Only two teams have ever lost three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, and they were both under special and antediluvian circumstances. The 1938–40 Toronto Maple Leafs managed it when the National Hockey League was only seven or eight teams deep and all you had to do to compete was not go bankrupt, and the 1968–70 St. Louis Blues got swept three consecutive times as an expansion team when one of the two divisions was all expansion teams.
Thus, it is hard to conceive of the Edmonton Oilers as they are this morning, first beaten and then hammered by the Florida Panthers in successive years, not having to live with this feeling for years to come. Knowing that the other guy is better one year is hard to endure, but knowing that the same guy got almost incalculably better a year later makes this a more existential defeat.
In short, we are suggesting that a beatdown this comprehensive tends to crush the loser more comprehensively than it elevates the winner. Not in the present, mind you. Florida earned its parade and all the empties strewn across Broward County this morning, winning Game The Last, 5-1, and the score greatly flattered the Oilers. Even those recidivist Oilers fans who want to delegate blame toward their lads for not being deep enough or goalied enough need only to know that the only goaltender in this series who might have saved them was on the other side.
No, this series showed that the difference between the Panthers and Oilers has gone from narrow to wide, and while the salary cap eventually makes first-round losers of us all, one's imagination fails when time comes to envision how the Oilers get so much better that one can picture them reaching next year's Final, let alone winning it.
Edmonton's four defeats in this Final were by an aggregate 13 goals—one in double overtime, and then five, three and four. They lost Tuesday night to Sam Reinhart by three on his own, and they lost the six first periods of the series, 13-4. They always burst with spirit and purpose from the opening faceoff and eight minutes in realized it didn't make a damned bit of difference. Their best line was dominated by Florida's third, and those who want to lament Connor McDavid's difficulties would be better served trying to figure out how to pronounce Eetu Luostarinen, since not even the TV people can seem to manage it.
In all, a series that looked like it could be epically wacky after two games turned out to be a sweep in disguise. The prospect of a Round 3 next spring feels remote and unappealing. History suggests it to be highly unlikely, and even that perpetual runner-up, the 1932–40 Maple Leafs who lost six Finals in nine years including one to the hilariously named Montreal Maroons, also won a Cup before that run and another after it. That's what comes from having seven teams in a league. The current one has 32.
Even the players, who burned with rage after last year's Game 7 loss, didn't even try to dress this one up as worthy challengers. Goalie Stuart Skinner, who was roughly half a Bobrovsky in this series and may well be someone else's philosopher-keeper next year, put it simply: “We need to learn from this right away, right now. Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating.”
It looked it, too, because the central tenet of their failure was the fact that they didn't have Florida's players, coach, or system. There's your lesson right there. As for what to do about it, slackjawed Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said, “It’s going to be a long summer.”
It isn't the summer that will get them, though, as much as the six months that come after that. The Oilers at their best are a year old and getting older, and this team wasn't that one. Even with McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and a healthier Zach Hyman, they are not the Panthers, not yet, and maybe not ever. There is history to support their wildest fantasies, to be sure—the 1954 and '55 Montreal Canadiens lost to Detroit and then won the next five Cups—but that's not the way to bet. Edmonton's likeliest future is an existential crisis circling McDavid's contractual intentions, and if that works, then seeking out all the Bennetts and Reinhards and Marchands and Bobrovskys and Luostarinens and Tkachuks and Lundells lying around just waiting to be scooped up and carried away. This summer will indeed suck for the Oilers, but only as prelude to something that could be significantly worse.
