Panthers' Fans No Match For Oilers' Fans
EDMONTON — A second team was eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs – and on a night when the Edmonton Oilers were not playing.
The Florida Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a controversial 6-1 victory on Monday night. Panthers’ captain Aleksander Barkov led the way with two goals, an assist, four shots, three hits and 78.6% in the faceoff circle while playing 21:24.
There came a moment in the third period where – with nothing left to lose and down 5-1 – the Lightning pulled their goalie to pour everything they had out of the tank to attempt to tie the score. At about 1:17 on the game clock the Panthers’ fans started a sing-a-long that was pretty ruthless.
At that stage of the game, not a whole lot can change – but crazier things have happened in hockey than coming back from a four-goal deficit in the third period. That being said, this moment proved that a Florida rivalry is alive and well in the NHL.
Oilers fans have seen that kind of ruthlessness before – primarily carried out at Rogers Place. The most recent example can be seen (and most certainly heard) during the current series against the Los Angeles Kings.
In Game two, Oilers fans were already chanting “Tal-bot” in an attempt to throw Kings goalie Cam Talbot off of his game.
This moment in the tweet above happened while the teams had lined up for the national anthems – the puck hadn’t even dropped yet. Things only escalated from there.
That’s a pretty intense cheer – and gives the “hey hey goodbye” sing-a-long a considerable run for it’s money.
Edmonton Oilers Fans Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
From a birds-eye view, it seems like the Oilers fans take the cake for the intensity of the chants – as well as the quantity of chants during the game. In this series so far, they chant “Tal-bot” at least 10 times a game. But that’s a very conservative estimate.
Which fans do you think are more ruthless?
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