Oilers head coach ruthlessly takes shots at Buffalo Bills ahead of Stanley Cup Final

Buffalo sports fans already have plenty of reasons to root for the Florida Panthers against the Edmonton Oilers in this year’s Stanley Cup Final: Six former Buffalo Sabers play for the team, including the Panthers key Sam Reinhart and Brandon Montour and former Sabers captain Kyle Okposo.

If for some reason you needed another reason to support the Cats, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch just gave you a great one.

The head coach spoke to the Edmonton press before the start of the Stanley Cup Final this weekend, taking a heartbreaking, but admittedly comical, photo of the Buffalo Bills to suggest that the experience of playing in a championship game is not necessarily important.

“The experience is good, I don’t know how beneficial it is,” Knoblauch said. “You can ask the Buffalo Bills how important the Super Bowl experience is, but I think the most important thing is just to have confidence and play. When our guys play their best, they should have a lot of confidence.

Knoblauch, of course, is referring to the period of the 1990-1993 NFL seasons in which the Bills appeared in and lost four straight Super Bowls, an unfathomable and unwanted feat that has not been matched since.

It may not be a Perfect comparison, because the Panthers don’t have immense experience playing in the Stanley Cup Final; the team made last year’s finals, losing in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights. Before last season, Florida hadn’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 1996.

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Either way, it’s a quality joke from Knoblauch. He’s twisting a knife into a wound that hasn’t yet healed, but could perhaps mend itself with a Super Bowl victory in years to come on the back of Josh Allen. Unlike the Oilers, the Bills’ current core of championship-caliber players was acquired through shrewd moves rather than ping-pong ball luck.

This year’s Stanley Cup Final begins June 8. In the name of Buffalo, go Panthers.