Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers Pick and Prediction – June 15, 2024

FLORIDA PANTHERS VS. EDMONTON OILERS EXPERT PICK AND PREDICTION – June 15, 2024 — Could we see our first sweep in a Stanley Cup Finals since 1998? It’s looking that way, given how Florida has seized control in this series. The Panthers continue to play a step ahead of the Oilers and have forced Edmonton to play their game, even as the Oilers got second change.

Now Edmonton has to try to become just the second team ever to overcome a 3-0 hole in the Stanley Cup Finals, and that looks pretty unlikely. Florida’s defense continues to dominate this series and force Edmonton into shots that aren’t anywhere near as good as they look. The Panthers have appeared on a mission all postseason, and the Oilers haven’t come close to finding an answer.

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Edmonton has said all the right things, but this doesn’t feel like when New York had Carolina down 3-0. In that series, the Hurricanes could have been leading the Rangers with a couple good breaks. The Oilers haven’t been anywhere near that with the Panthers. Florida has been the stronger team in every aspect and taken Edmonton out of its game. Unless we see something vastly different than the first three games, the Panthers will be lifting the Stanley Cup.

The Odds

Puck Drop

When: Saturday, June 13 at 8 p.m. EST

Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 

TV: ABC

Public Bets: 52% on Edmonton

Public Money: 85% on Edmonton

Odds courtesy of DraftKings, as of June 15th, 2024

Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers In-Season Trends

Make it 3-15 when the Oilers allow the third goal to score. Edmonton once again gave up three, and once again, it was too big a mountain for the Oil to climb. The Oilers’ identity in this postseason is clear: they have to get the job done on defense just as much as offense. The days of the Oilers being able to outscore the opposition ended with Los Angeles. Edmonton showed flashes of doing it against Dallas, but Florida has just been a different beast.

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Florida has now scored three or more 15 times in 20 games, and it’s taken a top goaltending effort to throw the Panthers’ attack off its game. Boston did it three times and New York did it twice, but both of those teams employ some of the best goaltenders in the world. Stuart Skinner has performed admirably, but he’s just not quite at that level. Against this amount of depth, that isn’t enough.

Players to Watch

There’s been a lot of chatter about Sergei Bobrovsky, but Sam Bennett’s playoff prowess has been criminally underappreciated. The Panthers’ center has 13 points this postseason and hasn’t failed to find the scoresheet since Game 3 of the New York series. But he’s +110 just to score a point. If you want to take him to score a goal, you’ll get excellent odds at +320, despite him scoring a goal in Game 3.

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Connor McDavid hasn’t lit the lamp in this series, which means it’s probably coming in Game 4. The idea that the Panthers could blank both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl sounded fictional at best at the start of the series. But that’s where we sit, as McDavid has just three assists and Draisaitl hasn’t done anything. It’s now or never.

The Pick

The Panthers don’t want to face a long flight to Fort Lauderdale (while nominally associated with Miami, the Panthers play in Broward County and are much closer to Fort Lauderdale than Miami) for anything but a parade. They’ve been on a mission throughout the postseason, and it’s hard to see things changing now.

Florida did blow one opportunity to close out a series with Tampa Bay, but the Panthers haven’t made many mistakes since. The Oilers just don’t look capable of recovering. This feels like it’s going to go much like the first three did.