EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Florida Panthers don’t impress Shania Twain much despite leading the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final.
The legendary Canadian performer fired up the crowd outside Rogers Place prior to Game 4 on Saturday night and started a “We want the Cup!” chant among Oilers fans. It would take the team pulling off a comeback not made in the final since 1942 — the only time in NHL history it has happened at this stage and on only four previous occasions any time in the playoffs.
“How you guys feeling Edmonton?” Twain said between songs. “We are in the spirit of the Stanley Cup right here in Edmonton!”
Twain followed The Kid LAROI and DJ Khaled from the games in Florida and the band Our Lady Peace earlier in the week outside Rogers Place. The Oilers are hoping to avoid being the first team to be swept in the Cup final since Washington in 1998.
Oilers change
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch was not forthcoming about lineup changes Saturday morning, hours away from his team facing elimination.
“Things are a little bit different, a little more at stake,” Knoblauch said. “In the regular season there’s not much reason to hide, er, keep anything secret. Playoffs are a little bit different. I’m going to have to make you wait.”
It was worth the wait for Oilers fans to see Knoblauch moving Ryan Nugent-Hopkins down to play with Leon Draisaitl, who had no points in the first three games of the series, and putting Warren Foegele on left wing with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. Each of the top two lines scored.
The 20 players who dressed for Edmonton remained the same, with Darnell Nurse remaining in the lineup and getting his first goal of the playoffs and Evander Kane being scratched for the second consecutive game after he was ineffective with one point in his past nine while dealing with a sports hernia.
50/50 Madness
The 50/50 drawing, which is known to get into six figures in Alberta, surpassed $13 million CAD before the start of the third period. The Oilers declined to talk about the 50/50, protective of their internal methods that they believe makes it so successful.
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This story has been corrected to indicate The Kid LAROI and DJ Khaled played before Games 1 and 2 in Florida.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
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