Dave Hyde: Panthers stumble again, and everything rides on Game 7

EDMONTON, Alberta — The snapshot illustrated an opportunity gone, a chance missed, yet another game lost:

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, sitting on the bench, looked down with no expression as his goal was disallowed after a video review in the second period even as, behind him, coach Paul Maurice began screaming at the referees.

Yes, on further review, the Panthers keep trying every angle and any emotion, but keep coming up short.

In what could have been another night where they skated off with the Stanley Cup, a celebration that seem pre-ordained three games ago, the Panthers played like they were at someone else’s party in a 5-1 loss in Game 6. Which they were in a wild Rogers Center.

“We want the Cup!” decibel-deafening fans chanted as the series evened at three games heading into Monday’s deciding Game 7 in Sunrise.

What’s happened to the Panthers the past three games — or stopped happening?

Well, the offense stopped scoring. No forward even had a shot on goal in the first period of Friday’s game. The defense, too, stopped making playing picture-perfect games.

Take Edmonton’s first goal: An awkward pass by Gustav Forsling led to a turnover and an Edmonton rush in which Aaron Ekblad stumbled to the ice while covering Warren Foegele, who scored the goal. That’s the third straight elimination game that Edmonton scored first.

Finally, Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has stopped being the player in the running for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player. He backstopped most Panthers issues all spring with a few dazzling saves a game. He hasn’t the past few games, including Friday when you’d be hard-pressed to find a big save.

“Ser-gei!” the Edmonton crowd mockingly chanted at him from the start Friday night,.

All credit to Edmonton. They’ve come back from the dead. They’ve didn’t even need a heroic game from Connor McDavid on Friday night. They’ve dragged the Panthers from Sunrise to Edmonton and now back to Sunrise.

“Its been fun,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It’s been stressful. We’re just playing. Now we surprised a lot of people, but I don’t think we surprised anyone in the room.”

But you don’t get anything for winning three games, as the Panthers can tell everyone. This nerve-jolting series remains perched on the edge of a high cliff. The only difference now is both teams are standing there, together, with one game to play. Each can be on the either side of history, too.

Take the Panthers. They can win the first title in franchise history Monday night. Or they can be the second team in 106 Stanley Cup Finals to lead 3-0 in the series and lose. The only one to do that, a trivia question for decades, was the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.

They just seemed destined to do it the hard way if it happens. Nothing is working for them. Take Barkov’s goal that wasn’t. It came 10 seconds after Edmonton made it 2-0. It could have changed the night. Knoblauch rolled the dice for a review that ruled Sam Reinhart was a smidge offsides. If he wasn’t, Edmonton would be penalized for asking for a review.

“I was upset at the call based on what I see at my feet (on a monitor),” Maurice said. “There’s no way I would have challenged, no way you can conclusively say it was offsides with the video I had.”

“It wasn’t close as I saw it,” Knoblauch said.

“If it’s offsides, it’s offsides,” Barkov said.

Here’s the worse part for the Panthers: It wasn’t just Connor McDavid who beat them Friday. He didn’t have a point. Five other Edmonton players scored, even if the last two were empty-net goals.

“Everyone’s feeling confident now,” Knoblauch said.

The Panthers, meanwhile, might need a confidence boost.  After beating Edmonton in the first three games, the Panthers’ title seemed a given, their parade route the concern. Then it began. An 8-1 loss in Game 4.

“As long as we win one,’’ center Kevin Stenlund said then.

“I’m not deflated, I’m not rubbing backs,’’ coach Paul Maurice said after losing Game 5 in Sunrise.

“Right now,” Maurice said after Friday night’s loss, “if you walked in the room, there won’t be a lot of happy people. I’m not worried about (Friday night). You suffer a defeat, you feel it. It hurts. You lick your wounds, and then we’ll start building that back tomorrow.

“But who you are now means nothing to who you’re going to be two days from now.”

The season ends Monday night in Sunrise one way or another.