We uncover the Cup Final teams since 1980 that were most similar to Florida and to Edmonton, which helps us arrive at: Who has the edge?
The 1997 Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings are a comparable team to one of this year's finals teams, but which one is it? or the Panthers, respectively, and we don't know whom the big travel distances of the series -- the teams are located a Finals-record 2,541 miles apart -- will favor.
But in terms of the two teams' colliding playing styles and statistical résumés, some guesses can be made about how the Oilers-Panthers matchup might go by looking at similar Stanley Cup Finals from the past.
Among the indicators we looked at were postseason winning percentage, goals-per-game differential, goals scored/allowed relative to league average, and goaltending performance, in addition to more esoteric categories such as a team's dependence on its power play, the production of its top star, the share of its offense coming from the blue line and how many penalties it takes.
Of course, it is fair to wonder whether the ingredients for winning a Stanley Cup in 1997 or 2007 are the same as they are in 2024. Perhaps the conditions of the contemporary game, with athan in decades prior, will also place greater emphasis on Edmonton's strengths and mitigate its weaknesses. But some rules of thumb never change in playoff hockey -- and one of those is that a rough-and-tumble, physical team with previous experience in the Final is really hard to beat.
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