FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers are on the verge of making history.

The questions is, on which side of history will this franchise take its place.

Will the Panthers be the 2004 New York Yankees, owners of an epic postseason collapse after blowing a 3-0 lead to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series and losing Game 7 at home?

Or will they be the 2023 Miami Heat, a team that overcame surrendering a 3-0 lead against the Boston Celtics In the NBA Eastern Conference Final and winning Game 7 on the road?

If it's the latter, the Panthers, who have one more chance to slow down the resurgent Edmonton Oilers with Monday's Game 7 at Amerant Bank Arena, will raise the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. The party will stretch from Sunrise to South Beach. Plans will be in motion for a championship parade along East Las Olas Boulevard.

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A historic night.

If it's the former, this will go down as a catastrophic collapse, one rarely seen in sports and not seen in the Stanley Cup Final in 82 years. To what degree would be determined by the final score.

A historic night.

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Either way, this will be a night that will define many careers and legacies, on both sides.

And among those is Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who is in his 26th season as the head man behind the bench, and has never sipped champagne out of Lord Stanley's cup.

Staying in the moment is as important to Maurice right now as getting his power play going and slowing down the Connor McDavid-led Edmonton offense.

Well, almost as important.

"I understand every one of your questions in terms of why you ask them because there's a far bigger contextual story that means nothing to me, but means everything to you," Maurice said Sunday when asked about the historical context of this series with Florida squandering a 3-0 lead.

"That's the stories you have to write. That's actually what makes this whole thing awesome, is the context of it."

Panthers effort hard to explain

Perhaps this is because Maurice could be dealing with a fragile locker room that appears deflated and unsure of virtually every move it has made the last three games.

The contrast between the Panthers from Games 1-3 to Games 4-6 is alarming and concerning. Florida has gone from being dominant in nearly every aspect to allowing Edmonton to become the faster and more aggressive team.

And when a team is being described as "lethargic" and "lackadaisical" when it has a chance to win a Stanley Cup — in a sense, its effort being questioned — that is a deep-rooted problem that has had to occupy the minds of Maurice and his coaching staff for every waking moment, and beyond, leading up to Game 7.

"If you've handled the why of where you're at, then you don't carry it forward," Maurice said.

For the Panthers sake, they better not.

The Panthers have turned into an unrecognizable team from the one that outscored their opponent from Alberta, 11-4, in the first three games to one that has been dominated in all but one period of the last three games while at an 18-5 goal disadvantage.

When the best player in the series for the first three games, Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, goes from a heavy -550 favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs to +10,000 in three games, that's a remarkable turnaround.

Conversely, McDavid, who had eight points in Games 4 and 5, has gone from a +1,800 longshot after Game 3 to win the MVP to a -3,000 favorite.

One word for Panthers: Desperate

The most popular word in Panther-land Sunday after a spirited practice was "desperation."

Florida and Edmonton now are in the same spot. Desperate … for one more win.

Both know how the next day, next week, next month; heck, next year and beyond will be viewed pending the result of one hockey game.

Both teams have a three-game winning streak and three-game losing streak in this series. Both teams have won one game on the other team's home ice.

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Now it comes down to one game.

To define a career.

"You forget everything that's happened throughout this whole season," Panthers center Matthew Tkachuk said. "The whole season comes down to one game, at home."

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

Stanley Cup FinalMonday's gameGame 7: Oilers at Panthers8 p.m., ABC

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Panthers hoping to avoid epic collapse against Oilers in Stanley Cup Final