Florida Panthers getting away with flopping and it's frustrating the Edmonton Oilers
The Florida Panthers have certainly been earning their reputation as rats in this Stanley Cup Final series, and it’s starting to frustrate the Edmonton Oilers.
There should be no surprise that a team with Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, and Brad Marchand is a pain to play against. They have been taking every opportunity to piss off the Oilers, whether that be subtle shots, falling on the Oilers goaltender, or doing a great job at selling penalties.
The flopping was on full display in Game 3, and it seemed to work fully to their advantage, grabbing an astounding 11 power plays en route to a 6-1 victory. The Oilers were far from saints in the loss, earning a lot of those penalties, but a few of those plays had some obvious embellishment on Florida’s behalf.
Evander Kane spoke about the discrepancies in penalties between the two clubs.
“They seem to get away with [penalties] more than we do. It’s tough to find the line. They’re doing just as much as we are,” Kane said. “There seems to be a little more attention on our group.”
A prime example was a play that saw Anton Lundell fall fairly easily on a Darnell Nurse cross-check and then swing his head back dramatically after taking a little shot from Jake Walman.
Edmonton certainly deserved a penalty on the play, but it’s hard to argue that the Finnish forward wasn’t exaggerating the play.
Lundell just took two shots from Nurse and Walman 😳 pic.twitter.com/TXCKd7grzN
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 10, 2025
Kane was also the recipient of a penalty that looked a bit soft. He was battling in front of the Panthers’ net and gave the slightest of shoves to Florida defenceman Gustav Forsling. It’s the type of play you see dozens of times in a hockey game, but it sent the Oilers’ bruiser to the box for a cross-check.
Edmonton also got dinged for a too-many-men penalty in the first period. It was the right call, but Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch pointed out that the officials missed that same penalty during OT in Game 2.
“I kind of question some of those penalties,” Knoblauch said. “They caught the too-many-men penalty in the first period, which was too many men; they caught us there.
“I just wish they had been calling the game in Game 2, in overtime.”
Evander Kane got called for a crosscheck on this play😳😳 pic.twitter.com/jKDFeqD16i
— Everything Hockey (@EHClothing) June 10, 2025
Goalie interference has been a hot topic throughout the series. Bennett has made it a habit to flop onto Stuart Skinner in this series. Viktor Arvidsson earned a goaltender interference penalty in Game 3, but how Sergei Bobrovsky fell over was extremely dramatic.
Arvidsson did make contact, but there was no way that the Russian goaltender should have had both his legs horizontally in the air on the play.
Arvidsson runs goalie. Embellishment from Bobrovsky?
Looked like he got hit by Mike Tyson. pic.twitter.com/iuB98KphZ2
— David Staples (@dstaples) June 10, 2025
As frustrating as it is, this is part of the identity of the Panthers. They know how to walk the line in these high-pressure situations, and the officials have been adamant about not calling embellishment.
It’ll be up to Connor McDavid and the rest of the team to figure out how to play around these shenanigans.