There is no doubt that this is a very important game for this Edmonton Oilers team. The Oilers are trailing the Florida Panthers 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. A win for the Panthers tonight and they will be hoisting the cup after the first Cup sweep since 1998, to put salt in the wound of Oilers fans they will be hoisting it in Edmonton. That is only if they win though. If the Oilers win the series will shift back to Florida, where the Panthers will once again have a chance to win it all.
For the Edmonton Oilers to win tonight I think there is one major key in them forcing at least a game 5 and that is for them not to gift the Panthers goals. In game 3 the Oilers' mistakes directly resulted in the puck being in the back of their net at least 3 times. If the Oilers actually force the Panthers to beat them they have a much better chance. In the previous 3 games of this series, the Oilers have lost versus the Panthers winning, in my opinion.
The Oilers looked like they had figured out how to score against the Panthers, by scoring 3 goals last game the Oilers may have put a dent in the armour of the Panthers. While Sergei Bobrovsky, has been playing lights out, getting 3 past him hopefully has given this Oilers team a bit of confidence moving forward. Confidence the Oilers are going to need if they want to have a chance to win 4 straight against this strong Panthers team.
While a loss tonight would hurt, the fact the Edmonton Oilers made it to the Cup final is pretty impressive they beat out 30 other teams to get to this point and that is impressive. Getting swept in the final is less than ideal thought, so hopefully the Oilers can put up at least one win, if they do that they will have more confidence and we know this team has the ability to string together wins. So it all starts with one win tonight if they want to hoist the cup.