Return won't be easy for Oilers

For starters, get the idea out of your head that the next logical or predictable step for the Edmonton Oilers is to get right back to the Stanley Cup final next spring and win it.

- DAMIEN COX

The Oilers just finished a fabulously wild ride through the 202324 season that ended with a Game 7 loss in the Cup final. They achieved more than the other six Canadian teams, but were unable in the end to end Canada's Stanley Cup drought.

Getting back to the Cup final will be an even greater task. It will be much harder, not easier. Hockey history, in fact, says it's unlikely to happen.

But the Florida Panthers just did it, didn't they? And isn't that how the Oiler dynasty of the early 1980s got started, by learning the lessons of losing to the New York Islanders and then applying them?

Well, yes and yes. But not necessarily.

The Panthers were able to follow up a loss in the '23 Cup final with a victory in the '24 final with a brilliant starting goalie likely headed for the Hall of Fame, Sergei Bobrovsky. They got a sensational 57goal season from Sam Reinhart, who had never scored more than 33 before. Reinhart then capped his magical year by scoring the winning goal in Game 7.

Finally, the Panthers did it with a grinding defence-first mentality and continuity in management, led by general manager Bill Zito and head coach Paul Maurice. For Florida, it was like the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons were combined into one 207-game campaign, culminating a the first Cup victory for the franchise.