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 third entry, Nugent-Hopkins discusses the trip back to Edmonton from Florida, what he will do with his free time ahead of Game 3 at Rogers Place on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, TVAS, SN) and what it will be like to be in front of the Oilers’ home fans again. Edmonton trails the best-of-7 series 2-0.
It was a bit of a longer travel than we're used to obviously with two cities pretty far apart, but it is what it is. I got home last night. I’d say most guys in this room have families, so I mean for me personally I just got to hang out with my wife and daughter and my dogs for the later afternoon/evening, which was nice to kind of get back to reality a little bit. It's always nice to just sleep in your own bed and wake up, have a practice and just kind of have a normal day today. We're obviously going to be thinking about Game 3. Thinking about tomorrow, but just have a normal day and go about it tomorrow.
I won’t say it’s harder to take you mind of hockey now than in the season, but I think throughout the playoffs, you're thinking about it a lot no matter what. And it's about being able to find little escapes. I mean, like I said before, you’ve got a family, you’ve got to be all-in on your family. That's always the No. 1 focus. So, I'll go home today and have a good day with them and you’re going to be thinking about it, but I won't be stressing or worrying constantly about it. I know it's there and I know it's coming and I'm excited for it, but also get to enjoy the day today.
It's going to be incredible here tomorrow night. The fans have supported us so much throughout the years. And the atmosphere is incredible through the regular season; in the playoffs, it gets up to another level and I can't imagine tomorrow, so we're excited about it. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
I think tomorrow you focus on it a little bit more on it and let your mind go there totally. But like I said before, today we'll just have a good, good normal day and go about our business tomorrow.
