FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers are giving their most skilled participant an opportunity to be a Sport 7 difference-maker.
Winger Kyle Okposo, 36, attracts in for Monday’s showdown towards the Edmonton Oilers with the Stanley Cup on the road. Acquired by Florida on the commerce deadline from Buffalo, Okposo has two factors in 16 video games this postseason. He attracts in for Nick Cousins, who changed Okposo within the lineup for Florida’s Sport 6 loss in Edmonton. Okposo is in search of the primary Stanley Cup win of his 17-year profession.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice stated it was a “solely hockey based mostly” resolution, however a difficult one contemplating the circumstances.
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“I simply felt that wanting again on the three earlier video games, Kyle had performed barely higher. There are different choices with Kyle, like how he comes off the bench in sure conditions,” stated Maurice. “It is a tough factor to do to take a Sport 7 away from someone. It is such a uncommon factor, and Nick is so extremely beloved by his workforce.”
The Panthers are attempting to keep away from one of the crucial calamitous collapses in sports activities historical past, as just one workforce in NHL has ever taken a 3-0 lead within the Stanley Cup Ultimate after which ended up shedding the sequence.
“We misplaced the final three video games. I do not know in case you guys are conscious of that,” Maurice quipped. “However actually favored our Sport 5 [at home]. That was by far our greatest recreation. We’re not far off from that.
Maurice stated earlier than Sport 6 that he felt the strain within the sequence had “evened out” between the groups. However now, with the Cup on the road in Dawn, he stated the strain may not even be an element aside from as motivation off the beginning.
“I believe Sport 7s are only a fully distinctive animal. I do not assume it relates by way of strain to something, as a result of there isn’t any tomorrow. So it is a fully completely different really feel,” he stated. “I believe we have been immersed within the weight of it for every week. There’s not a brand new expertise for us on this aside from it is also a Sport 7. I believe each groups come out as flat-out quick as they presumably can. I believe that is going to be the manifestation of all of this.”
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who didn’t observe on Sunday, took half in an non-obligatory skate on Monday morning on the Panthers’ observe facility.
“I favored his final recreation. I believed he was sturdy and stable,” stated Maurice. “Now, we have been type to him. We did not give him a shorthanded breakaway to start out the sport. I believed that was good for us. Lower down on these for him, we gave him an opportunity.”