Good morning to everyone except front offices that say âas per team policy, terms were not disclosedâ when they make transactions.
Itâs game night, letâs get into it.
While You Were Sleeping
⊠you didnât miss any hockey. The weekend delivered our first three-day break of the Stanley Cup Final. Weâll get another before Game 4, and again before Games 6 and 7 (if necessary). Weirdly, the only two-day break left on the schedule is between Games 4 and 5, which have travel in between. Edmonton is close to Sunrise, right?
The good news is that the extra night off gave everyone one more day to get rested and healthy for a crucial Game 3 âŠ
Game 3 goes tonight
The series shifts to Florida, tied 1-1 after the Panthersâ Friday night win. Weâve got a lot of moving parts here. In fact, letâs break out the bullet points:
Weâre not sure if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will play tonight. He missed practice yesterday, a bit of a surprise given he never left Game 2, and coach Kris Knoblauch called him a game-time decision. It sounds like heâs more likely to suit up than not, but obviously any sort of significant injury to the former 100-point forward could be big.
The Oilers already sound like theyâre tired of the Panthers âaccidentallyâ falling onto their goalie. Mattias Ekholm says âenoughâs enough,â but heâs not a referee, so his opinion wonât matter much. Lobbying the officials between games is part of the playoffs, and the Oilers certainly have a case here. Letâs see if it earns them a call in the blue paint at some point the rest of the way.
Notably absent from the scoresheet so far in this series: Sasha Barkov and Sam Reinhart, both of whom have been pointless. Wait, that sounded harsh â I meant that they havenât scored any points, not that theyâve been ⊠you know what, you get it.
As Daniel Nugent-Bowman points out, the ice has been tilted in the Panthersâ favor in the two second periods weâve seen so far. That could be a fluke, or it could be a lack of focus from the Oilers. (It could also be the long change, although that hasnât been an issue in overtime.)
Game 3 is tonight at 8 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV, Max and Sportsnet.
Has this been the best 2-game start of the era?
I think it has been. If weâre just going based on the first two games of every Stanley Cup Final since 2005, this one is at least on the podium, if not taking home gold.
Thatâs partly because itâs been a legitimately great start, with a pair of overtime games, plenty of offense and multiple highlight-reel plays. Itâs also because the bar is kind of low. In fact, this is only the sixth time in the cap era that a Stanley Cup Final has been split 1-1 after two games. The other 14 series all saw a team take a 2-0 lead.
Of the five previous splits, three â the finals in 2015, 2018 and 2020 â didnât feature any overtime at all. We did get one overtime in 2019, when the Bruins won Game 1 in regulation only to have the Blues come back with an OT win to square the series in Game 2. But with all due respect to those Gloria-infused days, the only final whose start really compares to this one was in 2013, when the Blackhawks and Bruins served up a triple-OT classic in the opener that was won by Chicago, followed by a Boston win midway through the first extra period in Game 2.
That series ended up being one of the better finals in recent memory, featuring an additional overtime in Game 4 and the 17-seconds game in Game 6. It didnât go seven games, though, which I think we can all agree would be unacceptable for the Oilers and Panthers. For now, at least, we canât complain. If this hasnât been the best two-game start to a final in the cap era, itâs been awfully close.
Trivia timeđĄ: Which team holds the record for the most appearances in the Stanley Cup Final without ever having a player win the Conn Smythe? Answer at the bottom of this email ⊠among other places.
Coast to Coast
đš The only thing weirder than an NHL goalie is a third-string NHL goalie. Peter Baugh had a fun piece on some of the guys who held that role for championship teams, and the weird thing that connects many of them during the Cup handoff.
đ Speaking of weird connections, Michael Russo found one between veterans Corey Perry and Brad Marchand.
đ„ We can enjoy the final, but letâs not forget how we got here. Iâve got you covered with a ranking of the 14 series that led us to this one.
đ¶ The NHL Scouting Combine has wrapped up, meaning your favorite team now has a good idea of which player it will claim to be shocked was still available when their pick came up. Eric Stephens has more on the week and how much the draft process has changed over the years.
đ And finally, be sure to check out this slick YouTube video in which we try to explain the Canadian Cup drought. Come for the high-quality content, stay for the nagging feeling that you didnât think my voice would sound like that.
PWHL Expansion đ„
And then there were 8
Itâs expansion draft night in the PWHL. We covered some of the basics in the last edition of Red Light, but a lot has changed since then. New homes for superstars such as Sarah Nurse and Hilary Knight are taking the spotlight, but you can track all of the moves right here. With the draft set for 8:30 p.m. ET tonight (weâll have live coverage), I asked Hailey Salvian to check in with an update.
Sean: As someone who follows the PWHL but doesnât know all the ins and outs, the last few days have seemed stunning to me. Are league insiders surprised too, or is this more a case where casual fans just have to play some catch up?
Hailey: Honestly, the whole process has been pretty wild.
When you see the rules â specifically that teams could initially protect only three players â you that stars are going to be on the move. But its one thing to understand that and another to see players like Knight, Nurse and Alex Carpenter left unprotected by their respective teams. Not protecting Carpenter, who ranks third all-time in league scoring, might have been the only real surprise to me over the last few weeks. Because as baffling as it is to leave Nurse or Knight unprotected, you can at least understand why teams might have made those decisions.
In terms of who signed and where, nothing was too surprising. I figured the general managers in Seattle and Vancouver would want to use their five signing slots on top players who were left unprotected, rather than negotiate with free agents who might still be available later this summer. And for the unprotected players, its reasonable that theyâd want to dictate where they go, rather than take their chances in the draft.
If youâre a casual fan who feels overwhelmed, donât feel bad. Itâs been a whirlwind for literally everyone involved, from die-hard fans to players, agents and your local PWHL writers.
Sean: What should we be expecting tonight, and are there any realistic options that could add to the surprise factor?
Hailey: Without knowing the draft order (which the league wonât be revealing until the broadcast starts) itâs hard to project exactly what might happen. My safe assumption is that once the top remaining players (like 2024 fourth-overall pick Hannah Bilka) are off the board, both general managers will look for the best players at the best price â rather than just grabbing the top scorers or most recognizable names.
Vancouver and Seattle will need to keep the salary cap â which will go up to $1.34 million next season â in mind and wonât want to spend too much on 12 players out of what will need to be a 23-player roster.
Each GM would do well to keep some money earmarked for free agency, where top players such as Natalie Spooner, Tereza VaniĆĄovĂĄ and Jesse Compher might be available, and the entry draft, with some top young talent incoming.
There will surely be some off-the-board picks, but I donât expect any extra fireworks from side trades or truly wild selections.
Sean: When the dust finally settles, are Vancouver and Seattle going to be contenders right away?
Hailey: Itâs hard to imagine Seattle and Vancouver coming out of the draft without having legit playoff-caliber rosters. If either team is bad next season, that would likely be due to user error. The rules have been set up for these teams to contend on day one.
The Votes Are In
America loves Edmonton?
Last time around, I wondered about the USA/Canada divide in this Stanley Cup Final, especially with everything thatâs happened between the two nations both on and off the ice in recent months. I wasnât sure whether that would impact allegiances, and so I asked Red Light readers what they thought.
Well, the results are in, and ⊠well, thereâs a bit of patriotism playing out, but you have to squint to see it.
Up north, weâre all-but-unanimous in backing the Oilers, and 60 percent of the Edmonton bandwagon says itâs because theyâre Canadian. Thatâs a majority, but not as much as you might expect given how much the âbring Stanley homeâ message has been beaten into the ground up here.
As for you Americans, you barely seem to have noticed the cross-country stakes at all. What you have noticed is that the Panthers are a bunch of dirtbags, with the overwhelming majority of you saying that youâre rooting for Edmonton. I wasnât expecting that, but I can only assume itâs because your entire country has fallen in love with Oilers legend Dwayne Jetski.
Trivia Answer
The answer was hiding in plain sight
After a string of admittedly tough questions, today I gave you one where the answer was staring you in the face. The record for most final appearances without a Conn Smythe win is held by the Florida Panthers, who are currently in the final for the fourth time in history but have never had a player win playoff MVP honors. (They lost the final in 1996 and 2023 and then won the Cup last year, but Connor McDavid was the rare case of a player on the losing team getting the Conn Smythe.)
Of course, we donât know whoâll win the MVP honors this year â Sam Bennett has a sneaky good chance if the Panthers win â so maybe you donât want to count the 2025 final just yet. If thatâs the case, it knocks the Panthers down to three appearances. That would tie them with the Vancouver Canucks, who went to the final in 1982, 1994 and 2011, only to see their opponent skate off with the Cup â and the Conn Smythe.
đ« Love Red Light? Check out âs other newsletters.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Women's Hockey
2025 The Athletic Media Company
