Panthers win back-to-back Stanley Cups after eliminating Oilers for 2nd straight year
Sam Reinhart’s 4-goal performance propels Florida to 5-1 win in Game 6
Connor McDavid stood in the same room in the bowels of Amerant Bank Arena.
The Oilers superstar captain was — just as he had 12 months earlier — digesting a crushing loss that ended Edmonton's season.
Down the hall and out on the ice, the Florida Panthers were once again hoisting the Stanley Cup.
McDavid and his crestfallen teammates, meanwhile, were left with the same empty feeling.
Sam Reinhart scored four goals, including two into the empty net, as Florida topped Edmonton 5-1 in Game 6 of the NHL title series to claim the franchise's second consecutive championship after beating the same opponent in the same building last June.
"Nobody quit, nobody threw the towel in, but they're a heck of a team," said McDavid, his soon-to-be shorn playoff beard still in place. "They're back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason."
The Oilers fell behind the Panthers 3-0 in last year's final before battling back to force a Game 7 they would go onto lose 2-1.
"The takeaway is that we didn't win," Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl said of this year's closing act. "Nobody cares. Like, nobody cares. We didn't win — try again next year."
Edmonton, which was without heart-and-soul winger Zach Hyman after he suffered a dislocated wrist in the Western Conference final, dealt with a cluster of injuries toward the end of the regular season before falling behind the Los Angeles Kings 2-0 in the opening round.
WATCH | Florida's Reinhart scores 4 to down Oilers:
The Oilers responded with four straight victories to advance. They then eliminated the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars in five games apiece to set up a rematch with the Panthers.
"There's no silver lining to this," Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch said. "It's still heart-wrenching. It's very difficult to handle right now."
And while the Oilers again stumbled at the final hurdle, the players seemed more resigned to defeat than last year's soul-crushing end.
"We battled," Draisaitl said. "But we're not leaving here as winners."
Edmonton, which won Games 1 and 4 in overtime for the club's only victories in the series, didn't have an answer for Florida's relentless forecheck, and led for just under 34 minutes across the six games.
"It sucks. It's painful. It's not fun," said Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who was victimized on the Panthers' first goal from Reinhart. "Not, obviously, what we wanted."
Edmonton was outscored 13-4 in the opening period in the series — and 9-0 over the final four games — against Florida's grinding approach.
"They tilted the rink," McDavid said. "They were able to stay on top of us all over the place and we were never really able to generate any momentum up the ice. We kept (expletive) trying the same thing over and over again, banging our heads against the wall.
"Credit to them, they played well."
Knoblauch reflected on the group's resolve to push through following a run that not many on the outside saw coming after the club finished the regular season third in the Pacific Division.
"It hurts," he said. "We felt that we could have won it all. Getting so close last year and getting so close this year — a lot had fallen into place and it did very early in the playoffs. I'm very, very happy about the guys. They gave a tremendous effort.
"It's gonna be a long summer."
Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner, who got the start Tuesday after getting pulled in Game 4, said there are lessons to take forward.
"Show up better, react better to certain situations," he said. "We need to learn from this right away, right now.
"Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating."
Oilers forward Corey Perry has now been on the wrong end in five of the last six Cup finals. The 40-year-old, who plans to continue playing next season, lost with Dallas (2020), Montreal (2021), Tampa Bay (2022) and Edmonton (2024, 2025).
"He brought tears to my eyes," said Skinner, who was consoled by Perry at the final buzzer. "I keep that for my heart."
The Oilers will now turn their attention to another painful off-season knowing how close they were — and how tough the mountain is to climb.
"We're right there," Ekholm said. "We just need to get over that hump. We have a lot of the right pieces and the right characters in our room. It's very frustrating right now. I don't even know if I'm thinking straight.
"I hope we'll be back in the near future."
Bennett wins Conn Smythe
Florida's Sam Bennett was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
Though Bennett didn't tally a point in the finale of the best-of-seven finals, he had five goals and one assist against Edmonton. That left him with an NHL-high 15 goals in the 2025 postseason, to go with seven assists.
Bennett established an NHL record with 13 road goals in a single postseason, tallying at least one goal in each of the Panthers' final six away contests.
"I'm obviously super grateful, it means the world to me, but I really couldn't have done it without this whole group," Bennett said of winning the Conn Smythe.
This run through Tampa Bay in five games, Toronto in seven, Carolina in five and Edmonton in six showed how clinical the Panthers have become under coach Paul Maurice, who has coached more NHL games than everyone except Scotty Bowman and is now a two-time champion.
So is Brad Marchand, who last hoisted the Cup in 2011 with the Boston Bruins. The 14-year gap is the third-longest in league history, just shy of 16 for Chris Chelios from 1986 to 2002 and 15 for Mark Recchi from '91 to '06.
"It's incredible," Marchand said. "It's a feeling you can't really describe. Seeing the family and everyone up there and everyone that supported me and helped me get to this point, words can't put this into reality how great it feels. Such an incredible group."