Why Panthers Will Win Game 6

It has been a long and exciting series thus far in the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers. However, it has a good chance of ending on Tuesday night at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

Florida won Game 5 convincingly as Brad Marchand scored two incredible goals and Sam Bennett added another goal on the road to extend his NHL road playoff record 13 goals. He has 15 in total. Marchand picked up his sixth of the series. He and Bennett have to get strong consideration for the Conn Smythe Trophy, especially if the Panthers win the series.

The Panthers are going to be playing before their home crowd. They perform better on the road, but they and their fans who will be loud and proud on Tuesday night. They can smell blood in the water. The cup is theirs for the taking. Florida has a high-octane offense and they have been putting the puck in the back of the net at a rate of 4.90 goals per game. They should be very efficient and effective against Edmonton on their home ice.

Florida has tremendous depth and built to withstand anything Edmonton can throw at them. The Panthers' third line of Marchand, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen are good enough to be front line players on most teams in the league. They accounted for five points on Saturday night and have been very consistent and dangerous in both the offensive and defensive zones.

The fourth line is equally impressive with Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich. They have been getting a fair amount of ice time for a fourth line and have been making the most of it. They are spelling the first three lines and giving them a breather and the team does not miss a beat.

“So, we talk about Brad Marchand tonight, and I think he was at 13:55 (in ice time),” Maurice said Saturday. “A big part of that is the Tomas Nosek line and the minutes they ate."

Maurice continued to gush over his fourth line.

“They blocked shots. They battled. They were fast. They are on and off the ice," Maurice said. "They were good for us tonight.”

Nosek said his line takes pride in doing the dirty work and playing small shifts. They know they are not going to get extensive ice time, but they make their minutes count.

“We try to focus on every shift,” Nosek said. “It doesn’t matter if we play five or 10 minutes, every time we step on the ice we try to do our best to help the team win a game.”

Nosek is also an essential part of the penalty kill for Florida and sees extra minutes on special teams.

Greer, Nosek and Gadjovich have learned to make the most of the few shifts they do get.

“We’re used to it,” Greer said. “Just keep it simple. During TV timeouts, make sure you get out there and you move. And once we go out there, we know what to do and we have to trust each other to be on the same page.”

Edmonton also is going to have a problem on Tuesday night between the pipes. They say if you have two good goalkeepers, you don't have one great one. Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have both seen action and have been bombarded. The Oilers started Pickard on Saturday night and that did not accomplish what their objective was.

It will be interesting to see if they go back to Skinner on Tuesday or try again with Pickard as their championship run hangs in the balance. The Oilers have no consistency in their net.

Florida does not have that problem. They have Sergei Bobrovsky in their net. The consistency in the net has been a positive factor for the Panthers this post season. Bobrovsky was fourth in Conn Smythe voting last season.