Revenge or reprise? 'Mature' Oilers poised for Cup final rematch with battle-tested Panthers

The Oilers were crestfallen. Heads sank into hands. Tears flowed from reddened eyes.

Edmonton's bloodied and bearded roster had given everything in the Stanley Cup final.

The gutsy, backs-against-the-wall effort — valiant in erasing a 3-0 series deficit to force Game 7 — came up just short 12 months ago.

The team's core, led by superstar captain Connor McDavid, vowed that sweltering Florida night after falling to the Panthers that they would be back on the same stage.

"It's been a want since the end of last year," Corey Perry, the Oilers' greybeard winger, said of a return to the NHL's title series. "There's been a lot of thinking about what happened last year, and self-reflecting.

"Here we are."

The Oilers, it turns out, were right.

Edmonton will make a second consecutive appearance in the Cup final after beating the Dallas Stars 4-1 in the Western Conference final. And Florida, once again, is waiting.

"It was on our mind since we lost that last game," Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said of his team's mission. "It was a long, tough summer, training camp, regular season."

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The team from Alberta's capital didn't have its best for stretches of that 82-game schedule. Edmonton finished third in the Pacific Division following a rash of injuries down the stretch and fell behind 0-2 to the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs.

All the club has done since? Put up a 12-2 mark in rebounding with four straight wins against the Kings before getting past both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Stars in five games.

And unlike last spring when the Oilers, who host Game 1 of the Cup final Wednesday,