Oilers will have an advantage they didn't have last year if they make Stanley Cup Final
If the Edmonton Oilers can get back to the Stanley Cup Final, they will have one major advantage regardless of the opponent.
The Western Conference Final between the Oilers and the Dallas Stars will get underway on Wednesday night. It’s a rematch of last year’s West Final that saw Edmonton take the series in six games. This year’s edition is sure to be a good one as both teams have looked stellar up to this point.
If the Oilers can get past the Stars for a second straight season, a rematch of some kind will be waiting for them in the Stanley Cup Final. It’ll either be the Florida Panthers, who beat the Oilers last year, or the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that won the Stanley Cup over Edmonton back in 2006.
This year’s final will be a bit different if the Oilers can get through. In both of those previous series, Edmonton did not have home-ice advantage. If they make it this season, the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final will be hosted in the Alberta capital no matter what.
This is due to the Oilers finishing ahead of both the Panthers and Hurricanes in the regular season standings.
NHL.com
The margins were very close, but Edmonton’s 101 points on the season finished just ahead of Carolina’s 99 and Florida’s 98. That tiny difference could make all the difference, however, in a Final where even the littlest advantage could swing the series in either direction.
It would also be the first time that the Oilers would hold home-ice advantage in a Stanley Cup Final since 1988, when they defeated the Boston Bruins in five games.
Last year, the Panthers held home-ice advantage over the Oilers and managed to sweep the series’ first two games. This applied a ton of pressure on Edmonton, and they were put in a deep hole early on. While the Oilers found a way to scratch and claw themselves to a Game 7, who knows what could have happened if Edmonton had an opportunity to play in front of their hometown fans earlier?
Having home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Final should give the Oilers a little extra boost of motivation in their series against the Stars, as they would have that much better of a chance of bringing a Stanley Cup back to Canada.