Corey Perry and a speech that helped save the Oilers

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Before the line brawls and all those the overtimes, before the epic goals and the Hollywood first-intermission speech that romantics will say rescued the Edmonton Oilers’ season, Corey Perry stood with his hand on his boy’s shoulder and explained why.

Why he can’t quit.

Why he couldn’t sit quietly Thursday after 20 sloppy, uninspired minutes and let his team roll over.

Flashback 10 days: it’s media day of the Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton, and the oldest player in the series is smiling proudly at his seven-year-old, hooky-playing son Griffin.

“He knows everybody in the league. He knows what positions they play, who’s the leading scorer. He’s watching the highlights every single morning and playing mini sticks at the same time before school,” Perry says.

“This is why I’m still playing — for him to have an opportunity to feel and touch the Stanley Cup. It’s something that I want to give him.”

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It is why the enduring and (if you ask opponents) insufferable Perry is participating in his fifth Cup Final over the past six seasons, despite getting his heart snapped in the previous four. Griffin is the inspiration for his elevation.

The 40-year-old Perry has already scored twice in this 2-2 series, including the latest OT-forcing goal (at 59:42 in Game 2) in Cup Final history. The long-ago Hart champ, who entered the league when the Ducks still went by Mighty, hasn’t scored this many playoff goals (nine) or put up as many points (13) in a decade.

And yet, the most indelible moment of Perry’s 18-year quest for a second Cup may have arrived not on the ice, but on a padded floor inside the Amerant Bank Arena visitors’ room Thursday night.

The Oilers began Game 4 undisciplined and uninspired. They dug themselves a 3-0 hole against the best lead-holding team of the past three post-seasons. The Panthers were in the middle of a 10-1 run.

This highly anticipated revenge match was teetering from promising to embarrassing.

Perry knew it.

About 30 seconds before the first-period buzzer, he decided he would address the group before heading out for the second.

“It wasn’t wisdom. It was just honesty,” Perry explained to reporters Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale before chartering home for Game 5. “I mean, just had to realize where we were at the moment and just kind of look ourselves in the mirror and how we were playing, what we were doing. It’s pretty much all it was.”

This was the ’25 version of Connor McDavid’s famous “Dig in!” pep talk in 2024 that spurred a thrilling reverse sweep attempt.

“I’m not going to share exactly what he said right now, but the message is that he’s been in these moments,” Leon Draisaitl said. “He’s not a guy that speaks up or yells at guys all the time. That’s not his character. So, when a guy like that, with that many games, that much experience — he’s won everything there is to win; he knows how to win — when he speaks up, you listen.”

Perry’s comments helped trigger a 4-1 run of the Oilers’ own, the greatest single-game comeback in a Cup Final game in 106 years.

Draisaitl said they went from “lollygagging around” to intense.

Were it not for Sergei Bobrovsky’s outstretched skate blade on a whip-around rebound attempt, Perry might’ve ended the comeback himself.

“What is he, almost 10 goals now? That’s crazy,” Mattias Ekholm said Friday.

“He’s been so valuable for us. He’s a leader, and he knows exactly when to step in there. He doesn’t do it all the time. But when he does, it’s always great and gets everybody’s attention. I mean, it was good from him last night again, both on the ice and in the locker room. It’s what we expect out of him. He’s getting up there, but he’s still got it.”

The same could be said for Florida’s Brad Marchand, another one-time champ clawing for a second drink. Both are pending free agents. So are other enduring impact forwards such as John Tavares and Claude Giroux, which has us wondering if Perry and Marchand’s performance in this high-stakes, high-calibre series will make GMs more open to the wily vets this summer.

Perry’s performance reminds us of a conversation we had with then-Panther Jaromir Jagr (who was in the building for Game 4) back in 2016 at his final All-Star Game.

“When you’re too old, you appreciate the game. You’re happy, and you do everything just to survive the game. When you’re too young, you’re excited and you’re very good — but you don’t know how good you are. But when you’re mid-age, I think you become more selfish and think about yourself,” Jagr said, before breaking out into a warm laugh.

“Don’t sign the middle guys!”

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To think, Perry came into the league and won a title with Ryan Getzlaf, who is a whole six days older. And in this series’ first couple of games in Edmonton, Getzlaf, wearing a suit, could be spotted watching his old pal from the press box.

One is already three seasons into retirement, doing work for the NHL’s player safety department and the senior Canadian men’s team. The other is finishing plays on a power play loaded with three Hart winners.

Who knows? Maybe Perry isn’t simply being humble. Maybe the words he chose might not have been particularly unique or wise Thursday. But there is no doubting his decision to pipe up came from a wise, desperate and impassioned well.

Reach the Final in five of six years only to lose them all?

Forget Alex Ovechkin’s goals. That’s a record that won’t be touched.

“Nothing’s been easy for us. We’re good when our backs are against the wall and facing adversity and we know how to play hockey, and we did that last night,” Perry said.

“We found a way to really check our emotions and just play hockey. That was kind of the main message the last few days — we’re good with the puck and when we want the puck. … It’s gotten us this far, so why change?”

Win or lose, Perry will be staring at another shortened off-season. And he vowed to be back at age 41.

“It gets tougher every summer. But at the same time, it puts that fire inside you. Keeps it burning. You have that opportunity again this year to rewrite that script,” Perry admitted. “The story’s not over.”

So, he’s not contemplating retirement?

“It’s just not in me,” he replied. “I don’t think that’s going to come into my head anytime soon. It’s just who I am.”

And who he’s playing for.

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