There’s Some Serious Gamesmanship Ahead Of Game 6 Of the Stanley Cup Final

Game 6 is Thursday night in Florida

PublishedJune 17, 2025 4:47 PM EDT•UpdatedJune 17, 2025 4:47 PM EDT

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Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers is Thursday night in Sunrise, Florida, and with a 3-2 series lead going into it, the Cats can lock up their second straight Cup victory.

I don’t know what it is about the Panthers and Oilers, seeing as they’re far from “traditional” rivals, but the two put on an absolute show.

Both on and off the ice.

We’ve seen some fisticuffs this series and some top-notch chirping, but there has also been some gamesmanship in between games.

As is the norm, both teams were taking morning skates ahead of Thursday night’s game, with the Panthers hitting the ice first.

According to TSN, what tends to be the case for these morning skates is that the Panthers would use one end of the ice at the end of their practice, which would mean that a few Oilers would trickle out onto the other end of the sheet a little bit early.

Athletes are creatures of habit and usually don’t like having those habits disrupted, so Florida’s Carter Verhaege decided on Thursday that he was going to use that empty end of the ice to get in some work by himself, effectively keeping an early-bird Oilers at bay.

I get why you’d be completely pissed off by this if you were an Oiler or an Oilers fan… but I’m not going to lie, I love this kind of thing.

You’ve got to appreciate players doing whatever they can to get even the slightest competitive edge in hopes of winning the Cup.

Verhaege eventually left the ice, but waited long enough that the Oilers had to ask the rink staff not to flood the ice so they could get some of their players some extra ice time.

It won’t surprise you, given how they play, but the Panthers don’t shy away from off-ice gamesmanship. 

During the Eastern Conference Final, the Panthers weren’t happy about the press conference area being set up in their gym, something Matt Tkachuk protested by throwing a medicine ball against the wall as soon as one of the Carolina Hurricanes’ press conferences started.