Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be keeping his own blog throughout the 2024 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers. He will check in regularly with behind-the-scenes access.
In his sixth entry, Nugent-Hopkins discusses the Oilers' five-hour flight from Edmonton to Florida on Sunday, what they do on the plane, what they will do Monday night and how they are feeling going in Game 5 on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC) despite being down 3-1 in the best-of-7 series.
We got on the plane around 11 Sunday morning and flew pretty much all day. Then I had a quick dinner and hung out, so not a terrible travel day. Today we kind of feel good; get your legs back and get some recovery done today.
In addition to playing Mario Kart on the plane, we've actually started to play a little Mario Golf, too. You can incorporate a few more guys with golf, so it's a way to kill the time. You have to find ways to pass the time. Some guys play cards, some read or watch movies. We've been playing Mario Kart for a while now. I kind of switch, I guess, but I'll be Yoshi sometimes. As for the tracks, they have, like, 10 Rainbow Roads. Some of them are good, some are tricky.
I think the amount of travel we do during the season probably helps a little bit now. We're so used to having to travel throughout the season. Even in the playoffs, we just played (the Dallas Stars) and they're not very close to us either, so, yeah, I think a little more accustomed you get to it, you get your routine on the plane and once you get into the hotel, you find ways to recover.
For tonight, we will have a team dinner just close by and after that guys will do the tubs and maybe go for a walk and try to relax and just throw a show on, but it's take it easy and prepare for tomorrow.
As for Game 5, we're excited here. We know where we're at, but at the same time, you've just got to continue to win a game and that's our focus, winning one hockey game tomorrow. There's a lot of belief in this group. It's the Stanley Cup Final, it's an exciting time to play, it's the best time to play. So, yeah, we're going to be ready tomorrow.
