What felt like an extremely long wait is finally coming to an end.
The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers are set to face off in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night from Rogers Place.
What promises to be an exciting series is a rematch of last year’s seven-game grudgematch that saw each team win three straight before an exciting, deciding seventh game in Sunrise.
It’s the first Final rematch since 2008 and 2009, when the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings split their matchups and each won a Cup.
That’s the result Edmonton will be hoping for as they seek the team’s first championship since 1990 and the first for a team from Canada since 1993.
The Panthers will be looking to join a rare group of teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Interestingly, the last one to do it was the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021, as the Panthers and Lightning have now accounted for the past six Eastern Conference appearances in the Stanley Cup Final.
Injury-wise, the biggest news heading into the series is the loss of forward Zach Hyman by the Oilers after he suffered a season-ending upper-body injury during the Western Conference Final against Dallas.
The Panthers enter the series fairly healthy, save for forward A.J. Greer, who is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
He has skated on his own this week but has not practiced with the team, with Jesper Boqvist taking his spot on the fourth line.
If Greer doesn’t play, it would be the third time Boqvist is called into the lineup to replace an injured forward during Florida’s playoff run.
During the previous two occurrences, against Toronto for Evan Rodrigues and against Carolina for Sam Reinhart, Boqvist combined to log two goals and three assists in the two games he returned from an absence.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 1 in Edmonton:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist – Tomas Nosek – Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt – Dmitry Kulikov
Scratches: Mackie Samoskevich, Uvis Balinskis, A.J. Greer, Nico Sturm, Jaycob Megna
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Photo caption: Jun 18, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk (19) celebrates scoring against Edmonton Oilers goaltender Skinner Stuart (74) with Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (5) during the second period in game five of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)