Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals will take place on Friday. The Florida Panthers are on the road at the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers are making their third attempt at trying to close out the series and become Stanley Cup Champions. Edmonton is looking to keep it alive and send it to a winner take all Game 7.
The Florida Panthers, after going 15-5 in their first 20 postseason games have dropped back to back to the Oilers. The Panthers eliminated the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers in the postseason. Florida won the Atlantic Division with 110 points in the regular season.
For the Edmonton Oilers, they have series wins over the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars. Edmonton has bounced back in the last two games of this series and scored 13 goals in two games. The Oilers finished second to the Canucks in the Pacific Division standings.
The Edmonton Oilers are the favorites here. Edmonton is -120 over Florida.
Florida Looking for their defense
Where has the defense gone for the Florida Panthers? Sergei Bobrovsky got pulled in Game 4, and allowed 4 goals on 23 attempts in Game 5. The Panthers allowed 13 goals in two games, and prior to that it had taken 7 games to give up 13 goals.
The offense for Florida in the Game 5 loss saw their leader Matthew Tkachuk score a goal. It was his sixth of the postseason. Evan Rodrigues scored his 7th of the postseason, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson added a goal, which was his second of the postseason.
Tkachuk is the top scorer for Florida in the postseason. So far, he has 22 points, which is fourth in all of the NHL for postseason play. During the regular season, Sam Reinhart led the team with 94 points. He has not scored a point in each of the last two games, and has 3 points in the series.
Oilers Want to Stay Hot
Connor McDavid has been the story for Edmonton all through the postseason. In fact, all season. He is widely known as the best offensive player in the National Hockey League. He leads all scorers with 42 points in the postseason. Second is Evan Bouchard, with 32.
Zach Hyman scored his 15th goal of the postseason in the Game 5 win. McDavid also added the empty net goal to put Edmonton up two goals with less than 20 seconds to go in the game. During the regular season, the Oilers scored 3.56 goals per game, which was the fourth best in all of the league.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner has turned away 61 shots on 65 attempts over the last two games. He has made every start since the first round of the postseason.
Oilers Top Panthers
We have to go with the Edmonton Oilers here, right? They are red hot. They are playing great hockey now that they got into a 3-0 hole. It is hard to slow down the freight train, and especially once as talented as the Edmonton offense. The Oilers win Game 6, and turn this series into one final game to end the National Hockey League season. Our bet is the Edmonton Oilers -120 over the Florida Panthers on Friday!
