7 Thoughts Going Into Game 7

This is an unexpected game to see.

When the Florida Panthers took a 3-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final it just seemed to be a matter of when, and not if, they would clinch the series.

It was inevitable.

Until it was not.

After winning three straight games while facing elimination, we all of a sudden have a winner-take-all Game 7 for all of the marbles on Monday night.

Let’s talk about it.

1. Pressure has to be on Florida. Yeah, there is always pressure on both teams in a Game 7 situation, especially in a championship series, but if you had to pick the one team facing the most of it right now it has to be Florida.

Not only because the Panthers had a 3-0 series lead and are trying to avoid making the wrong kind of history here, but because they have to recognize this is their chance.

It might not get any closer for this group.

Odds are they are not going to be in a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final next season. Especially when the current roster has 10 unrestricted free agents this offseason and $20 million to fill those spots. That group of free agents includes Sam Reinhart, Vladimir Tarasenko and Brandon Montour. They’re not all going to be back, and even if they are, somebody else is going to have to go on the roster to make it all work.

This is their chance. This is the opportunity. Let this slip away and you may not get a better one anytime soon.

Add in the possibility of letting a 3-0 series lead slip away and it has to be an absolute pressure cooker in that Florida locker room (no matter how much they try to convince you they are excited about it).

If Florida loses this game it will go down as one of the worst postseason meltdowns in sports history. If not the worst. People will argue the Atlanta Falcons losing a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl. Or maybe the New York Yankees losing a 3-0 series lead to the Boston Red Sox in 2004. But it is one thing to lose a single game or collapse in the fourth quarter against Tom Brady. It is one thing to lose a big lead in a semifinal round or series. But to lose four straight games when you are one game away from a championship? And have the entire series flip around and be dominated the way Florida has the past three games? That would be brutal.

2. Win or lose, Connor McDavid is the MVP. I know he did not have a huge statistical impact in the Oilers’ Game 6 win, but he is the reason this team is playing for a championship and in a Game 7 situation.

He carried them when facing elimination in Games 4 and 5, and his overall contributions to the Oilers offense throughout the entire postseason are all-time great stuff (as we discussed here). There is no way anybody on the Panthers has been more valuable to their team this postseason. There just isn’t. If Florida had won Games 5 or 6 I think it is likely that somebody like Aleksander Barkov had won it (I think the Sergei Bobrovsky ship has sailed at this point). But the fact it got to this point with a winner-take-all game and McDavid putting up all-time great numbers? The kind of numbers nobody ever thought possible out of the 1980s era hockey? I think it’s McDavid no matter what happens on Monday.