Carter Verhaeghe fires back at Connor Brown and the Oilers.

There are still a few hours before the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers hit the ice for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, but the war of words has already begun between these two teams.

Earlier today the Oilers expressed their confidence heading into Game 4 despite being down 0-3 in the series to the Florida Panthers, with comments from both forward Connor Brown and head coach Kris Knoblauch to that effect. It was Brown's comments however, the ones about the Oilers controlling the flow of the series, that would be relayed back to the Panthers.

"I think that because we feel like we held the play for the majority of the series here, I think it makes the situation that we are in less daunting," admitted Brown. "The unique thing about our club over the year we've shown that when we're backed into a corner that's when we're most comfortable and that's when we seem to play our best."

That is quite a bold claim to make for a team down 0-3 in a series, even if it happens to be true, and it was one that the Panthers players would be asked about ahead of Game 4.

Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe had quite a strong response when asked to share his thoughts on the comments from the Oilers, indicating that the Panthers had no intention of letting the Oilers distract them from what has worked for them in the first 3 games of this Stanley Cup Final.

"We don’t focus on what they say," admitted Verhaeghe. "They can say whatever they want. We’re just focusing on what we have to do."

That being said Verhaeghe did admit that the Panthers will be facing some unique challenges tonight, with a great deal of pressure on them to close out this series against an Oilers team that has shown an ability to come back from tremendous adversity this season.