Defending champion Panthers are unfazed after losing Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Oilers

EDMONTON Alberta AP Going into this Stanley Cup Final rematch confidence oozed from the Florida Panthers just like last year when they won and also this time from the Edmonton Oilers because they felt prepared for the moment After losing Meeting in overtime after a puck over the glass penalty put Edmonton on the power play the Panthers have not lost any of the belief they carried into the series In a third consecutive final the defending champions are unfazed by their deficit and appear well equipped to bounce back in Challenge on Friday night We ve got a lot of battle scars on us from the last limited years and we ve been through way worse winger Matthew Tkachuk mentioned Thursday We can be better we can adjust a minimal things and come out the day after and try to get a win here and get certain momentum going back home A win would even things up and put the pressure right back on reigning playoff MVP Connor McDavid Encounter -winning goal-scorer Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers with play shifting to Sunrise next week Even a loss would not put the Panthers into desperate straits They dropped the first two in the second round against Toronto and trailed - and - in Event before rallying to win that night and beat the Maple Leafs in seven Even for Florida s newcomers it was evidence that this association doesn t go down easy You re going to have moments in the event and moments in a series that you re going to be riding a roller coaster defenseman Nate Schmidt explained This gang I think has an incredible ability to be able to not only learn from what they ve done and apply their experience into situations like this Coach Paul Maurice downplayed it as just experience as though every company in the NHL or any sport knows what it is like to make this numerous deep playoff runs in a row and look borderline unstoppable Because of that success the Panthers are who they are and not a lot of major adjustments are expected It s almost inevitably an adjustment back to form We were a little off here we can be a little bit better Maurice reported Nobody s changing a major system It takes months and years to do that You re talking about adjustments back to form but I think they have a pretty strong understanding of their foundation Panthers players seem to have a pretty strong understanding of how playoff hockey works They ve won of playoff series since Maurice became coach and Tkachuk arrived in a transaction from Calgary in the summer of The only time they ve been on the wrong side of a handshake line during this stretch was the final against Vegas when Tkachuk was sidelined by a broken sternum and several others were playing with major injuries The memories of that and falling behind in series along the way stick with them We learn more from adversity than we do from winning forward Carter Verhaeghe explained Every time you lose games or go through series where you re down - or losing in the Cup final a couple of years ago you learn a lot It s just sticking with it and being mentally strong Tkachuk stated he and his teammates are plenty strong mentally so the tweaks will be more tactical They won t look too different but have several areas to clean up Maybe a little bit more offensive zone time particular things we look at but they played a good meeting defenseman Seth Jones noted They were solid defensively They blocked a lot of shots And we kind of knew that coming in there s not a lot of space out there not a lot of plays to be made really So when we do get those opportunities try to hold on to the puck and capitalize The Oilers turned the puck over several times in Tournament with goaltender Stuart Skinner saving them a limited times from the amount getting more lopsided than the - deficit they overcame They figure to be much improved in those areas Coach Kris Knoblauch knows his company has to raise its level because we know how good Florida is The blueprint has been out there for several years and it s an imposing one They re pretty confident with their identity and they play to that identity very well Knoblauch reported They have a lot of confidence that they ll play their contest and they should come out on top For us we need to just be ready for it that they are going to be better