EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Summer has officially begun, but two of the best teams in hockey are still playing games over the winter months of the 2023-24 NHL season.
Whoever wins Game 6, and if necessary Game 7, of the Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, which resumes on Friday night in Alberta, will not only be the team that will forever be remembered as a hockey champion, but a rare team for the entire season.
Let me explain. Summer began in the Northern Hemisphere on Thursday, marking the fourth time in the last five years and the sixth time in league history that the NHL season will be extended into the summer.
But either the Panthers or the Oilers or both would join a very small number of teams in the NHL to win fall, winter, spring and summer games in the same season.
“We're definitely incredibly fortunate,” Panthers forward Ryan Romberg said. “We were saying the other day that teams that haven't been in the playoffs have been playing at home the last few months.”
The first two times the Cup Final was played in the summer, in 1995 and 2013, it was because labor disputes delayed the start of the season and no games were played in the fall. The 2019–20 season began in the fall of 2019 and ended in the fall of 2020, but no games were played in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020–21 season lasted into the summer, but did not start until mid-January, again resulting in no fall games.
Only two teams in NHL history have won the fall, winter, spring and summer games in the same season: the 2021-22 Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning. That year's schedule had many postponements due to the pandemic, and the Stanley Cup Final was pushed back into the summer. After the summer solstice in June of that year, Colorado was 2-1 and Tampa Bay was 1-2.
The winner of Friday's Game 6 of this year's Cup final in Edmonton will become just the third team in NHL history to win the fall, winter, spring and summer games in the same hockey season. (And if it's the Oilers, the Panthers will have another chance to join that list in Game 7 on Monday night in Sunrise, Fla.)
By the way, if you look at the actual weather season this hockey season, the Panthers and Oilers have performed relatively close record-wise throughout the year.
Games played in the fall — Florida 18-12-3, Edmonton 14-15-1.
Games played in the winter — Edmonton 27-6-4, Florida 27-7-2. (No team had a better winter record this season than the Oilers and Panthers.)
Spring games including playoffs — Florida 22-12-3, Edmonton 22-15-2.
“I feel very blessed and fortunate to be in this position,” Romberg said.
The only times the Stanley Cup has been awarded later in the calendar year have been during seasons affected by strikes, lockouts or pandemics. The last time the Oilers won it was on May 24, 1990.
Cane Skate
Evander Kane, who has missed the past three games with a sports hernia, practiced with the Oilers on the fifth line, suggesting he is not expected to play in Game 6.
Manager Chris Knobloch, as he has done throughout the series, said he wasn't ready to make any announcements as he hadn't yet spoken with athletic trainer TD Force to determine Kane's condition.
“There's some stuff to think about,” Knobloch said, “but it's possible.”
History of the 6th match
Both teams are 2-0 in Game 6 games in these playoff series. Edmonton beat Vancouver 5-1 and Dallas 2-1, while Florida defeated Boston and the New York Rangers 2-1 each.
Lifetime record: Edmonton is 17-9 in Game 6 games and 10-7 in Game 6 games at home. Florida is 6-3 in Game 6 games in the series and 2-3 on the road.
Long season
On Friday, one team will set a record and the other will tie it.
Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final was Edmonton's 106th game of the season, tying them with the 2005–06 Oilers for the most games in a season (including playoffs) in franchise history.
This will be the Panthers' 105th game of the season, a Florida single-season record since the 1995-96 Panthers played 104 games.
The NHL record for games played in a season is 108, which has been set six times, most recently by the St. Louis Blues in their Stanley Cup-winning season in 2018-19.
Reynolds reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
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