Stanley Cup Final Game Seven: You Always Remember Your 1st

Game Seven. The two most exciting words for any sports fan. It's do or die. It's winner take all. It gets bigger when it's the final round, the Stanley Cup Final in the case of the National Hockey League. The Florida Panthers won the first three games. The Edmonton Oilers won the next three. Now it comes down to this final game. What a way to end the 2023-24 NHL season!

Something would definitely give here. The Panthers have existed for 31 years, had never won the Cup. A Canadian team hadn't won a Cup in 31 years. So yeah, someone's ending a big drought.

The first period was pretty close, and the Panthers did strike early. It was Carter Verhaeghe who scored and gave the Panthers their first in-game lead since Game Three. However, the Oilers wouldn't be denied, as Mattias Janmark tied it up on a breakaway (the Oilers had a lot of those in this series) less than two minutes after the Verhaeghe goal. So it's 1-1, and that was the score after 20 minutes. Panthers led in shots, 7-6, after the first period. In the second, it was pretty close, but early in the period, they call this bullshit tripping penalty on Matthew Tkachuk. They can't be serious. The man fell and someone tripped over him. So how in the holy hell is that an intentional trip?!

Anyway, the PP's killed off, but things are still back and forth. Sergei Bobrovsky had some key saves, and after that, Sam Reinhart put it in to make it 2-1 for the Panthers. Verhaeghe and Dmitry Kulikov had the assists, and that was the score after 40 minutes. Here's a fun fact: 2-1 was the final score of Game Six in 2022, the game that was won by the Colorado Avalanche to capture the Cup. Seeing that score took me back to that night, and I immediately thought, "That score could hold up and Florida could win the Cup." The third period saw the Oilers really push to tie this up, and they really had some close calls there. It took them until the last 120 seconds to pull Stuart Skinner, but Edmonton couldn't tie it. Florida couldn't get the empty-netter, but they would not need it. The clock ticked down, and out came the rats!

The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup Champions for the first time in franchise history, winning Game Seven by the modest score of 2-1. However, this Cup could have come just a bit sooner than it did. Granted, the threat of the reverse sweep made this series very interesting, but Florida really should have finished them off in Game Four. Nevertheless, they did it. They won the Cup that was denied them a year prior. For the fourth time in seven years, a first time champion was crowned, and now that leaves ten teams looking for their first Stanley Cup.

Sam Reinhart's late 2nd period goal ended up being the Cup clincher. He finished with 10 goals during this run, and six assists, giving him 16 points total. Reinhart's one of three ex-Sabres who finally got a Cup, the other two: Evan Rodrigues and Kyle Okposo. I was immensely happy for Rodrigues, because he was with the Avs last year, and I hated that we couldn't get him a Cup, but I'm glad he has one now. Rodrigues only had seven goals, but four of them were in the Final. Carter Verhaeghe had 21 points--11 of them were goals, and after scoring the first goal of the game, he assisted on the Cup clincher. Aleksandar Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk finished tied for the points lead with 22, and for the latter, he--similar to Cody Rhodes--finished his story: won the Cup that his father, Keith Tkachuk, couldn't capture.

And now, on to the Oilers.

Let's face the facts here: the Conn Smythe Trophy had Connor McDavid's name on it since Game Five--as it should. People are saying, "Losing players shouldn't get it." Really? So Jean-Sebastien Giguere shouldn't have won the Conn Smythe in 2003? Giguere had five shutouts during that 2003 run, and had a Goals Against Average that you would need a microscope to find. McDavid had a postseason for the ages. 42 points (8 G/34 A), only five short of the NHL record for points in a postseason. As I said, that Conn Smythe had McDavid's name on it after Game Five, and with that, McDavid becomes the sixth player to win that trophy despite being on the losing end of the Final.

However, this is where the positive statements end. Time to get the shovel.

You know, one of the reasons why I was intrigued over Connor McDavid winning the Conn Smythe was because I wanted to see him accept it. Yet where was he after Gary Bettman made the announcement? Nowhere. Don't give me that whole, "Well, Connor didn't get the trophy he wanted," jive. Neither did J-S Giguere in 2003. But he went out there and accepted that trophy in front of that crowd in New Jersey. McDavid went into his hidey-hole and cried. Here's the thing. I wasn't going to bury the Oilers. Had they got swept, I would have, but I was actually going to lay off them because they made it to Game Seven. However, McDavid's bitchy response to winning the Conn Smythe reminds me why I don't respect this team or their fans. They are petty and pissy as fuck!

Funny how things change in a year's time. For three years on Vocal, I said that McDavid and Draisaitl's careers were being ruined by Oilers. Looks like it's the other way around in this case. Neither one of them showed up in this Game Seven. At least McDavid had two shots on goal. That's two more than Dummkopf Draisaitl had. Zach Hyman's 16 goal postseason was wasted. Evan Bouchard actually finished second behind McDavid in points, but that was wasted. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had 22 points in his run, but that's wasted. Evander Kane was a waste--only eight points in this run. And for the racist Oilers fans who want to scapegoat Darnell Nurse, he actually found the net in the Final--something the almighty Draisaitl didn't do. Even Corey Perry, who now lost four Finals in five years, scored in the Final.

Finally, Oilers fans, yeah, you got to the Final. However, you guys lost to Florida's red-headed stepchild. At least when Nathan MacKinnon got to the Final, he won it, and he beat Florida's real team. So yeah, McDavid's career is now a failed one. MacKinnon won his Cup in Year Nine of his career, but after McDavid's Year Nine, he's still Cupless, and he's starting to get in his own way. All he can do is cry in the car, because he knows he won't be back in the Final again.

Major congratulations to the Florida Panthers for winning that Cup; bask in that glory! Season 10 of the retitled series, How Connor McDavid Keeps Ruining His Own Cup Chances, starts in October!

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