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Edmonton Oilers right wing Kasperi Kapanen heads the to penatly box after a fight against the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena. Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

4 Takeaways From Oilers’ Game 3 Loss to Panthers

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Brian Swane | Last updated Jun 10, 2025 9:55 AM ET

The Edmonton Oilers suffered one of the worst defeats in their postseason history on Monday (June 9) at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, where they fell 6-1 to the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final. With the victory, Florida has taken a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven championship series.

Corey Perry had Edmonton’s lone goal, while Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, and Carter Verhaeghe all scored for the Panthers.

Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 18 of 23 shots before being replaced in the third period by Calvin Pickard, who allowed one goal on seven shots. Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves between the Panthers’ pipes.

Florida led 2-0 after the first period and took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission. Game 3 marked just the seventh time that the Oilers have been beaten by at least five goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and is Edmonton’s most lopsided postseason loss since 2017.

Disastrous Start

Edmonton trailed for 98.4% of the game on Monday. Marchand gave Florida the lead with a goal at 0:56 of the first period, and the Panthers never looked back.

It was the worst possible start for the Oilers, and their second consecutive game giving up an early goal. Edmonton managed to battle back after falling behind 1-0 just 2:07 into Game 2, but that was on home ice.

On Monday, Marchand’s tally only further riled up Florida’s super-charged fans, who serenaded Skinner and made the visiting team feel most unwelcome in Amerant Bank Arena. The template for success on the road in the postseason is to take the crowd out of the game; the Oilers did the exact opposite.

Penalty Parade

Edmonton racked up a whopping 85 penalty minutes, fifth most in the team’s long Stanley Cup Playoff history. As a result, Florida had a jaw-dropping 11 power-play opportunities, which is tied for the most of any team in the NHL postseason since 2008.

It’s easy to say that the game wasn’t officiated evenly, but that would be letting Edmonton off the hook. The Oilers have no one but themselves to blame for their parade to the penalty box, which started just over five minutes into the first period and continued until less than five minutes remained in the game.

The Panthers got under Edmonton’s skin, and the Oilers reacted by taking a slew of undisciplined penalties. It was a masterclass in gamesmanship by the Panthers, who just laughed while the Oilers seethed on their way to the box.

On a team of culprits, no Oiler was more guilty of losing his composure than Evander Kane. The veteran forward set the unfortunate tone with a pair of terrible penalties on consecutive shifts early in the opening period, for cross-checking at 5:13 and cross-checking at 7:54. Kane completed the penalty hat trick with a minor for slashing at 13:55 of the third period before being given a misconduct.

Four other Oilers were also given misconducts in the third period, including Mattias Ekholm, Trent Frederic, Kasperi Kapanen and Darnell Nurse.

Panthers Take Advantage

Florida converted three of its 11 power-play opportunities, for a success rate of 27.3%. That means Edmonton’s penalty kill ended the night at 72.7%, which is actually an improvement over its postseason-long percentage of 66.0% to start the game.

That’s how bad things have been while playing shorthanded for the Oilers, who have somehow reached the championship round despite their terrible penalty kill. The difference in previous games, however, was that the Oilers had limited the number of power plays for the opposition by largely staying out of the box.

During the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Oilers are now 2-5 in games when they give the opponent four or more opportunities with the man advantage, and 11-1 in games that the opposition has three or fewer power plays.

Draisaitl MIA

Edmonton had its share of power-play minutes in Game 3, too, getting six opportunities with the man-advantage on Monday. Perry’s goal came on the power play early in the second period, cutting Florida’s lead to 2-1 at the time.

But besides that, the Oilers struggled to get much going with the man advantage. Leon Draisaitl, who has the most power-play goals in the NHL over the last 10 seasons, played 6:58 with the man advantage in Game 3 and didn’t manage one shot attempt. In fact, the 2024-25 Hart Trophy finalist didn’t register a single shot attempt in the entire game.

Draisaitl had three goals and an assist in Games 1 and 2 combined, but was completely taken out of the match on Monday. It was alarmingly reminiscent of the Stanley Cup Final last year, when the German superstar failed to score and contributed just three assists in seven games against the Panthers.

The Oilers could use a lot more from Draisaitl when they look to even up the series with a victory in Game 4 on Thursday (June 12) at Amerant Bank Arena. Edmonton has won an incredible nine straight Game 4s, including last year against the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.