars series with the caption, “Moving on .” So maybe some hardcore humor is the answer; at least that’s what seems to be the case with the Florida Panthers.

Taking notes from the Florida Panthers’ book, Edmonton Oilers look to humour for wins

Paul Maurice famously turned a somewhat heavy moment light by converting it into a joke. When he was asked how he felt about the goals the Panthers conceded to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final, he replied that he thought the last two goals were ‘horse-sh*t,’ saying, “I didn’t like the last two at all. This gap is horsesh*t.”

New Chicago Blackhawks transfer Seth Jones commented on Maurice’s coaching style, saying, “He knows how to really take the temperature of the group and the situation of a group, and, you know, he can have a meeting where he’s very intense, you know, whether he’s calling guys out or calling the team out, but he’s also very good at throwing a joke in there.”

So, it seems overall quite clear that the Oilers, who, despite all the talk of the pressure being ‘off,’ still have to redo last year’s Stanley Cup final against a now force of a team with superhuman in-depth playing. In fact, that’s been the talk of the series: the fact that Florida, despite a majorly changed roster, has managed to finesse the meaning of in-depth playing, with 19 of their 22 skaters having scored at least one goal in the playoff series. So as the Edmonton Oilers prepare to face their old rivals, captained by the now 3-time Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov, of course they’ve got to break the tension with some frivolity and humor!

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