Dave Hyde: A Game 7 like no other as Panthers try to make history — and avoid some, too

It keeps building. Everything around this game that wasn’t supposed to happen. The fun, the stakes, the interest, the nervousness — certainly the nervousness, locally, as the Florida Panthers play Edmonton in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night in Sunrise.

Hockey hasn’t had a championship night like this in South Florida, not ever, not in a market that gave away tickets for years and began play just three decades ago under the localized marketing campaign, “Good hockey, great air conditioning.”

It wasn’t supposed to have this night, either, after the Panthers won the first three games of this best-of-seven series. Now the question is if the Panthers can collect themselves to win their franchise’s first title or the Oilers complete a comeback for the ages.

The mounting losses and uncertain climate reached such a point Sunday that when a reporter hurriedly mumbled through the idea of, “the three straight losses,” even Panthers coach Paul Maurice was amused.

“I appreciate how you blasted over those words,’’ he said, smiling. “That was kind of you.”

So, they’re trying to keep their good sense of humor, trying to enter this game with a loose tone. This fourth and final crack at clinching this series offers the Panthers a chance to celebrate their first championship and their fans the kind of winner-take-all gift that rarely comes along in any sport. That’s the fun part.

The nervousness is this Game 7 gift might not be what you want. And can’t be returned. And could haunt the Panthers as long as there’s ice if Edmonton wins a fourth straight game and Connor McDavid carries the cup home.

No team has led 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final and lost except the Detroit Red Wings in 1942. It’s an archeological dig just to reach back to an age before live television, much less 82 years to that diluted, war-time era of sports.

You can fill the nervous air with more numbers. Only four NHL teams have lost in the 205 series when leading 3-0. No NBA team has suffered that fate in 157 chances. Only once in 40 such Major League Baseball series has a comeback been completed after down 0-3 — the 2004 Boston Red Sox over the New York Yankees in a series they wrote books and ESPN made ’30 for 30′ shows about.

The Panthers understandably don’t want to skate Monday under the weight of history. They’re thinking of one game, one night, one special chance that can instead dispatch the previous three games to history.

“What makes this thing awesome is the context of it,’’ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Nobody ever, ever, has played on a backdoor rink in Canada and scored the Game 3 overtime winner in the qualifying round. Ever. It’s one game, always, that excites you.

It’s Game 7 of the final. This game.

“That is the context of the game, and we’ll live in that context,’’ Maurice said.

For all of the conversational history against the Panthers, there’s an equal and opposite model for what they need on Monday from their basketball neighbor. The Miami Heat sprinted to a 3-0 start last postseason against the Boston Celtics. Just like the Panthers this series, the Heat then lost the next three games, including a soul-stealing Game 6 at home by a tip-in at the buzzer.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra looked at his watch afterward. “At 11:35 right now, I have no idea how we’re going to get this done. I’m as shocked by that play as anyone. I just know in the next 48 hours we’re going to figure this out.”

They beat Boston by 19 points in a Game 7 that defines their patented, “Heat Culture” as much as their three championships. The Panthers need such a win, such a defining night, for themselves on Monday.

Most fans are blind to the hockey-intrinsic decisions involved here. How to counter Edmonton’s speed and star Connor McDavid? Should the fourth line include Kyle Okposo or Nick Cousins?  What tweaks can be made to help a power play that’s 1 for 19 this series?

The more universal question is how this team manages its emotions, if its stars play like stars, if this team gets back to being the team that ran through the playoffs right until Game 4 of this series. If so, all this talk of history the past three games is history.

“The best two words in sports,” is a cliché they say about “Game 7” probably all the way back to 1942.

Here’s another time-baked cliché: “Only one team is happy at the end of the year.”

That comes with an exclamation point for the Panthers this year. They either hold the Cup overhead in a celebration that lasts forever or they have a hangover that stays with them as long as they skate. This or that. One or the other.

It’s why the fun, the stakes, the interest, the nerves – they’ll keep building until the puck drops Monday night.