But even that mockery paled to the shame Tomas Nosek must have felt as he later exited the box to the sounds of “La Bamba,” the soundtrack to the Edmonton Oilers’ 4-3 comeback overtime victory in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

For it wasn’t the 31 frozen seconds remaining in the fourth period that were of concern to the most nervous man in a jam-packed Rogers Place. It was the 48 frozen seconds left to serve on the fourth-line Florida Panthers‘ delay-of-game penalty.

Whistle-happy early, the officials tucked their instruments and had every intention of letting these two giants settle the excellent opening game of their best-of-seven at evens once the contest bled past the 60-minute mark.

But poor Nosek’s botched D-zone clear — a puck sailed over glass without much pressure, the most egregious unforced error west of Roland Garros — gave them no choice but to unleash Edmonton’s two-headed dragon on the power-play.

Connor McDavid fed Leon Draisaitl. Florida’s aggressive penalty kill got overly so, and a couple of GOATS took advantage. And poor Nosek was left wearing the horns.

“We’ll just make sure he doesn’t eat alone tonight,” Florida coach Paul Maurice empathized. “He’s got lots of people sitting at his table and reminding him how good he’s been. It’s going to be tough. He’s going to eat that one for a day.

“But from his penalty kill to how that line really changed the flow of the Toronto series, we’ll remind of him that a whole bunch of times before the puck drops.”

When the Panthers were down 0-2 in Round 2 to the Maple Leafs, Maurice tapped Nosek to centre a completely refreshed fourth line that clicked fast, cashed in, and swung momentum the Panthers’ way.

“That line came in and changed everything for us. We’re not here without Tomas Nosek. It’s a tough break,” Maurice said.

Hey, the Oilers might not be here — up 1-0, three wins from glory — without Nosek either.

When you get two teams this confident and structured, this opportunistic and relentless, the results can pivot on a single mistake.

A dump-out flung too high. A failed coach’s challenge. A high stick. An errant pass.

“That stuff happens in the game of hockey. You know, it’s a bad break,” Brad Marchand said. “He’s been a great player for us all year, all playoffs. So, yeah, we have his back on that one.”

(Nosek himself did not speak postgame.)

It figures that something strange and unexpected would spoil the streak.

Since Maurice took over as coach, Florida had been a pristine 31-0 in the playoffs when holding a lead after the first or second period. The Panthers led 3-1 before the Oilers pushed back and wrangled this one from the Cats’ grasp.

“Florida has closed out games extremely well,” McDavid acknowledged. “We put ourselves in a tough spot.”

The Panthers, though, did their part in allowing the Oilers to slither out of that spot. The visitors mustered just two shots on net in a tilted third period. They let the crowd back in.

“Gotta be a little bit better making plays under pressure, getting our legs going a little bit more,” Marchand said. “We got caught just kind of flipping pucks, and they’d regroup and come back at us.”

The Panthers live by a choose-your-own-adventure motto: You either win or you learn.

So, what’s the big lesson from Game 1?

“Just not let up. Don’t sit back,” said Sam Bennett, who scored twice.

“We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead. And for whatever reason, we sat back a little bit.”

Yes, Florida rallied from a 0-2 deficit against Toronto, but McDavid and Draisaitl — healthy and hungry — hardly look like the kind of guys you want to spot two games.

“It has potential to be just a spectacular seven-gamer, up and down the ice. It’s still fast. There isn’t any casualness, and there’s no BS in either team’s game. The pucks go deep that are supposed to go deep,” Maurice said.

“I think we had one all night we didn’t like, maybe two all night that we didn’t like our decision of the line. They didn’t fool around with it, either. It was honest. It was hard. It was fast, and it was tight.”

Which is precisely why these teams can ill afford a careless gaffe.

“It’s a game of mistakes and who can capitalize on more. Two great teams out there competing hard,” Marchand said. “It’s gonna be a fun series.”

And a nightmare for the humbled few who serve up the other team’s good times.

• If a pending UFA centre like Brock Nelson, who’s 33, rakes $7.5 million on his extension in Colorado after scoring zero playoff goals, how much does a UFA centre like Bennett, 28, command after 12 playoff goals and counting?

• Plucked off waivers by Edmonton, Kasperi Kapanen says he believes this might be his last shot at sticking in the NHL. He was fantastic Wednesday, notching a pair of assists and nearly ending the thing on a clean overtime break.

“We took a chance on him,” Draisaitl said, “and it’s paid off big time for us.”

• Maurice cheers for three Western Conference teams: the Canucks because of Jim Rutherford, the Stars because of Pete DeBoer, and the Jets because of Winnipeg.

“If you’re gonna lose, lose to one of those three groups,” explains Maurice, who memorably wished a Cup for Winnipeg following last year’s championship. “Now, my cheering for the team hasn’t done it much good, it seems. But they’ve got the right story in Winnipeg for the National Hockey League and what’s right about the game.

“You saw it in the connection with Mark Scheifele and what he did to play in that game, the connection to his brothers. But that’s not just a one-off. That starts at the top of that organization, and it fits very well with the families there. They won the Presidents’ Trophy, and the Florida Panthers did a couple years before they got to the final. So, I think they’re right there.”

•  Fun fact: Marchand’s dad, Kevin, and Evander Kane’s dad, Perry, were Dartmouth Arrows teammates back in 1981 in Nova Scotia’s Metro Valley Hockey League.

Watching a young Kane win 2009 World Junior Gold together, Kevin told Brad the story.

“I heard a lot of stories about my dad growing up,” Marchand smiles. “He played like I did. He was a lot tougher. He was very tough growing up and played a very hard game.”

• Corey Perry — at 40, the oldest player in the final — intends to return for a 21st season in 2025-26. Partly because of son Griffin’s love for the game.

“He knows everybody in the league. He knows what positions they play, who’s leading scorer, all the things because he’s watching the highlights every morning and playing mini-sticks before school,” Perry says.

“This is why I’m still playing, too, is to have him have an opportunity to touch the Stanley Cup. It’s something I want to give him.”