The long road back from Stanley Cup Final heartbreak
No greater hockey heartbreak exists than losing the Stanley Cup in seven games. Battling to erase a massive series deficit, then falling one goal short of the championship is distinctly cruel.
That was the fate of the 2024 Oilers, whose captain and scoring leader, Connor McDavid, sat in solemn silence in the visitors' dressing room in Florida as he was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. McDavid's 42-point postseason was supernatural. His 34 assists set a playoff record. But fatigue set in, and the Panthers muffled him in the 2-1 championship decider.
Behind-the-scenes footage showed McDavid and his dazed teammates beginning to grieve.
Losing the Cup is a gut punch that floors teams. Few second-place finishers rise from the canvas. Until the 2024 Panthers avenged their own crushing setback by conquering Edmonton, 15 NHL seasons had passed since a runner-up bounced back to win the next year's title.
The Oilers were the 24th team this century to lose the Cup Final, lament what-ifs, take the summer to heal, and restart the arduous journey. They're the fifth in the span that clawed back to the conference finals. Their matchup with the Stars is all square entering Sunday's Game 3.
Few of Edmonton's forerunners came close to glory again. Just two recent Cup losers promptly returned to the final, and both won it: the Panthers and Sidney Crosby's 2009 Penguins. In the mid-2010s, the Lightning and Rangers were beaten in Cup Finals and showed laudable resilience, but they proceeded to drop Game 7 of Round 3 by close scores.
It's much more common for a vanquished Cup finalist to regress, crash out of an early round, or miss the following postseason entirely.
Some Cup losers keep suffering grievous wounds. Six runners-up in the above table (2004 Flames, '13 Bruins, '14 Rangers, '15 Lightning, '17 Predators, '18 Golden Knights) lost a Game 7 in the next postseason. All except Nashville blew a series lead. Vegas collapsed when Cody Eakin's infamous cross-checking major led to four Sharks power-play goals and an overtime defeat.
For many teams, the year after a Cup loss is hurtful and humbling.
In the aftermath of a riot, the 2012 Canucks successfully defended the Presidents' Trophy but meekly managed one playoff win. The '08 Senators burst out of the gate with a 16-3 record, imploded, fired their head coach, barely squeaked into the playoffs, and were instantly swept. Four Cup losers that failed to qualify for the next postseason missed the cut by at least 15 points, including the '03 Hurricanes and '22 Canadiens, who plunged to last place overall.
The Oilers are the only squad in league history that went the distance in a Cup Final, lost Game 7, and rebounded to win multiple playoff series. They're a shining example of what digging in can achieve.
These Oilers weathered a rough start to the season, middling goaltending, consequential injuries, and their lowest divisional finish (third place in the Pacific) since 2019. They lost two track meets to the Kings and trailed in nine straight playoff games but got on track with a succession of epic comebacks and back-to-back shutouts of Vegas.
McDavid and Leon Draisaitl scored at will. Plenty of depth contributors - nine Oilers entered Round 3 with at least three goals - joined the party along the way.
Edmonton's penalty kill, a problematic weakness, crumbled late in Game 1 in Dallas. Stick infractions let the Stars power play score three times on Stuart Skinner, who struggled to find the puck through traffic. But the Oilers took complete control of Game 2, scored from tips, held Dallas to one PP shot, and inched closer to Western Conference supremacy thanks to Skinner's third shutout in a four-game span.
The East's incumbent power, Florida, was overmatched as an eighth seed against Vegas in the 2023 Cup Final. Paul Maurice's scrappy group lost in five games, then morphed into a physical, swaggering, suffocating force.
The Panthers have 26 wins over the past two postseasons. A dozen were by at least three goals, including Games 5 and 7 in Toronto and Games 1-2 in Carolina. They mounted 10 comeback wins in the span and haven't lost in the playoffs since 2022 when leading after the first period. Deficits don't rattle Florida, and opponents find them insurmountable.
Winning the Cup energizes teams. Including these Panthers, 22 of this century's defending champions made the next postseason and nine got back to Round 3. They'll be the sixth repeat finalist in the bunch if they finish off the Hurricanes.
Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.