Stanley Cup Finals 2024

Florida Panthers versus Edmonton Oilers

This season’s Stanley Cup will not be won by last year’s champions or even the top three teams from the end of the 2023-24 NHL season, nope, this year Lord Stanley’s cherished cup will be won by either the fourth or ninth place team.

Top to bottom, we watched the defending Cup champs bounced in the first round, New Jersey with 52 wins last season missing the playoffs but the Panthers returned to the Finals while the Oilers waited 18 seasons to get back to hockey’s ultimate destination.

The United States of America against Canada for the World’s most revered sports trophy begins this Saturday night at eight o’clock in the Sunshine State and the NHL has spaced the games out quite a bit highlighted by the provided schedule.

Edmonton Oilers

Edmonton is optimum offense as the Oilers scored 17 goals in the first three games of the opening round in a 4-1 series victory versus Los Angeles but then the Vancouver Canucks played the Oilers in seven games and Edmonton again out scoring their opponent and winning the series.

Edmonton fell behind in the Stars series 2-1 with their lone victory a double overtime, then the Oilers’ offense resurged for 10 goals over the next three games while allowing their opponent only four goals as Edmonton wins the Semifinals in six games.

Florida Panthers

The Panthers suffocate and maul their opposition into submission as their head coach explains that they are built for one-goal games and in the opening round Florida did just that in the first two games winning 3-2 both times with one in overtime.

Eventually taking the series 4-1 from their state rival Florida advanced to face Boston’s finest and are quickly humbled as the Panthers lose 5-1 in the first game before Florida’s scorers tallied 12 goals over the next two games earning a 2-1 series lead.

Closing out the Quarter Finals in six games the Panthers next faced the formidable Rangers and fell behind in this series as well 2-1 losing twice in overtime, but then won the next three one-goal games to take the series and return to the Finals.

Who Wins?

Either a short series where Florida wins their first Cup or it goes seven games with Edmonton winning their brethren what they believe to be rightfully theirs…I am cheering for the Panthers and their collection of ex-Patriots from the Sabres.

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Author: Buffalo Winter

Jesus, Family, Hockey, then everything else.

8 thoughts on “Stanley Cup Finals 2024”

  1. Excellent write-up and I will encourage others to give it a read.

    Considering that Edmonton had a less than favourable start at the beginning of the season (lost 10 of its first 13 games) then fired Head Coach Jay Woodcroft, I cannot help but commend the team, Canadian or not.

    I will cheer on the Oilers but truth be known I feel for Florida Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice and in a weak moment, an itty bitty part of me might hope he pulls it off, lol.

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    1. Everything that Edmonton has accomplished to this point highlights that they belong in the Finals, and it is an unequitable balance of teams/finances involving two Nations that the NHL (bettman) has built, personally if I was on the board of governors I would have voted to give Quebec back their franchise/team before creating another team in the desert.

      There are some feel good stories with the Cup and HC Maurice is one of them, another that sticks out to me is when I began to cheer for Mr. Hossa, a player I did not want to see lose the Cup three consecutive seasons with three different teams, fortunately for me and Mr. Hossa he won with his third team.

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  2. I would vote that way too and so would Paper Dude.

    They had a strong fan base and they have a modern arena ready to go, says Paper Dude.

    Have you seen the team name choices being considered for the Utah team (Arizona team being moved to Utah)?

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    1. I have seen some, they cannot be any better or worse then the names already in use by the NHL, I mean seriously…”ducks”, come on we can do better, although I know it stems from the movie.

      I remember the list of “potential” names when Seattle was granted an NHL franchise, and out of the list I truly thought “kraken” was one they would not select, so what do I know, lol

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      2. Why not, a cartoon name requires a cartoon logo, ducks, sharks, penguins, what are we running here an Aqua Marine Land or a professional hockey league? lol

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      4. Blizzard makes absolutely no sense at all for a team in the South West, arid desert like geography, and just HC? that is original, and I hope they do not go with a camping cooler “Yeti”, personally I appreciate “outlaws”.

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