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 fifth entry, Nugent-Hopkins discusses the Oilers’ 8-1 win in Game 4 on Saturday, when he scored his first goal of the best-of-7 series, which they trail 3-1. He also writes about the fan support in Edmonton and his plans for heading back to Florida for Game 5 on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).
The atmosphere was incredible, same as the other night, but obviously the fans get a little more juice and we get a little more juice when you put a few in and when you get an early lead, so we kind of built off their energy all night.
It has to be right up there with one of the most memorable nights for me in Edmonton -- if not the most memorable, most definitely one of them. The building is always rocking, always incredibly loud, but somehow the fans keep finding another level. You feel the fans. You hear them. When you are trying to talk to each other during the game you have to get really tight in a close huddle so you can actually hear each other. You can feel it when they get to the next level. They have supported us all year. It’s a lot of fun to be able to get a win like that in front of them.
My goal was the sixth goal. We were kind of rolling at that point, but you never want to let your foot off the gas and we had an opportunity there with a two-man advantage. So I thought we were moving around well, it just kind of popped out and both Zach Hyman and I took kind of got a whack at it.
