NHL Stanley Cup Final 2024: Odds, Hot Takes, Top Storylines for Game 3

The Florida Panthers jumped on the Edmonton Oilers early and often in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, eager to put the heartbreak and disappointment from last season behind them and win the club's first championship.

Taking a 2-0 lead into Edmonton Thursday, they can stick the proverbial dagger in the team's efforts to return to the cup to Canada with a win that would seemingly put the series out of reach.

The Oilers have been here before, down significantly in a series and forced to scratch and claw their way back into it. Twice this offseason, in fact, but do they have enough to match the intensity and aggression with which the Panthers are playing?

What do the oddsmakers think ahead of Game 3 and what are some of the top storylines to keep an eye on?

Find out with this preview of the high-stakes showdown.

Game Three Odds

Florida Panthers (+114)

Edmonton Oilers (-135)

Stanley Cup Winner Odds

Florida Panthers (-450)

Edmonton Oilers (+360)

Game Three and Stanley Cup odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Date: Thursday, June 13

Time: 8:00 p.m.

TV: ABC

Streaming: ESPN+, Fubo

The Edmonton Oilers enter Thursday's game down 2-0 to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals. While the team has made a habit of coming back from early deficits this postseason, more than once even, Game 3 is a must-win situation for the Western Conference champs.

There is a sense of calm over star Connor McDavid entering the game, however.

"There's definitely a certain confidence knowing that we've been in difficult situations and fought our way back," three-time Hart Trophy winner and team captain McDavid told reporters after Wednesday's practice.

He continued, "I said this after Game 2, but I look forward to the opportunity for our group to come together one last time to dig our way out."

The Oilers fought back from deficits to the Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars just to make it to the cup finals, so they have the resiliency needed to stay in the battle for the most prestigious prize in professional hockey.

McDavid's words are exactly what you want to hear from the team captain and the best player in the world. Still, there has to be a sense of urgency within the Oilers locker room as they prepare to battle a Panthers squad who knows what it feels like to make it this close to Lord Stanley's Cup and not win.

The Panthers were outclassed a year ago by the Vegas Golden Knights, who took the championship series 4-1. For them, this is almost certainly a redemption tour and they will look to put one more nail in the coffin of the Oilers Thursday.

To do so, they will have to overcome what is sure to be a raucous Edmonton crowd, which has not seen Stanley Cup hockey since the Oilers lost the 2006 series to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Will that fan base be enough to turn the tide in the home team's favor? Possibly, but there was little doubt as to which team was superior in the first two games when Florida shut out Edmonton first, then beat them down 4-1 in the second.

The aggressiveness of the Panthers has been the difference to this point and until Edmonton finds a way to counteract that and put the puck in the net more than once on 51 shots, there is no reason to believe the outcome will be any different.

The Oilers are too good to be swept so a win in Edmonton at some point in the next two games is likely.

Less so is a full-on comeback if they cannot slow down a Florida team that looks like it wants it more through the first two games of this championship series.

In a series that features McDavid and his hunt for his first Stanley Cup, it seems rather odd to label anyone but the best player in the world as "most important," but here we are.

Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has been the difference-maker in the series through its first two games.

Bobrovsky has allowed just one goal, a historic feat in Stanley Cup Finals history.

Only the Detroit Red Wings' Chris Osgood, New Jersey Devils Martin Brodeur, and Toronto Maple Leafs' Frank McCool allowed fewer (zero) than him this deep into the series.

That he has done it against McDavid, a player whose name will one day be mentioned along with the game's most iconic greats like Gretzky, Hull, LaFleur, Messier, Richard, and Lemieux makes it that much more impressive.

Some will point to the Panthers' defensive efforts and how they limited the Oilers to just 19 shots on goal in Game 2 and while they are right in doing so, Bobrovsky also proved he could go one-on-one with the three-time league MVP and shut him down.

He has also denied Leon Draisaitl, another of the league's premier players.

Draisaitl scored 41 times and assisted on 65 goals for 106 points this season. He was an elite offensive player for Edmonton and in Game 1, Bobrovsky straight-up shut down his trademark low-angle shot, denying him and the Oilers a chance to make a game of it.

Bobrovsky was one of the best goaltenders in the league this season, tied for third in win-loss-OTL record (36-17-4), tied for seventh in save percentage (.915), and tied for first with six shutouts.

He was third in the NHL with 2.37 goals-against per game.

Panthers fans know how important the Russian has been in the net for them and, for the second straight year, the hockey world is getting a glimpse of his excellence on the sport's grandest stage.

McDavid was always going to make headlines as the star of the series, and Draisaitl is an electric scorer, but the single most important player in his team's efforts to secure the cup is and will continue to be Bobrovsky.

Another dominant performance by the keeper and this series is over.