EDMONTON, Alberta — At the height of his hockey career after winning the Stanley Cup last year with the Florida Panthers, Matthew Tkachuk had a message for Connor McDavid at the Edmonton Oilers captain’s lowest point of his career in the handshake line immediately following Game 7.

“We’re gonna see you again next year in it,” Tkachuk said.

McDavid did not think much of it at the time. Sitting with a larger-than-life photo of Tkachuk raising the Cup over his left shoulder Tuesday on the eve of the rematch, he found it “funny to look back on how it’s worked out.”

“Two good teams then, two good teams now,” McDavid said. “Let’s get after it.”

The Panthers and Oilers meet again in the Stanley Cup Final that begins with Game 1 tonight in Edmonton looking like two NHL powerhouses on a collision course.

“I believed that it was going to be us two again,” Tkachuk said. “I think we’re the two best teams in the league. And if everything would go to plan, it would probably be us two again in the finals.”

There were plenty of twists and turns along the way, from a series of anticipated and unexpected offseason departures last summer through a long regular season and even playoff stumbles. At every turn this spring, Florida and Edmonton seemed to flex just the kind of muscles teams need to win when it matters most.

The Oilers lost their first two games in the first round. They’ve won 12 of 14 games since.

The Panthers lost the first two games of their second-round series and fell behind 2-0 in Game 3. They’ve gone 8-2 since.

That kind of dominance made another cross-continental championship series feel inevitable.

What is the same?

Edmonton still has McDavid and longtime running mate Leon Draisaitl, and they’re the top two scorers in the playoffs with 26 and 25 points apiece. Florida still has its core led by Tkachuk, captain Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and all-world goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Panthers are in the final for a third year in a row after falling short against Vegas in 2023 when injuries piled up.

What is different?

Brad Marchand and Seth Jones have joined Florida’s repeat bid, an injection of star talent by general manager Bill Zito at the trade deadline. Defenseman Niko Mikkola is also much improved.

Edmonton has some new faces, too, after losing young Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to restricted free-agent offer sheets by St. Louis in August. GM Stan Bowman signed John Klingberg and traded for Jake Walman and Trent Frederic to give the team more experience for just these occasions.