The strategic blunder that doomed the Edmonton Oilers against Florida this year
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Against a defensive juggernaut like the 2025 Florida Panthers that proved to be fatal, especially after the Oilers lost Zach Hyman, one of the team's fastest and its most physical player, to injury in the Dallas series.
Last year the Oilers out-played Florida most of the Final, but were thwarted largely because goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stood on his head and, essentially, stole victory for his team in Games 1 and 3, matches where the Grade A shots were 16-8 for the Oilers, then 19-8 for the Oilers.
Overall in the 2024 Final, Edmonton had 13 Grade A shots per game on average, while Florida had 8.7, a +4.3 Grade A shots per game advantage for Edmonton.
This year, however, the Oilers had 16.2 Grade A shots per game, the Panthers 15.7, just a +0.5 per game edge for the Oilers, and the Panthers had slightly more of the most dangerous of all shots, the 5-alarm high-danger blasts at net.
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