(Edmonton) Corey Perry won the Stanley Cup in his rookie season with the Anaheim Ducks. Eighteen years later, he would covet his second championship ring.
It’s not for lack of trying, though. The veteran, now part of the Edmonton Oilers, is preparing to play in his fourth Stanley Cup final series in five years.
It escaped him while he played for the Dallas Stars, the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning. In fact, Perry’s “bad spell” is pretty well documented on the internet.
“I never got to play in (another) Stanley Cup Final before 2020,” Perry said. So it took 12 or 13 years since my first participation. You never know if you’ll have another opportunity to go back there one day. The years go by, and you are eliminated in the first, second or third round. And you keep telling yourself, “Oh, maybe next year.” And the years go by. »
Perry will continue his quest for a second Stanley Cup in the final series between the Oilers and the Florida Panthers, which begins Saturday.
Perry has lost three Stanley Cup Final series in the last five years, but he’s not the only one to find himself in this situation.
Adam Henrique, who was acquired by the Oilers at the trade deadline, as well as his teammates Mattias Janmark, a penalty kill specialist, and Mattias Ekholm, a defensive stalwart, have all already folded in the series Stanley Cup final. And they all hope that they can take the last step that separates them from conquering the precious trophy in 2024.
Ekholm and his Nashville Predators teammates lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017. He has already warned his Oilers teammates that if the players allow themselves to be distracted by the numerous distractions in the final series, then it could end quickly . He admitted he felt like the Predators took too long to realize their priority was playing hockey.
PHOTO TONY GUTIERREZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mattias Ekholm
“We had a difficult start to the series,” Ekholm recalled. We lost our two away games, and it took almost a game and a half before we realized, “Oh, we need to start playing hockey too?” »It’s not like an All-Star Game, or a Winter Classic. »
Ekholm said he learned that a final series brings its share of distractions, including numerous requests from members of the media. There will be almost a full week between the conference finals and the Stanley Cup final series, so this year most players will be able to benefit from a few days off and better deal with media demands.
“And at 8 p.m. Saturday night, we’ll have to be ready to go,” he added.
As for Perry, this will be the first time he will be able to truly savor the excitement surrounding a Canadian club’s participation in the Stanley Cup final series. Granted, he was part of the Bleu-blanc-rouge in 2021, when they erased a 1-3 deficit to eliminate the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, before losing in the Stanley Cup final to the Lightning . The COVID-19 pandemic cast a shadow over that season, however, with most games played in front of empty or nearly empty stands.
“When I was in Montreal, there was COVID-19… We had 3,000 or 4,000 fans in the stands, in an amphitheater like the Bell Centre. It’s not the same. The atmosphere is different, it’s very different, with supporters. »
For their part, the Panthers lost in the final series against the Vegas Golden Knights last year. It was never tight. The Nevada team has triumphed in five games — and three of its four victories have been one-sided. Will the Panthers have learned lessons from this experience?
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch was asked about it.
“Experience is good,” Knoblauch said. But I don’t know how beneficial it is. You should ask the Buffalo Bills how important Super Bowl experience is. »