Morning Coffee: Draisaitl surges into Conn Smythe Trophy spotlight with Game 4 heroics

The Stanley Cup Final is where the lights burn brightest.

It’s where hockey’s legends steal the spotlight, flip the narrative, and make history bend to their will.

Trailing the Florida Panthers 3-0 after the first period of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers were staring down a potential 3-1 series deficit.

With their backs against the wall, it had to be one of the best hockey players on the planet that stormed the stage.

Leon Draisaitl set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the Oilers opener, then added his second assist on Vasily Podkolzin’s tally that tied the game at 3-3 late in the second period.

After the teams exchanged goals in the third period, and Edmonton seemed to let a golden opportunity slip from its grasp on Sam Reinhart’s game-tying goal with 20 seconds left in regulation, the stage was set for more heroics from Draisaitl in overtime.

As he’s done so many times throughout his Oilers career, Draisaitl stepped up and delivered another critical goal at a critical point in time with the OT winner.

Draisaitl’s heroics lifted Edmonton past Florida 5-4 in OT to tie the Stanley Cup Final at 2-2.

The remarkable performance was also enough to light up FanDuel’s Conn Smythe Trophy odds and push Draisaitl back into the conversation as a legitimate candidate.

This is the Morning Coffee for Friday June 13th, 2025.

Draisaitl Surges Into Conn Smythe Trophy Spotlight With Game 4 Heroics

The Stanley Cup Final has been as good as it gets for the hardcore hockey fan.

All four games have gone over the total at FanDuel.

Three of the four games have ended in overtime.

With very little margin between the two teams to date, it only makes sense that the Stanley Cup Final is a pick’em once again headed back to Alberta for a best-of-three.

For a moment, it looked like the Cats had pounced on the opportunity to seize control of the series for the second straight year.

With a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes of Game 4, Florida had outscored Edmonton a combined 10-1 over a span of five periods dating back to overtime of Game 2.

Trailing by three goals, the Oilers could be found as high as +1500 to win Game 4 outright at FanDuel.

The stage was set for a legendary comeback.

Edmonton’s best players ignited the turnaround with a powerplay goal by RNH just 3:33 into the second period.

Draisaitl and Connor McDavid both assisted on the goal.

Later in the period, Darnell Nurse cut the deficit to one with his third of the postseason.

Then Nurse and Draisaitl set up Podkolzin’s tying goal.

When Jake Walman’s blast gave the Oilers a 4-3 lead with less than seven minutes to go in the third period, it looked like the comeback was complete.

Then Reinhart scored with 20 seconds left to force OT for the third time in four games in the series.

In the extra frame, Sam Bennett nearly secured a 3-1 series lead for the Panthers with a golden opportunity that Calvin Pickard fought off just enough to force the puck to ricochet off the cross bar.

Bennett, who entered Game 4 as the Conn Smythe Trophy favourite thanks in large part to an NHL-best 14 goals this postseason, could have secured his grip on the award while pushing Florida within one win of repeating as Stanley Cup champions with an OT winner.

Instead, the Oilers survived the near scare and Draisaitl capitalized with another OT winner just moments later.

Draisaitl set an NHL record for the most overtime goals in a single postseason with four.

He also became just the third player in Stanley Cup Final history to record multiple overtime goals in a single series and the first since John LeClair did it for the Montreal Canadiens all the way back in 1993.

We all remember how that Stanley Cup Final ended.

Draisaitl joined Wayne Gretzky as the only players in NHL history to record 10 or more goals and 20 or more assists in multiple postseasons – something The Great One did five times in his legendary career.

What impact did Draisaitl’s performance have on the Conn Smythe Trophy market at FanDuel?

Draisaitl’s odds to win the award were cut from +1100 to +230 as the second choice in that market.

Bennett remains the Conn Smythe favourite at +140.

Draisaitl is the second choice at +230, followed closely by McDavid at +270.

No other player has shorter than +1700 odds.

Sergei Bobrovsky, who was the top option for Florida entering the Stanley Cup Final, is now the seventh choice overall at +6500.

Matthew Tkachuk, who scored twice and registered three points in the Game 4 loss, is just in front of Bob at +3000.

Brad Marchand, who got as low as +400 at FanDuel, is up to +1700 as the fourth choice behind the big three.

Can you guess who the third option to win the Conn Smythe Trophy for Edmonton is this morning?

It’s Calvin Pickard way down the list at +12000.

No word yet on whether he gets the start in Game 5, but I must believe Kris Knoblauch is leaning that way after he gave the Oilers a chance again in the Game 4 win.

Edmonton is -120 to win Game 5 on home ice.

The Oilers are -118 to win the Stanley Cup – a small adjustment from last night when they settled as a pick’ em after stealing a win with their record-tying eighth comeback victory this postseason.

The biggest lesson of them all?

Don’t count out Edmonton as long as 97 and 29 are on the ice.

The Oilers just recorded their NHL-record fourth multi-goal comeback this postseason.

They’re just the seventh team in NHL history to overcome a three-goal deficit and win in the Stanley Cup Final.

Tied for the NHL lead with 32 points apiece, I can’t wait to see what Draisaitl and McDavid do the rest of the way.

As for a FanDuel Best Bet for Game 5, I’ve got to run back the two bets I gave out in Thursday’s Morning Coffee column.

Evan Bouchard failed to register four or more shots on goal for the first time in the Stanley Cup Final.

He finished with three on seven attempts.

I’ll lock in Bouchard 4+ shots on goal at +116 expecting him to bounce back with a similar form to what he showed us in the first three games of the series.

Meanwhile, I’ll be back on Bobrovsky over 26.5 saves after he registered 27 in regulation in Game 4 to give us the split with the Morning Coffee best bets.

I’ve gone 4-1 with my best bets for the series to date and finished in the green in every single one of the first four games of this year’s Stanley Cup Final.

Hopefully, we can stay hot with some more winners in a pivotal Game 5 in Edmonton on Saturday night.

Have a great weekend, everyone!