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 eighth entry, Nugent-Hopkins discusses the Oilers’ 5-1 win in Game 6 that evened the best-of-7 series 3-3. He talked about the wild crowd at Rogers Place, how fans in Edmonton are treating him and how the Oilers feel heading back to Florida for Game 7 on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).
It was an unbelievable atmosphere tonight, even driving to the game. Everybody was already out, having a good time, getting ready. It sure didn’t disappoint. If anything, it exceeded expectations.
I took my daughter and one of my dogs for a walk last night and a couple of people came up and said hi, but I’m around a lot in that neighborhood. It’s what I love about Edmonton; the fans are so passionate and so respectful. They love the team but they are great to us as people.
Scoring the first goal is massive anytime, especially in the playoffs, but it’s nice to get it in front of your home fans and hear that huge roar, and then they just keep it going. I know on the other side it’s tough to handle. You’re trying to scramble a little bit, so the first goal is definitely a big one.
It’s funny, of course when you are down 3-0 you are going to say you believe, but we truly, truly believe in each other and the ability to just win one game at a time. That’s all it comes down to. You don’t need to worry about winning two, or three, or four, you just win that game, and I think we all have that belief that if we play our best on any given night, we can win, so that’s been our focus, and we put ourselves back in a good spot. But we know Game 7 is going to be the hardest one, but we are going to be ready for it.
As for being one win from the Stanley Cup, obviously you know it’s there, but you try not to overthink it. I want to play the best I can possibly play to help this team reach the ultimate goal and I’m not going to overthink it.
We've always had confidence all along, even when we were down 0-3, but we understand that it's going to be the hardest one and we're not taking anything for granted. We’re going to need a good start down there and to quiet their crowd a little because they’ve got some wild fans that will give them life. So we want to be on the other side of it. And it starts with the first five minutes.
