'Not the ref's fault': Florida Panthers country reacts to historic Stanley Cup Final collapse in Game 4

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Florida Panthers hockey country is disgusted and down, but not out. In fact, the more sober fans and commentators from Ratland are quietly confident their team can rebound — and with good reason. Florida has brought its best game more often than the Oilers in this Stanley Cup Final.

As Panthers commentator TJ Peterson of the Panther Pourri podcast put it after the Game 4 loss: “There’s been three coin flips and a curb stomp in this series. The Panthers are the one that did the curb stomp… There has not been a game this series that the Oilers have dominated. There has been a game that the Panthers have dominated… The fact of the matter is the Panthers have lost one playoff series in the last three years… They have found a way to outlast these teams.”

That said, there was plenty of outrage and upset in Florida as the Panthers fell apart, losing in historic Stanley Cup Final fashion. The Oilers were the first road team to cone back from a deficit of at least three goals and win since the Montreal Canadiens did it to the Seattle Metropolitans in overtime in 1919.

Edmonton fans have seen these Oilers get down in games repeatedly and comeback to win repeatedly, but it was more of a shocker in Florida.

Here’s how Panthers fans, commentators and podcaster reacted as the Oilers fought back.

Locked On Panthers podcast host Armando Velez @Mandoman12
Edmonton cuts the Panthers lead to 2. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins shot got through a screen and past Bob upstairs. Barkov screened his own goalie there. 3-1 Panthers.

Panthers fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
Ugly start to the period. Lock back in

Panthers fan Tkachuckle @Tkachuckle
Here comes every call going to EDM lmao

Florida hockey writer George Richards @GeorgeRichards
Panthers being outshot 15-4 in the second, outscored 3-0

Panthers fan Barkovmemes @barkovmemes
One of the worst periods of hockey I’ve ever seen from this team

Panthers fan Adam @AGBRSports
We parked the bus after 3-0 lead…. Guys have given up. We can’t score on Pickard. Nobody ever in front of Edmonton net. We’re not playing McDavid physical at all. Embarrassing . Devastating.

Panthers fan Erik 😺🏆🐀 @erik_on_hockey
Barkov and Reinhart looked terrible on that long shift before the 4th Edmonton goal. Really uncharacteristic.

Panthers fan Dylan @miamiguydylan
Panthers dominated overtime and it ends on a fluke goal like that. Of course.

Panthers fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
Inches from a 3-1 series lead and instead it’s 2-2 going back to Edmonton. Absolutely sickening. If the Panthers don’t win the Cup, blowing a 3-0 lead in a home game with a chance to go up 3-1 will forever be one of the most haunting nights in franchise history.

Official account of the Florida Panthers @FlaPanthers
Heartbreak is the national anthem tonight.

Panthers fan Florida Panthers History 😼 @FLCatsHistory
We move on, we’ll be stronger Saturday. But man that was ridiculous

Panthers fan Adam @AGBRSports
The worst goal Sergei Bobrovsky gave up all post season had to be an OT winner. It just had to be

Panthers fan Jacob Winans @JacobWinans8
I’ll say this right now. It Barkov doesn’t show up for the next three games WAY better than he has been for the first four, the Oilers have a parade to plan.

Panthers fan Kenneth @KenSW423
Is Barkov tonight’s scapegoat, Panthers twitter?

Panthers forward Sam Reinhart
We were too passive in watching the plays develop.

Panthers fan goose ☻︎ #13 @keyshuii
i blame everyone saying the oilers were finished after the first period for that loss

Panthers fan EthanGO515 @EthanG051515
This series is right where it should be. Oilers earned game 1. Panthers stole game 2. Panthers earned game 3. Oilers stole game 4. And if you told me it would be 2-2 beforehand I’d say I’m ok with that

Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky
It was a tight game, good chances. The series comes down to best-of-three. We’re excited about that.

Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk
I thought we did a lot of good things. Yeah, it’s a best-of-three. With losing this one, we’ve got to go in there (Edmonton) and win one eventually, so hopefully we can do it in Game 5.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice
If you plan for seven games, that means you’re losing three of them. You have to take that pain, use it and come back.

Panthers fan Charles¹⁷ 🏆🐀 @KanerRocket17
I had this series going 6 games minimum. The Panthers have the better team on paper. However, there’s something about a team looking for redemption. Revenge becomes a heck of an equalizer

Panthers fan BKHockeyTalk @BKHockeyTalk
It’s extremely hard for me to criticize this guy…but Sasha Barkov simply HAS to be better. He’s not physical anymore, he’s not as hungry on the forecheck, he’s still doing his job on D but he’s a ghost offensively 5v5. That’s HAS to change.

Panthers fan loreen and 이강인 fan acc🇬🇾🇮🇩 @flacosolus
Blowing a 3-0 lead is diabolical.. great game though, this series has been sooo good. Cats in 6 y’all still got this 👏🏿

Panthers fan Jagermonster @Jagerm0nster
Panthers seemed like they were holding back. I’m thinking they win the next 2 and lift the cup at home.

Panthers fan Brandon Odell @sportsfanatic39
It might be over. Now EDM has all their confidence back, and home ice again. Plus it’s hard to win when Barkov is barely making an impact. Even his defense has been bad.

Panthers fan Dr. Logan Kane @LoganKane24
How do you not score on Calvin Pickard, a career AHLer?

Panthers commentator Cody Stevens of the Cats ‘N’ Rats podcast
Quite simply that second period was pitiful. First off, let me give credit to Edmonton. They they knew what time it was. They knew they were fighting for the season. They were fighting for a Stanley Cup there, and they put up their best five-on-five period of this series. Now on the other side, Florida, not moving their feet, not being fast enough, getting being out-efforted by Edmonton in spots where it’s two (Oilers) vs five (Panthers).

Panthers commentator TJ Peterson of the Panther Pourri podcast
The Oilers were really sloppy… They were just making idiotic mistakes… I mean, that Nurse trip is inexcusable from my perspective. And then the turnover that led to the Lundell goal. I mean, I kind of lost my mind a little bit because I’m thinking to myself, man, this Oilers team doesn’t belong here. How are they making mistakes like that?

Panthers fan ᴍᴀʀᴋ sᴀsʜᴇɢʏɪ @MarkSashegyi
Panthers are why I started watching hockey. This game is why I’m done watching hockey.

Panthers fan XTIGERXLOKI @JamesLeeser
Calm down everyone, they only levelled the series, next game is on road were we excel. We are 8-2 on the road this postseason. We’ll find a way to get it done, be more positive, X (Twitter) is full of negative people

Panthers fan Ben Dover @SottishisHere
Somehow mustered a choke job worse than game 1. Made Pickard look like Hasek. Bums.

Panthers commentator TJ Peterson of the Panther Pourri podcast
The Panthers have won the last Game 7 they played. And since then, they’ve won the last Game 5 they played. And the Game 5 before that. And the Game 5 before that. And they also won Game 7 in the Leaf series… I think that goes to show that they’ve done well as these series have grown. I mean, in the Leaf series, it was noticeable…. You know, the infamous quote from Paul Maurice, you know, ‘just bang their body until they’ve got nothing left.’ I feel like it almost kind of, it almost applies double when you’re talking about the team that leans so much on two players.

Panthers fan Brad Webb @TruthPimp
If Bob didn’t make 6 incredible saves, it would have been 11 goals for the Oilers.

Panthers fan Thechek182 @thechek182
Bob going to be standing on his head in the next one don’t you worry about it 😉

Panthers fan 🦋Diana Mercer @me_dianamercer
The Panthers will roar back to life! … We’ve got the momentum, the skill, and the determination to overcome any obstacle the Oilers throw our way

Panthers fan 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩𝘾𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 @WadexFlash
Up 3-1 in game 1
Up 3-0 in game 4
Panthers in 6. They will figure it out and bring the cup back to Florida.

Panthers fan Obsolete Man @ArizonaBobcat
Barkov 4th line.

Bill Horosz of the On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
Been doing a slow burn after the loss. Of course the Panthers had the better play in OT only to lose on a fluke bounce. End result was one of if not the most disappointing games I’ve ever been to in my life. Really stings since I know we can play better… One other thing that kind of got lost last night was several sloppy line changes- especially the one that led to the fluke winner by the Oilers.

Bill Horosz of the On the Prowl: Florida Panthers Den podcast
19,000 saw the Edmonton Oilers stick holding on the scoreboard and these two clowns didn’t call it. But they called the Panthers on several tacky calls last night one almost on the heels of another one. No bias. Pure garbage. Garage league refs.

Hockey podcasters Empty Netters @EmptyNettersPod
Angry psycho Edmonton fans, you’re not gonna want to hear this….Florida lost that game

Panthers fan 2 dubs left B2B Florida Panthers championships! @SazonBailando
That OT loss felt I got stabbed in the ribs. 3-0 to losing 5-4 at home was ROUGH to digest.

Panthers fan BKHockeyTalk @BKHockeyTalk
Having my feeds flooded with Swift and Kelce staring at a phone or each other and laughing…is genuinely the perfect medicine for staying off social media after a loss. How do yall NFL fans deal with this on a weekly basis?!

Panthers commentator TJ Peterson of the Panther Pourri podcast
The inability to predict is frustrating here. Like, it really does feel like … the Panthers are the better team. I think that even though they don’t have home ice, they should be considered the favourites.

Panthers commentator Jacob Langsam of the Panther Pourri podcast
As far as officiating is concerned, I have decided to take a Zen Buddhism approach We are all simply predisposed to more easily see the missed calls that would have benefited the teams that we root for. It’s all gonna come out in the wash. For any missed penalty on the Oilers, I’m sure there was a missed call on the Panthers and vice versa. I’m done complaining about that… Matthew Tkachuk had a great chance to score a hat trick. He had an excellent opportunity that got blocked by a defender. Sam Bennett hit the crossbar in overtime. It’s not like the Panthers didn’t generate chances that could have led to them winning this game. They just didn’t convert on those chances. That’s not the ref’s fault. Does officiating play a part in the story of this game? Absolutely. Was officiating a deciding factor in this game? No, it was not.

Panthers commentator Nick Levine of the Cats ‘N’ Rats podcast
It was a power play that really got them going. It’s the (Florida) penalties really — if you want me to tell you the truth — that gave them life. Very undisciplined. Now, there were a lot of complaints about missed calls leading to two Oiler goals. At the end of the day, I didn’t necessarily agree with some of the officiating in the first period. I thought they missed the high stick on (Edmonton’s Troy) Stecher that led to the Lundell goal, right?… It is what it is, right? You can sit here and complain and bitch about power plays, and this, that and the other thing. (But) you gotta get the puck out of the zone. You have to bear down. You have to do certain things better in your game.

Panthers commentator Cody Stevens of the Cats ‘N’ Rats podcast
The Panthers had their chance to put a strangle home this series, and they missed it. And I’m looking squarely at that top line right now… Alexander Barkov and Sam Reinhart Have to be better. That’s where it starts. On that Walman gaol, those two guys, the line, was gassed, and for some unknown reason they don’t go for the change. And so when they do defend, they’re getting out-efforted by Ryan Nugent Hopkins. And that creates that goal.

Panthers commentator TJ Peterson of the Panther Pourri podcast
Edmonton’s always got a chance. Yeah, they could play worse than the Panthers definitively in the rest of the series and still win. Yeah, because maybe Bob doesn’t play all that great. Maybe there’s a puck that bounces off the crossbar off his back and goes in. Maybe Pickard, you know, just has the juju.

Panthers commentator Jacob Langsam of the Panther Pourri podcast
The outlook should be generally positive for Panthers fans. There’s no reason for us to dive into despair here. Not yet.

My take

1. If I were a Florida Panthers fan I’d be confident too. Sergie Bobrovsky has been by far the best goalie in the series so far, at least until Calvin Pickard’s cameo. The Panthers are a much better team than I thought. They pass the puck brilliantly. They are exposing Edmonton’s weaknesses on team defence. They are generally preventing Edmonton’s best players from dominating the series.

2. As an Oilers fan, though, I have a lot of hope. Edmonton still hasn’t brought its ‘A’ game on defence to this series. Their biggest name players, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse, all had rough games in the Edmonton end in Game 4, all of them culprits on goals and multiple Grade A shots against. If they don’t get on top of that, they won’t deserve to beat Florida this year for the Stanley Cup. But McDavid, Draisaitl and Nurse are all capable of playing shut-down defence. They’ve done it in the past, and when they do so they lead by example. Edmonton is fully capable of limiting Florida to fewer than 10 Grade A shots in a single game.

3. When it comes to McDavid and Draisaitl, the two have yet to romp in a game, but there’s a good bet that will happen at least once in the next three games. And Evan Bouchard has so far been a stone cold killer in the Final, Edmonton’s best player, and a possible Conn Smythe Trophy winner. He’d have my vote right now. He’s playing exceptional hockey both on defence and on the attack. Even under heavy fire, when others around him are losing their heads, he’s making deft and dangerous break-out passes.

4. Overall Edmonton has had 82 Grade A shots so far in the series, Florida 72, with the subset of even more dangerous 5-alarm shots going 42 to 37 for Edmonton. At even strength, the Grade A shots are 62 to 54 for Edmonton, meaning if Edmonton can get goaltending equal to what Bobrovsky brings, the Oilers should have an edge and win. In Game 4, Pickard gave Edmonton that edge in the final three periods.

5. According to shot quality, you’d expect Skinner to let in 3.3 goals against Florida in Game 4. He let in three. Skinner was average in Game 4

According to shot quality, you’d expect Pickard to let in 2.9. He let in one. Pickard was great in Game 4.

Skinner wasn’t the cause of the 3-0 deficit in the first. But Pickard played a huge part in that win.

6. My sense is the Oilers and their fans were way too high after the Game 1 win. A bit too much Pink Pony Club for all. But I don’t get that same sense now. Lots of trepidation and stress now, which is good. The Oil play best when they’re thrown from the frying pan to the fire.

7. I go into every Oilers game thinking: ‘Be fantastic if the Oilers just blew them out, now stress, no fuss, no anger, no crazy stuff.’ And every game I am deeply disappointed.

Against a deadly team like Florida, I’m clearly asking way too much.

At the Cult of Hockey

LEAVINS: Game grades in historic Oilers win