FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — There was a time when well-coached hockey meant low-scoring hockey. When the left-wing lock, the Swedes and the Swiss, and men like Jacques Lemaire and Darryl Sutter coached the life — and the goals — out of our game.
We called it the Dead Puck Era, a time when goalie gear ballooned, scoring dropped, and in the five seasons between 2000 and 2004, three of five Art Ross Trophy winners didn’t even crest the 100-point plateau.
That makes this wide-open Stanley Cup Final a funeral of sorts.
Let’s call it a wake, where we celebrate the life and times of an NHL where two goals were enough to win with, and goalies like Jean-Sebastien Giguere won Conn Smythe Trophies with a save percentage of .945. That spring, in 2003, Martin Brodeur’s Cup-winning .934 left him 10 points shy of Giguere.
Today, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky leads the playoffs with a save percentage of .912, and two games into this Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers have pumped eight pucks past him.
“You think back to Giguere, his playoff run … how good he was,” said Oilers centre Adam Henrique, a former Duck. “It feels like those days are a little behind (us).”
The opening two games of this Final are, in the minds of some veteran observers, the highest event, most breathtaking opening two games of any Stanley Cup Final — ever.
The opening period Friday in Edmonton — with five goals scored between the 2:07 and 12:37 marks — included that Connor McDavid-to-Leon Draisaitl masterpiece that will grace the Cup’s video archives for decades.
“It’s more entertaining, for sure, if you’re a fan,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “Would I love to win 1-0 or 2-1? Yeah, absolutely. But … I would say the offensive skill has gone through the roof in the last 10 years. These players, they’re hard to contain, even if you’re a specialized defensive defenceman or forward.
“I think it’s great for hockey. The game is in a really good place.”
The mid-90s Devils won a Cup, and one fan base cheered. Meanwhile, the Oilers and Panthers will contest this 2025 Cup, and whoever you’re cheering for, you can’t say you’re not being entertained.
Florida’s reputation is as an aggressive, defensive machine. They come at you with pressure, forcing the mistakes on which they feed.
But while the Panthers have given up four goals in each game this far, head coach Paul Maurice said Sunday that he’s barely shown any defensive zone video to his players — because he really can’t find much to complain about.
“I don’t think either team’s played poor defensively at all … and the goaltending’s been good. Like, really good,” Maurice said. “If you just skewed the top 15 chances for … oh my God they’ve made saves. So how is that possible?
“Both teams are competing defensively. They’re blocking shots, they’re battling, they’re backchecking and it’s still a high-event game. That’s some high-end skill.”
Remember, Maurice is still a hockey coach at heart.
If his team keeps allowing four goals per game and stops scoring four or more, he’ll likely have a declining appreciation for high-event hockey.
But we’ve caught him early in a series that’s tied at one apiece, and even in the black heart of a whiteboard-wielding coach, Maurice will admit to a sense that his team has a hand in taking the game to a place it hasn’t been in a very long time.
The game, he is happy to report, is in a better place.
“Absolutely. Because (as a fan), you always have hope,” said Maurice, whose team has blown third-period leads in both games of this Final. “If you’re a fan and your team is down 2-1 and you’ve lost all hope 10 minutes into the first period, well that’s not much of a sport. But if you were in Edmonton in Game 2 … if you left with 19 seconds left, you left early.
“That for sure is good. For sure.”
If his team was lazy defensively, you’d get the grumpy Maurice behind the microphone on this off day.
But he sees it live, and the video reinforces what he sees. We can see how hard the Panthers play defensively, so why does four goals allowed per game have to mean someone is doing something wrong?
Why can’t it mean that we’re doing things right?
“The defensive compete on both teams has been outstanding. Just very competitive, hard-working, hard-hitting, grinding,” Maurice said. “Everything is contested all over the ice, so you’re having more events and it’s more intense. But what a wonderful thing to be able to say that in the final instead of the first round. These men are going that hard. It’s awesome.”
Edmonton gave up 12 goals in the first two games of this 2025 playoff journey, in Games 1 and 2 at Los Angeles. They buckled down since, earning shutouts in three of four games at one point, and we could well see a 2-1 game Monday night in Sunrise.
But a low-scoring defensive battle is compelling when it becomes a rarity. The same way a two-hitter in baseball is riveting — because you don’t see one from one month to the next.
And if someone scores early in Game 3, then look out.
“It’s just the back-and-forth punches of a heavyweight tilt,” marvelled Henrique. “When there are goals scored, you’ve got to punch back. You’ve got to find a way.”
