Oilers, Panthers set to add to rich history of Stanley Cup Final rematches

The table is set for a Stanley Cup Final rematch, the defending-champion Florida Panthers set to meet the Edmonton Oilers in the first such winner-take-all return engagement since 2009.

The Panthers hope to make it two straight against the Oilers, whom they defeated in seven games last season to win their historic first NHL title. Game 1 is Wednesday in Edmonton (8 p.m.; TNT, truTV, MAX, CBC, SN, TVAS).

It was a heartbreaking 2-1 Game 7 loss for Edmonton last June 24, the Oilers just the third team in NHL history to force a Game 7 after facing a 3-0 series deficit during the Final and 10th to do so in a postseason round.

This will be the 11th time in League history that teams will meet for a second consecutive season to decide the champion; with an asterisk, the 12th, considering that the Montreal Canadiens played the Detroit Red Wings in the Final of the Original Six era in 1954 and 1955, with another rematch then in 1956.

Defending champions are 7-4 in previous Stanley Cup Final rematches, including the Red Wings winning and losing during the three-year stretch from 1954-56. However, the runner-up has won each of the two rematches since the League’s 16-team playoff format was introduced.

The Florida Panthers as they appear on the Stanley Cup for their 2023-24 championship win.

For the second time in their history, Edmonton will lock up in consecutive years against the same opponent with the Stanley Cup on the line. They were swept by the Islanders in 1983, which was the fourth of four consecutive titles won by New York, then came out on top in a five-game Final in 1984.

The 1984 victory was the beginning of the Oilers’ dynasty, Edmonton winning again in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990.

The Oilers are one of four teams in NHL history to lose in the Stanley Cup Final then win a rematch with the same opponent the following season. They join the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 against the Red Wings, the 1956 Canadiens against Detroit, and the 1933 New York Rangers against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here, a look at Stanley Cup rematches through the decades, with credit to author and hockey historian Eric Zweig for having compiled many of these details in his 2012 Hockey Hall of Fame book “Stanley Cup: 120 Years of Hockey Supremacy.”

The 1931-32 Toronto Maple Leafs with the Stanley Cup prior to the 1933-34 season. Bottom row, from left: Charlie Conacher, Joe Primeau, King Clancy, assistant general manager Frank Selke Sr., managing director Conn Smythe, coach Dick Irvin Sr., Hap Day, Ace Bailey, Busher Jackson. Back row: Harold Darragh, trainer Tim Daly, Alex Levinsky, Red Horner, Andy Blair, Lorne Chabot, Harold Cotton, Bob Gracie, Ken Doraty.

1931-32 and 1932-33

Toronto Maple Leafs (1-1) versus New York Rangers (1-1)

The 1931-32 best-of-5 Stanley Cup Final is often referred to as the “Tennis Series,” the Maple Leafs defeating the Rangers in a three-game sweep with scores of 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4.

This marked the first time since the Vancouver Millionaires’ championship of 1915, two years before the birth of the NHL, that a best-of-5 Cup Final was won in the minimum number of games.

The Rangers exacted their revenge in 1933 by defeating Toronto in four games, clinching the title at Maple Leaf Gardens with a 1-0 overtime victory. It was the first time that an NHL team claimed the championship beyond regulation time, Toronto two men short when Bill Cook beat goalie Lorne Chabot for the Cup-winning goal.

NHL President Frank Calder presents the 1932-33 Stanley Cup to members of the New York Rangers, who avenged their loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the previous season.

1947-48 and 1948-49

Toronto Maple Leafs (2-0) versus Detroit Red Wings (0-2)

Toronto cruised to a four-game sweep of Detroit in 1948, hammering the Red Wings 7-2 at Olympia Stadium in the clinching game. They needed another comeback in their 5-3 victory, down 1-0 early; the Maple Leafs had rallied 33 times during the regular season to win or tie after having fallen behind. Game 2 was spicy, Toronto goalie Turk Broda and Harry Lumley of Detroit trading punches as time expired.

Another sweep awaited the Red Wings in 1949, the Maple Leafs winning Game 1 in overtime, then the next three by identical 3-1 scores. Toronto was the only fourth-place regular-season team to win the Stanley Cup during the 25-year six-team era between 1942-67.

Detroit Red Wings coach Jimmy Skinner kisses the Stanley Cup, having been presented to the team by NHL President Clarence Campbell, Gordie Howe and Terry Sawchuk on the far right. At the far left is Red Wings president Marguerite Norris, the first woman to have her name on the trophy.

1953-54, 1954-55 and 1955-56

Detroit Red Wings (2-1) versus Montreal Canadiens (1-2)

The Red Wings and Canadiens were the undisputed NHL powerhouses of the 1950s, Montreal winning the Stanley Cup five times and Detroit four during the decade. The Maple Leafs were the only other winner between 1950-59, champions in 1951.

The 1954 Final went into overtime in the seventh game, Detroit winning on home ice when a shot by Tony Leswick bounced off the glove of Canadiens defense legend Doug Harvey and past goalie Gerry McNeil for the clincher.

The two teams would go the seven-game limit again the following year, Detroit winning once more at home. Conspicuous by his absence was Canadiens sniper Maurice “Rocket” Richard, who controversially had been suspended by NHL President Clarence Campbell for the final three games of the regular season and the entire playoffs after a violent battle in Boston.

The third consecutive Cup Final meeting between Detroit and Montreal saw the Canadiens win in five games, the first of their unprecedented run of five straight championships. Future Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau led playoff scoring with 19 points (12 goals, seven assists) in 10 games, his seven goals in the final round the most ever to that time.

The Montreal Canadiens following their 1958 Stanley Cup win, their third of five in a row. Bottom row, from left: Gerry McNeil, Dickie Moore, assistant GM Ken Reardon, President Hartland de Montarville Molson, Maurice Richard, GM Frank Selke Sr., coach Toe Blake, Henri Richard, Jacques Plante. Middle row: Publicity director Camil Desroches, Floyd Curry, Doug Harvey, Dollard St. Laurent, Jean Beliveau, Tom Johnson, Jean-Guy Talbot, Bernie Geoffrion, publicity assistant Frank Selke Jr. Top row: trainer Larry Aubut, Don Marshall, Claude Provost, Bob Turner, Phil Goyette, Andre Pronovost, Connie Broden, trainer Hec Dubois.

1956-57 and 1957-58

Montreal Canadiens (2-0) versus Boston Bruins (0-2)

The Bruins had seven wins and three ties in their 14 games against the Canadiens during the regular season, a troubling statistic to Montreal coach Toe Blake. A needless worry, as it turned out, the Canadiens successfully defending their 1956 championship in five games, two of them shutouts by Hall of Fame-bound goalie Jacques Plante.

It took the Canadiens six games the following year, including an overtime win in Game 5, to extend their Cup run to three straight. Montreal’s 5-3 win in Game 6 at Boston Garden marked the first time in a decade that the Stanley Cup had been won on the road, only the second time in the Canadiens’ nine NHL championships to that time that they’d not won on Montreal Forum ice.

Montreal Canadiens captain Maurice Richard with the 1960 Stanley Cup in the team’s Montreal Forum dressing room and symbolically hanging up his skates to retire following that championship, his eighth with the team.

1958-59 and 1959-60

Montreal Canadiens (2-0) versus Toronto Maple Leafs (0-2)

No NHL team had won four consecutive Stanley Cup titles until the Canadiens did so in 1959, Montreal dispatching the Maple Leafs in a five-game Final. It wasn’t easy; the first four games between the two rivals were tied entering or at some point during the third period. Canadiens coach Toe Blake said, “I can’t say this was the greatest of Montreal teams. Not even the best I’ve had in the last four years. But they’re not just ordinary, either.”

The Canadiens reached the Cup Final in 1960 for the 10th straight season, sweeping the Maple Leafs to win their fifth consecutive championship. There was little celebration in their Forum dressing room afterward, defenseman Doug Harvey suggesting, “When you win the game 4-0 and after four Cup titles, you don’t get too excited.” Perhaps the most incredible statistic is that during Montreal’s historic run, they had 12 players on all five teams, guided by GM Frank Selke Sr. and coach Blake.

Toronto defenseman Bobby Baun hugs the Stanley Cup following his team’s 1964 championship victory, and as the Maple Leafs appear on the trophy.

1962-63 and 1963-64

Toronto Maple Leafs (2-0) versus Detroit Red Wings (0-2)

The Maple Leafs’ five-game win against Detroit was Toronto’s second of three consecutive championships. It wasn’t future Hall of Fame forwards Dave Keon, Dick Duff, Frank Mahovlich or Red Kelly who’d score the clinching goal, but Eddie Shack, the Tasmanian devil on skates. “I was trying to get the [heck] out of the way. It hit my stick and went in,” Eddie the Entertainer would say.

Battered and bruised and broken-boned, Toronto won their third straight Cup in a seven-game 1964 Final against Detroit, Games 2 and 6 going to overtime. It was a season that saw long-lasting history made by Detroit -- Red Wings’ Gordie Howe passed Montreal’s Maurice Richard to become the NHL’s scoring king with No. 545 and goalie Terry Sawchuk earned his 95th career shutout, one more than top-ranked George Hainsworth, a boyhood idol.

Veteran goalies Gump Worsley of the Montreal Canadiens and Glenn Hall of the St. Louis Blues, who anchored their teams during the 1968 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

1967-68 and 1968-69

Montreal Canadiens (2-0) versus St. Louis Blues (0-2)

The Canadiens defeated the Blues in four straight in the first year of the newly expanded NHL, the League having doubled to 12 teams to begin the 1967-68 season. But twice, coach Scotty Bowman’s Blues pushed Montreal to overtime, and it was St. Louis goalie Glenn Hall who would be voted winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player. Mr. Goalie was bombarded, his team outshot 36-19 in a 1-0 Game 1 loss, 46-15 in a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 3.

Montreal swept the Blues again in 1969, Canadiens’ Serge Savard the first defenseman to be voted winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy. A superb penalty-killer, Savard registering 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the postseason. The Canadiens allowed just two power-play goals in 14 playoff games.

Montreal Canadiens captain Yvan Cournoyer (r.) and defenseman Serge Savard with the Stanley Cup during the team’s 1977 Stanley Cup victory parade.

1976-77 and 1977-78

Montreal Canadiens (2-0) versus Boston Bruins (0-2)

The Bruins, knocked off in the Final by Montreal in 1957 and 1958, were now up against a team that had gone 60-8-12 in the regular season. They were no match in the Canadiens’ four-game sweep, Montreal roaring through three rounds of playoffs with a 12-2 record. The electrifying Guy Lafleur had 26 points (nine goals, 17 assists) to lead postseason scoring, awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for his offensive brilliance.

Boston was a stronger challenger in the 1978 Final but fell in six games, two losses in overtime, in Montreal’s third of four consecutive championships. A highlight surely was Lafleur “stealing” the trophy from the trunk of public-relations director Claude Mouton’s car after a team party and taking it to his hometown of Thurso, Quebec for family, friends and neighbors in the days before players were given a day with the trophy.

New York Islanders coach Al Arbour celebrates with the 1983 Stanley Cup, his team’s fourth consecutive championship.

1982-83 and 1983-84

New York Islanders (1-1) versus Edmonton Oilers (1-1)

The Islanders made short work of the Oilers in 1983 with a four-game sweep, earning their fourth straight Stanley Cup win. Sixteen players were part of all four champions, a great cast led by Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin and Battling’ Billy Smith, the take-no-prisoners goalie who allowed just six goals in the Final, earning a shutout in Game 1 at Edmonton. The Islanders smothered Oilers’ Wayne Gretzky in the Final; they held him without a goal the entire series, the first time the Great One had gone emptyhanded for four consecutive games all season.

The Oilers began their own magnificent run in 1984, denying the Islanders’ bid to match the Canadiens’ five straight run of 1956-60, with a five-game victory. “I felt no shame turning the Cup over to them,” Potvin said. “Several [players] talked about idolizing us as we shook hands. One great team turned the Cup over to a team that was great all year.”

The 2009 Stanley Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins sprawl on the ice for a team photo.

2007-08 and 2008-09

Detroit Red Wings (1-1) versus Pittsburgh Penguins (1-1)

At age 46, Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios became the oldest player to win the Stanley Cup in 2008, coming in his 23rd year of postseason play. Detroit’s six-game championship win featured triple-overtime in Game 6, Petr Sykora keeping the Penguins alive with a 4-3 win. Two nights later, Detroit’s 3-2 win gave them the championship, Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg and Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin tied for the playoff scoring lead with 27 points each. Nicklas Lidstrom was the first Europe-born player to captain a Stanley Cup winner.

The Penguins needed seven games to beat Detroit in 2009, having surged from February onward under in-season replacement coach Dan Bylsma. It was a rugged final-round journey for Pittsburgh, which joined the 1942 Maple Leafs and 1966 and 1971 Canadiens as the only teams to that point to go all the way after having fallen behind 2-0 in the Final.

Top photo: Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid shakes hands with Florida Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad following Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers defeated the Oilers 2-1 at Amerant Bank Arena to win their first championship.