Are the Panthers in the Oilers' heads? After ugly Game 3, Edmonton knows it must play its own style

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

Playing the Florida Panthers can, at times, be like mental warfare.

They have mastered the art of walking right up to the line and then not crossing it right when their opponents head is ready to explode.

Theyll provoke you into a cross-check, slash or punch sometimes, all of the above then skate away with a satisfied grin.

Advertisement Just look at the way Sam Bennett let Trent Frederic punch him in the back of the head, cross-check him twice the final so fierce that Frederics stick broke across Bennetts left arm then grab him by his jersey in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Bennett refused to engage before a line brawl was incited.

Sometimes youve got to take a punch, Bennett said Wednesday.

In wrestling terms, this is a team that plays the heel perfectly.

They admit a big part of their aggressive, aggravating game plan is pushing you to the brink of boiling over.

Opponents know its coming.

When youre facing a team that has Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad, plus hard-nosed energy guys such as Jonah Gadjovich and A.J.

Greer, you know youre going to have to deal with trash talking, big hits, top players being checked hard, sneaky extracurriculars and little room to operate.

But knowing its coming doesnt mean being able to counter it.

And when an opponents frustration sets in, as it did for the Edmonton Oilers in Mondays 6-1 Panthers pounding, Florida wins in more ways than just the scoreboard.

Thats part of their DNA, Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said.

Thats what they do.

I think theres spurts in the series when weve handled it really well.

(Monday) night, the games over with 11 minutes left and all hell breaks loose.

Its a UFC fight.

I think overall, we can be a little more disciplined and stay away from that.

Everything stemmed from Trent Frederic breaking his stick with cross-checks on Sam Bennett pic.twitter.com/DDuNQe2M3g Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) June 10, 2025 Indeed, in the third period of Game 3, the Oilers looked like a bunch of lumberjacks, two-handing Panthers players in the back of the legs shift after shift.

Sure, they knew the game was out of hand by that point, and its common in that situation to, as Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch so eloquently said, make investments for the next game.

Advertisement But this felt different, even if the Oilers denied losing their scruples.

Its an emotional time, Draisaitl said.

Its two teams that want to win two teams doing it their own way but I dont think anybody is going crazy here.

Theyre good at what they do, but (Monday) night was the first night where it got out of hand a little bit.

The games over, its 5-1 and its not a big deal.

We have guys that are intense.

They like getting in those situations just as much as they do.

Even before the game got out of hand, though, the Oilers took four first-period penalties, including cross-checking and high-sticking minors to Evander Kane.

Kane would later slash a fallen Carter Verhaeghe in the face right after he was two-handed by Evan Bouchard.

Evander Kane tried to sneak this one in but got caught in the process #LetsGoOilers | #TimeToHunt pic.twitter.com/p4anCEgoqQ Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) June 10, 2025 Earlier in the game, Bouchard cross-checked Anton Lundell, who fell quickly to the ice before being punched again by Jake Walman.

The Oilers accused the Panthers during the game of diving (Lundell and Sergei Bobrovsky) and turtling (Tkachuk wanting no part of fighting Kane).

They seem to get away with it more than we do, Kane said afterward.

Its tough to find the line.

Theyre doing just as much stuff as we are.

The Panthers do get away with plenty.

As Marchand said, they know that the refs cant call everything all the time.

There was one shift in the first period on Monday where Bennett looked like he committed two penalties on Draisaitl that went uncalled.

But whats so hard for opponents is that the Panthers are unrelenting with their in-your-face style and also at turning the other cheek.

One of their biggest improvements over the past couple of years under Paul Maurice has been after-whistle discipline.

Advertisement It used to be a lot worse, Verhaeghe said.

Wed engage a lot more.

But I think over the years, we realized that it doesnt really help anything and that you play hard between the whistles, but the after-whistle stuff only hurts us.

We do a good job drawing penalties.

Well take that.

But I think two or three years ago when we made it to the Final (against the Vegas Golden Knights), we were a pretty undisciplined team.

After the whistle, wed be involved in scrums and everything like that.

And then we realized that it didnt really help our game and nothing good would happen from it.

Added Greer, We have to play in between whistles, especially with a team that has such a good power play.

We try to frustrate them with how little time they have with the puck.

So if a guys coming up the ice, if our D man has a good gap on him, he has to chip in, and then he gets held up he has nothing to do.

All hes doing is chasing the puck.

He gets frustrated, and that translates to stuff after the whistle.

For us, thats how were trying to frustrate them, is by playing a tight defensive game and not letting them have any open ice or any chances to get to that net.

Thats how we have to play.

Thats how we have to frustrate them, and then thatll translate to us getting power plays, right? Thats how we view it, and thats how our game plan is.

Of course, the Panthers can be sneaky, too, like when Greer removed Walmans glove and casually tossed it onto Floridas bench.

That led to Walman squirting a water bottle between the benches, a move that resulted in one of Walmans two $5,000 fines stemming from Game 3.

Walman was spraying water at the Panthers bench pic.twitter.com/gzuvCi9WJM B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 10, 2025 We have plenty of water on our bench, Greer said, sarcastically.

Weve got great trainers, great training staff.

Weve got Gatorade.

Weve got water, BodyArmor.

Weve got some nice stuff over there.

Greers other fine was for repeatedly punching Tkachuk in the face as John Klingberg held Tkachuks head.

Advertisement Tkachuk is a common factor in a lot of this.

The hate between him and Kane, in particular, is real.

As Kane said before the series, We know what hes about.

Theres never a lot of backup to that talk.

Or as Kane said after Game 1, Whats it like (playing Tkachuk)? Its like any player.

He just talks a little more.

Jake Walman just gave a couple rights to Matthew Tkachuk pic.twitter.com/gSv9SgT33Z Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) June 10, 2025 But even Tkachuk has toned down the after-whistle shenanigans.

His first year in Florida, Tkachuk averaged 1.55 penalty minutes per game (123 in 79 games).

Last season, it was down to 1.1 (88 in 80 games).

This past regular season, 1.03.

You take a look at Matthew Tkachuks penalties, the line graph of his penalties, and theres a significant drop after his first six months here, with the exception of whenever he and (brother) Brady play against each other, Maurice quipped.

Then theres this one game spike.

Maurice also agreed that its the Panthers style between the whistles that frustrates opponents.

In his mind, absorbing the punches and stick infractions and skating away is part of paying the price in the playoffs.

As Tkachuk said after Game 3, the Panthers talked during the third period about, If you have to take a punch, take a punch.

If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check.

Spear, slash in the face, whatever the case is, youve got to take it.

When Bouchard and Kane went after Verhaeghe, he lived those words.

Its just smart, Verhaeghe said.

Let them go to the box all night.

And thats what the Oilers will have to avoid the rest of the series.

After Game 3, theyve got to know that the Panthers are trying to sucker them into the nonsense.

We know what they are, defenseman Mattias Ekholm said.

We got experience of playing them last year, and I think its more on us as players.

Thats their brand.

Thats what they do.

Thats what they do really well.

But at the same time, weve won four games against them in these Finals in the last two years.

And I think if you look at those games, were a very focused group.

We play our game.

We dont let that even creep in a little bit.

Maybe we lost that a little bit (Monday) night, but we know what to do.

Advertisement Same with the Panthers.

We have a really focused group this year, Bennett said.

Our eyes are on one thing and one thing only, and guys are going to stick up for each other.

Guys are going to stand up for each other.

But we have one goal in mind, and all the other stuff is just distracting and just to try to get you off your game.

We have one goal in mind, and thats all that were really worried about.

(Photo of Jonah Gadjovich, Trent Frederic and Sam Bennett: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.