The Edmonton Oilers advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday night. They will be the visiting team for the upcoming series and will fly to South Florida sometime next week to prepare for Game 1 on Saturday. But it won’t be any kind of short trip, as the flight between the two cities hosting this year’s Stanley Cup is the longest possible trip in the NHL.
Miami-Edmonton is the longest possible NHL flight
No offense to Dallas Stars fans, but if Edmonton wins the Western Conference, a flight between the Panthers & Oilers for the Stanley Cup Finals could be quite entertaining. Approximately 7 hours flight. pic.twitter.com/6jzpQwnUGx
— 🇲🇨 Sickos Committee 🇲🇨 (@SickosCommittee) June 2, 2024
Edmonton is already considered remote on the map for North American hockey teams. They are one of seven teams that call Canada home, although the others are relatively close to international flights. However, Edmonton is almost 400 miles from the southern border, so a flight from the United States would take quite a while.
Travel fatigue could be a factor when facing the Florida Panthers. The flight between Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Edmonton, Alberta lasts approximately 5 hours and covers a distance of 2,546 miles. By comparison, if Dallas had been a qualifying team, the Panthers’ flight time would have been less than 2 1/2 hours and a distance of just over 1,100 miles.
Panthers will be the home team and favored
We are back-to-back Eastern Conference Champions pic.twitter.com/u6EPnSuR3a
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) June 2, 2024
The Oilers will be busy regardless of travel conditions. The Panthers finished third in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and appeared to be the better team going into their series against the New York Rangers despite losing two of six contests.
Florida will be making its second straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, as they came up short against the Las Vegas Golden Knights last season. This will be the team’s third appearance in the final, having also played in the cup in 1996. They missed all three visits.
The Oilers are playing in the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990, ending an era in which Edmonton won five titles in seven years. He hasn’t appeared in a championship series since 2006, when they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes.
