Stanley Cup Final Preview: Who Will Take Home the Biggest Trophy in Hockey?
Image Courtesy of the National Hockey League (NHL)
By Anthony Curioso
For hockey fans, June marks the arrival of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup Final, where the champions of the Eastern Conference face off against those of the Western Conference in a best-of-seven series to determine the Stanley Cup champion. The Stanley Cup Final will be the fourth best-of-seven series that an NHL team has to overcome this spring and early summer before lifting the prestigious trophy.
This year, the Florida Panthers will represent the Eastern Conference. They defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in five games during the Eastern Conference Final. That series followed a victory in a hard-fought seven-game series against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Conference Semifinals. In the first round of the playoffs, the Panthers earned a five-game win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
2025 marks the sixth consecutive year that a team from Florida has appeared in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Edmonton Oilers, who hail from the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, will represent the Western Conference in this year’s Stanley Cup Final. They secured their spot by defeating the Dallas Stars in five games during the Western Conference Final. To reach that stage, the Oilers also overcame the Vegas Golden Knights in five games in the Conference Semifinals and the Los Angeles Kings in six games in the first round of the playoffs.
The Oilers are determined to change their fate after narrowly missing a historic comeback from a 3-0 series deficit – that is, being one loss away from losing the Stanley Cup Final series outright in a four-game sweep before rattling off four wins in a row to lift the Cup – in last year’s Stanley Cup Final against the Panthers, where the Oilers ultimately ended up losing in Game 7. Had the Oilers completed the comeback with a Game 7 victory, it would have been only the fifth time in NHL history that a team had succeeded in coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series.
This year marks the ninth Stanley Cup Final appearance for the Oilers in their franchise history.
The matchup between the Panthers and Oilers marks the first rematch of the previous year’s Stanley Cup Final in the NHL since 2008 and 2009, which involved the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.
No Canadian NHL team has won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens did so in 1993. The Oilers are the last hope for this drought to end in 2025 and for the Stanley Cup to return to Canada.
Ultimately, only time will tell whether Oilers or Panthers fans will celebrate a Stanley Cup victory this year.
Game One of the Stanley Cup Final is scheduled for Wednesday, June 4. All games of the series will air on TNT, TruTV, and Max in the United States, as well as on Sportsnet, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation network (CBC), and TVA Sports in Canada, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on the scheduled game days. Since the Oilers had the superior record during the regular season, they have the home-ice advantage for the Stanley Cup Final, and Game One will be at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
