If you didn’t watch Game 3 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals, you missed an all-time classic. But not for the reasons you are thinking. No, the game didn’t have any Connor McDavid magic. It didn’t see Leon Draisaitl in full flow. In fact, we saw 6 goals from the Panthers as they calculatedly dispatched their opponents, who could score only 1. Well, the Oilers coach has some complaints about the game, but no way the fans are having it. After what went down, they are asking questions of Kris Knoblauch and whatever that thing their team did.

On June 9, the Oilers started the game, where they looked like they were off the pace. The Panthers started piling up the goals, but meanwhile, the Oilers were piling up their penalty minutes. Not that the Panthers complained. And Oilers coach Knoblauch’s complaint was about one of those penalties dished out by the ref. Sportsnet reporter Gene Principe shared a tweet on June 10: “’They called the too many men penalty(on us) which it was. Too bad they didnt call it in game 2,’ @EdmontonOilers Kris Knoblauch.”

It happened midway through the first period of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals when the ref noticed the Oilers had too many men on the ice. The officials correctly called a 2-minute minor penalty against the Oilers. Well, Knoblauch’s complaint is maybe that the refs are being biased. He thinks the officials are catching the Oilers in their violations, but the Panthers are being let off the hook. It looked like the Panthers briefly had too many men on the ice. At least that extra man seemed to have influenced the play. So, it could have been given as a 2-minute penalty against the Panthers.

The penalty that the Oilers got because of having too many men was 1 of the 4 penalties they conceded in the first period. Oilers captain Connor McDavid mentioned that point after the game. Talking to NHL.com, McDavid said, “Obviously when you start in the first with four penalties, that means half a period you’re killing and it’s not a good way to get into your game.”

But that was not all, was it? The first period ended with a score of 2-0 to the Panthers. By 8 minutes of the 2nd period, the Oilers were down 4-1. And it all started in the final minute of the 2nd period. One can say the last period was less NHL and more UFC Unleashed. You can even call it the WWE Battle Royale, the way all the players on the ice descended into madness to just exchange punches and jabs and whatnot. And most of it was started by the Oilers players out of frustration.

This exact thing is what the fans are pointing out while questioning the Oilers if they cracked under the pressure of the Panthers’ mind games.

The fans are asking if the Stanley Cup pressure is getting to the Oilers

Game 3 saw a total of 140 penalty minutes conceded by all the players, Oilers and Panthers combined. And of it, 85 minutes were accumulated by the Western Conference team. They lost all semblance of the game as the players resorted to just venting out their frustrations. After all, the entire game, they couldn’t match up with the Panthers’ intensity and play. The Oilers were second best in the game by a mile and then some. So, maybe Kris Knoblauch is complaining about one ref decision. But one fan is rather giving the coach a reality check: “Can we not complain about the refs like come on bro”.

One fan even pointed out that the Oilers’ infraction of too many men was quite blatant: “They had two extra guys on the ice and it wasn’t even like he just stepped onto the ice off the bench. They were all in the middle skating around.” Such amateur mistakes shouldn’t be seen in a Stanley Cup Finals game. And that’s what this fan said: “Edmonton was dumb enough to commit the penalties to be called.”

On the other hand, a fan was bemused by Kris Knoblauch’s response: “That’s what he’s worried about after this game lmaooooo”. Well, the Oilers do have a lot to worry about. Even before the penalty minutes piled up in the 3rd period, they were unable to go toe-to-toe with the defending Stanley Cup champions in the first 2 periods.

Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Sergei Bobrovsky, Sam Reinhart, Seth Jones, and most of the Panthers roster, who we didn’t even name, were outstanding. They collectively overshadowed Connor McDavid while letting frustration overpower the Oilers. The rest was letting the Oilers self-destruct.

One fan correctly assessed what transpired in the game: “Blaming the refs instead of properly preparing your team is p1ss poor from Knobs. We got smashed in every facet of the game”. And when the Oilers were defeated mentally, the likes of Darnell Nurse, Evander Kane, Jake Walman, and Kasperi Kapanen decided to throw jabs at the Panthers players. That’s very unsportsmanlike and demonstrates a weak mentality.

Let’s see if the Oilers can regroup properly and give a proper response in Game 4. Penalties or not, the Panthers were superior in Game 3. They have looked better overall.