Panthers knowledgeable about Edmonton’s capability to ‘go nuclear;’ Nosek talks
EDMONTON– They have an expression in Edmonton for putting top scorers Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the ice together: Going nuclear.
The Panthers were aware of it ahead of Video game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Friday night. The Oilers went nuclear starting in the 3rd duration of Game 1 to come back from a 3-2 deficit and win in overtime 4-3.
Edmonton outshot the Panthers 10-2 in the more than 9 minutes McDavid, Draisaitl and Corey Perry were on the same line. McDavid helped on the final two objectives, consisting of the winning one on a power play to Draisaitl.
“What changes?” Panthers center Aleksander Barkov stated of the defense against them together. “I believe just to know that they’re on the ice. You need to know them all the time. You have to know a bit of their tendencies also.
“But at the exact same time, it’s 5 guys on the ice. It’s not just one. So 5 guys need to know where they are and take the time and space away.”
Draisaitl led Edmonton with 52 goals this routine season and is 2nd in the league with 27 postseason points. McDavid leads with 28 points in the playoffs.
Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch prefers to play McDavid and Draisaitl on various lines to give more depth to their offense.
“Leon paying center just expands our scoring a little bit. It also gets him in the game a bit more. He’s skating and included. It also permits the rest of our team to understand they got a function, that they got to play well and we’re not just depending on this one line that is going to do all the work.”
Still, when routing in the 3rd duration of a final game, it’s an excellent option to have and something the Panther are aware of.
Nosek: ‘Everyone can make a mistake’
NHL veteran Tomas Nosek talked Friday early morning about putting the puck over the plexiglass for the delay-of-game penalty that resulted in Edmonton’s power play and winning Game 1 objective in overtime.
“You don’t want to be the one that costs us the game, but clearly everyone can slip up,” he said. “It just happened in a bad time in overtime, and it cost us the game. But it remains in the past and now we’re anticipating just keep doing my task and concentrating on (Game 2).”
Greer out again for Game 2
Panthers forward A.J. Geer will miss Game 2, and Jesper Boqvist will again replace him. However Greer skated Friday morning and Maurice stated he’s “on track to go Game 3” on Monday in Daybreak. Greer was injured in the clinching Game 5 of the Eastern Conference last against Carolina
— Maurice’s buddy and former Panthers coach Pete DeBoer was fired as the Dallas Stars coach after losing to Edmonton in the Western Conference final. “He’ll be all right,”Maurice stated. “He’s an excellent coach. You’ve got to press genuine hard to get them where they got to. Eventually, you get the summer off. He’ll be all right.”
— Evan Rodrigues stated the Panthers, “punted the puck too much” in Video game 1. “That would be a football analogy,” Maurice stated, adding, “Perhaps we had bad hang time on a couple icings.”
— Panthers defenseman Nate Schmidt last played in the Stanley Cup Final for Vegas in 2018 and his return in Video game 1 was noticeable. He assisted on two of the Panthers’ three objectives. The very first was a pass for Brad Marchand for a power-play objective that made it 2-1. The second help sent Sam Bennett in alone on objective. “Any time you can contribute on the biggest stage, certainly, that’s something you want,” he stated.
Initially Released: June 6, 2025 at 1:38 PM EDT