Oilers aware of Stanley Cup history, 'want to win for each other'

EDMONTON -- Kris Knoblauch has fond memories of the last time a team based in Canada won the Stanley Cup.

It was 1993 and the current Edmonton Oilers coach was at the time a 14-year-old Montreal Canadiens fan, celebrating as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings in five games in the Stanley Cup Final.

“The ’93 Stanley Cup Final, the last year a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup, that would be my most memorable time,” Knoblauch said on Tuesday when asked about his favorite playoff memory.

Knoblauch, now 45, will try to create a new favorite memory by leading the Oilers to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1990, a task that will begin against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“I think with our team, it’s all about accomplishing something for the guys in the room,” Knoblauch said. “I know they are tightly knit, and they’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, especially our veterans, Connor (McDavid), Leon (Draisaitl), Ryan (Nugent-Hopkins), Darnell (Nurse). They’ve been through this for quite a long time, and they want to win for each other.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, and the other part of it is they want to win for the city. You saw the support after Game 6 (a 2-1 win against the Stars in the Western Conference Final on Sunday), after Dallas, and that’s exciting. They want to continue that because they felt that support and they want to return that favor. And for the rest of Canada? They can jump on board, too. All the support we can get I think is great.”

Edmonton's last championship in 1990 was its fifth in seven seasons, capping off a dynasty that included the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson and Grant Fuhr.

Since that time, though, the Oilers have played for the Cup just one time, losing in seven games to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

“It’s amazing when you win (in Canada), I can tell you that much,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “I tend to look at it in a way that we’re playing to win. We have a team that’s set to do good things out there, and when you have that, you want to be somewhere where people care about it. It’s going to be good and bad everywhere you go, but it’s boosted up in a country and a place like Edmonton where everybody loves hockey and it’s the No. 1 sport.”

It has been a long and arduous road back to the Final for the Oilers, who missed the playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons after losing to the Hurricanes. During that time, Edmonton selected No. 1 in the NHL Draft four times, which it used on Taylor Hall (2010), Nugent-Hopkins (2011), Nail Yakupov (2012) and McDavid (2015). Draisaitl was selected No. 3 in the 2014 NHL Draft.

So when the Oilers returned to the postseason in 2017, it was expected to be the first step on the road to another championship. But that run, which ended in the second round, was followed by two more seasons without a postseason appearance and then another four that ended with playoff disappointment.

All of that history has built up a pressure on the Oilers to finally break through and win the Stanley Cup.

“For me personally, I love it,” Ekholm said. “I play the game to win. If I lose, I’m not going to be very [happy]. I understand everybody that says there is a lot more pressure, and you can feel it, but at the same time, it’s a matter of embracing it. Playing somewhere where people care so much about it, it’s just great in my opinion, and I think the pressure is a privilege."

Ekholm knows what he is talking about, having advanced to the Cup Final with the Nashville Predators in 2017 only to lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. Forward Mattias Janmark has a similar understanding, too. He made it to the Cup Final with the Stars in 2020 before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.

“Whenever you go on a run like this, wherever you are, it’s a special time and I think you feel it everywhere you are,” Janmark said. “But I think in Canada it probably adds to it a little bit more. People go crazy here. I have my mom here and she was here for the last game and we drove home and she was filming the whole ride home, saying she’ll remember it forever. I think that part of it gets more special here.”

Janmark isn't wrong, because since Montreal's championship in 1993, five Canada-based teams have made a run to the Final only to fall short of bringing home the Stanley Cup.

Along with Edmonton's loss to Carolina in 2006, the Vancouver Canucks lost in seven games in both 1994 (New York Rangers) and 2011 (Boston Bruins), the Calgary Flames lost in seven games to Tampa Bay in 2004, the Ottawa Senators lost in five games to the Anaheim Ducks in 2007, and the Canadiens lost in five games to the Lightning in 2021.

“We’re not putting extra pressure on ourselves to end this drought of no Cup in Canada. We’re just focusing on ourselves and what we have to do and what’s at stake,” said forward Corey Perry, who won the Cup with the Ducks in 2007. “Everybody knows, the drought’s been out there, it’s been talked about and we all know about it, so it doesn’t need to be said any more. It’s about what we have to do.”