NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – June 3, 2024
The Oilers eliminate the Stars and advance to the Stanley Cup Final. Check out the recap and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
GAME RECAP
NHL.COM: The Edmonton Oilers are going to the Stanley Cup Final after holding off the Dallas Stars 2-1 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final, taking the series four games to two.
Edmonton captain Connor McDavid opened the scoring on the power play in the first period with a brilliant display of stickhandling. Zach Hyman made it 2-0 for the Oilers on another power-play goal. Mason Marchment got Dallas on the board in the third period but the Oilers withstood a furious push by the Stars for the win. McDavid finished with two points and Evan Bouchard collected two assists.
2023-24 Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers (NHL.com).
The Oilers will face the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Saturday, June 8 at 7:30 pm EDT.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Stars dominated the play in this game except on the score sheet. They outshot the Oilers 35-10, outhit them 31-18, and had three power-play opportunities to the Oilers’ two.
The difference was Edmonton cashed in on the man advantage and stymied the Stars at 5-on-5. Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner played his best game of the postseason, kicking out 34 shots. They got the win with winger Evander Kane sidelined for the third period after he was injured in the opening frame throwing a hit on Dallas’ Alex Petrovic. Head coach Kris Knoblauch is optimistic that the six-day break before the Cup Final will do Kane some good.
Oilers winger Corey Perry became the first player in NHL history to play for five teams in the Stanley Cup Final. He won the Cup in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks and would play for the Stars (2020), Montreal Canadiens (2021) and Tampa Bay Lightning (2022) before joining the Oilers as a free agent in January.
The Stars were understandably overcome with emotion following the loss, but the thought of teammate Joe Pavelski’s possible retirement had several of them on the verge of tears. He turns 40 next month and his contract expires on July 1. Pavelski had 27 goals and 67 points in the regular season but his performance noticeably declined during this postseason with four points in 19 games.
IN OTHER NEWS…
NEW YORK POST: Rangers long-time goaltending guru, Benoit Allaire, will scale back his workload. He will continue serving as their director of goaltending but will no longer serve as their goalie coach on a day-to-day basis. Allaire completed his 20th season with the Rangers, playing a key role in the careers of netminders Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin.
DAILY FACEOFF: The Saginaw Spirit got a late goal from Vancouver Canucks prospect Josh Bloom to defeat the London Knights 4-3, winning the Memorial Cup for the first time in franchise history.
Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck won the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP. He scored twice in the championship game and registered four goals and an assist in the tournament.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Congratulations to the Spirit on winning their first-ever Memorial Cup championship.
Seattle Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus won the David Branch Player of the Year as the top player in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The Moose Jaw Warriors winger is the first player in his club’s history to win this award, leading the CHL with 61 goals and 65 assists for 126 points in 63 regular-season games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Firkus was mentioned as a potential trade candidate for the Kraken to add more immediate help to their roster. Given his performance this season, they might want to rethink that option.
Should be a great final between 2 deserving teams! First time in awhile that Canada has a dog in the hunt!
It should be a good one Sr … but if Edmonton can’t manage more than 10 shots for the whole game in any of the games against Florida it could also be a short one.
How the heck does a team like that muster just 10 shots over 60 minutes? Skinner, meanwhile, was a monster in their nets.
They were up 2-0 early George, Dallas being the team with backs against the wall, came out with a strong push but we’re behind on the scoreboard. After that the oilers sat back and tried to make 2 goals enough . For years they were criticized for trying to win these games 6–5 , they learned from that , while not perfect , and nerve wracking at the time , they got the job done. They had no problem creating shots and scoring chances in the first 5 games , high dangers were 48-31 entering last night . They carried the play , for longer, learned from previous years and experiences and won in a variety of ways while 80-90 % of anyone who picked the series had the stars as too deep and better goalie , while maybe true overall , it wasn’t in this series . Skinner stole 1 , the pp showed up when it mattered most , the pk was perfect. A series won by the whole team , not just a couple guys at the top. Bring on the cats !
Not disputing anything you say, Craig, but I would venture to guess that most teams over the years that tried to deliberately play Katy-Bar-The-Door hockey from about the middle of period 1, failed.
Benoit and François Allaire were responsible for making Quebec fertile ground for turning out NHL goalies.
Closing their schools shut the goalie pipeline but they both went on to very successful NHL goalie coaching careers.
Allaire is a huge loss. Not only responsible for shesterkin and Lundqvist. But was a master of resurrecting the careers of guys like Talbot, Quick, Raanta etc.
It will be interesting to see how this works out long term for NY.
Congrats to Oiler fans and all of Canada!
Florida / Edmonton should be a great series!
Please CO don’t say all of Canada, while some will cheer for the Oilers because they are based in Canada; others, hope Florida win in 4
Dallas deserved the win last night but didn’t.
Florida does like penalty calls, while Edmonton lobbies for them.
Personally all my predictions are eliminated and don’t really care who wins; however, i wouldn’t mind seeing Evander Kane win the cup.
I just figured Canadians would be happy generally. But on 2nd thought, I guess it would be like me congratulating islander fans?
So I gotta know, and this is for Ray Bark as well. I believe he is also a Bruins fan living in Edmonton. ( not sure what part of Canada you live in?)
How the hell did that happen?
CO, not sure how many Canuck fans are cheering for the Oilers.
Personally i’m from Cape Breton (Caper) with it’s close proximity to New England there is a lot of Bruin fans in Nova Scotia. My favorite player of all time is Terry O’Reilly.
I live in Winnipeg since 2005 and Manitoba, I cheer for the Jets but Boston always first.
Congrats to the Oilers
Pre- game I thought they were going to win
During game, I was not thinking the same. Stars never gave up.
McDavid goal was literally “something else”. Wow is all I can say.
Oilers once again perfect on the PK.
Looking forward to an exciting finals.
As an obvious Habs fan….I’ll be cheering for the Oilers.
Canada’s team this year.
I’m extremely excited and curious to see how all of the stars (who happen to be large men) of the Oilers fair with the bully game deployed by Fla.
I bet they won’t get pushed around like the rest of the teams in the East were.
This is where Nurse will make his bones.
Jagger Ferkis.
Now that’s a neat name.
Had never heard of him and just looked him up. He put up great numbers this year (2PPG: 61G, 65 A in 63 games).
He just turned 20 so playing against mostly 17 and 18 year olds). Also slight (5’11”, 160) but was probably smaller still 2 years ago when he went 35th overall.
Certainly not impossible to have big success in the NHL and only weigh 160; but there will be challenges.
That said, I believe Caulfield, Gaudreau, Spurgeon, Farabee; DeBrincat; Garland etc are somewhere in the mid to high 160’s weight-wise.
Krakken should keep him just to see how he fairs against men in Coachella.
If Krakken don’t want him; some team will. It’ll just come down to how much they are willing to give up to get him.
I’d prefer size but Ferkis is a Dubas type. Last year our first round pick was another 160 pounder (Yager).
Yager is 7 1/2 months younger than Ferkis and went 35 G, 65 A, 95 Pts (57 games) last year in the same league as Ferkis.
If Francis is looking for immediate roster players; Pens will gladly trade Accairi, Eller AND Nieto for Ferkis. LOL
Love that name: Jagger Ferkis.
BTW; has a younger brother. Slade Ferkis (another neat name) who is draft eligible in ‘25
Oilers & Stars Game
The Oiler really steped on the gas all of the first period,
McDavid was doing McDavid things last night forward & defence
Leon & Hyman did not stop all night,
Paul Coffey not only had All his his d playing Very Well , Even Daniel Nurse….😳❗️
Coff had the whole team buying into defence somthing you did not see in past years….⁉️
as it was always Gun & Run Hockey hear in Edmonton
Dallas really pushed hard in the 3rd period and especaly the last 5-6 minutes,
However Young Stu Skinner our 2nd year goaltender was in the Zone last night,
He really looked like he had head phones playing some “Rock&Roll” while saving 35 of 36 shots every time the cameras zoomed in on him…👌😂
WW
Oil only had 3 shots in the 1st so if they had foot on gas they were just spinning around as they say. Stars deserved the win but did not get it. Now the best player in world gets to play for the cup. Will be interesting to see how FL handles him As they just out battle everyone I had picked stars canes finals. Now I just want the best team to win
Mr.bruin
2-0 Oil in the first, McDavid being McDavid and scoring at wil and going past 4 players for his 1st Goal….👌
2 Goals on 3 shots is pretty good….
Coffey has his d rolling
Florida will be a Great Series and they also have some Great players and Spongebob in Goal….
Good for Oilers! I’m somewhat surprised they beat Dallas but the Oil are a good team. I’m going to take Florida in 6. To me, they have got it going on. Everyone is rowing in the same direction!!
I was all in on Florida. But after oiler girl… my mind may have been changed.
Panthers in 5.
No cup for the Great White North Koreans this year.
Look forward to the Barkov McD matchup.
I’ll go Florida in 6
Any Flames fan that roots for the Oilers should have their head examined…..I want the Cup as far away as possible when my team doesn’t win it…..
Call me cynical but why am I expecting Berube or Marner to be a headline story soon:)
How long can this go on???FYI when the Oil Sucked i cheered for the flames in the playoffs and i am as crazy as a oil Fan there is!!!! LFG Oil bring the Cup HOME Baby. Oil in 6!!!!
Corey Perry is pretty impressive, made it to the SCF with a bunch of different teams, 5 including Oilers this year.
A proven dog.