Takeaways from Oilers' win over Panthers in Game 6 of Stanley Cup Final

The Edmonton Oilers forced a deciding Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final following a dominating 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers. Here are three takeaways from Friday's Game 6.

Kris Knoblauch keeps pushing the right buttons

Since falling behind 3-0 to the Panthers in the series, the Oilers have looked like a brand new team while rallying off three straight wins. A lot of the credit goes to the emergence of Edmonton's stars, but the team's head coach also deserves his flowers.

Knoblauch didn't change much in Game 6, but pairing together Warren Foegele, Leon Draisaitl and Dylan Holloway again paid dividends as the trio combined for three points and two of the Oilers' five goals. Meanwhile, he shifted the momentum early in the second period, successfully challenging a Panthers second-period goal, which, at the time, would've cut Edmonton's lead to 2-1 with nearly 40 minutes of hockey left to play.

Connor McDavid didn't have to pull the weight, Oilers still won 

McDavid practically took over the series after the Oilers dropped the first three games to the Panthers. However, he went pointless on Friday, yet Edmonton still won.

The Oilers captain posted back-to-back four-point performances in Game 4 (one goal, three assists) and Game 5 (two goals, two assists). But, in Game 6, he didn't appear on the stat sheet, but his teammates did, with 11 Edmonton players registering at least a point.

Down 3-0, the Oilers seemingly needed to jump on McDavid's back to crawl back into the series. But, in Game 6, they proved that wasn't necessary to win, which is a bad sign for the reeling Panthers. 

Oilers' stifling defense has forced Panthers stars to go quiet 

The Oilers successfully stifled the Panthers' forecheck for a third straight game. This allowed Edmonton to keep chances to the outside, effectively silencing Florida's stars.

Of the Panthers' 21 shots on Friday, eight came from defensemen. Meanwhile, aside from captain Aleksander Barkov (3), the only other forward to manage more than one shot was Nick Cousins (2), who was playing in place of Kyle Okposo.

Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues finished with only one shot in Game 6. This troubling trend must be reversed, or the Panthers will likely watch the Oilers skate around with the Cup on their home ice three days from now.