The Cup Blog

A triumph for the NHL

sidotcom — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 05:53:00 +0000

1:52 AM ET, 6/18/06

A triumph for the NHL

Posted by Allan Muir

I can't be certain, but as I got into my car tonight after the game, I think I heard the Brass Bonanza, playing softly in the distance.

Might have been my mind playing tricks on me but, hey, whose head wasn't swirling after the 60-minute sprint of end-to-end drama that was Game 7? Give me a few more like this and I'll stop complaining about the overly long 82-game regular season. Promise.

What a triumph for the league. This was the New NHL at its finest: low scoring but plenty of scoring chances, speed through the middle and brutal collisions in the trenches, bright young stars and twilight-year veterans, all playing with the skill and heart that the heroes of our youth employed, no matter when that was.

It was one of those games that'll cause the converted to say, "If American audiences had tuned in tonight, they'd fall in love with hockey." That's crazy, of course -- as a whole, Americans are more likely to trade in their SUVs for Yugos with cloth seats and no A/C than give this sport the respect it deserves -- but, yes, the game was that good. And, to a lesser degree, so was the series.

The best moment of the night? Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour's unwillingness to let Gary Bettman's pandering speech to the locals delay his 17-year wait to touch the Cup even one second longer. (And didn't Bettman use a variation on that same speech in 2003 in Tampa and 1999 in Dallas?) This wasn't just some kid on Christmas morning -- Brind'Amour was the guy who Santa bypassed for all those years finally getting to taste the joy of waking up and finding presents under the tree.

The look on his face when he finally hoisted it over his head? Someone else will have to find the words. No matter which team you were cheering for, you've got to get caught up in emotion as raw as that. Guys who win the Cup over and over always say "this one" is sweeter than the first, but compare the faces of previous winners Mark Recchi and Aaron Ward to first timers like Brind'Amour and Glen Wesley and Peter Laviolette and you know that can't possibly be true.

Other moments from this series that I'll remember? How about Cam Ward's miraculous glove save late in the lost cause of Game 6? A perfectly executed three-on-one is as rare as a Don Cherry sighting at The Men's Wearhouse, but execute one the Oilers did, finishing it off with a tight snapper labeled for the yawning cage.

If Ward's concentration had slipped by that point and he had waved as it went by, no one would have thought anything of it. But there he was, snapping out that glove hand like Patrick Roy, another rookie who led his team to the Cup back in the day. And though the stop itself meant nothing in the scheme of the game, it was one of those defining plays that probably helped him capture the Conn Smythe.

And what of his counterpart, Jussi Markkanen? Eight weeks ago, the guy wasn't deemed dependable enough to dress as a backup to Dwayne Roloson. Tonight, after winning three games in the Stanley Cup Finals, he kept his team within a goal of capturing a fourth until the dying seconds. In the long line of unlikely Cup heroes, few can match this mutt's "pedigree."

How about the relentless physical play of Raffi Torres and Chris Pronger, culminating in the elimination of key forward Doug Weight in Game 5? Speaking of Pronger, what of his cool customer approach to the first successful penalty shot ever taken in the Finals in Game 1? And what about the Game 5 short-handed OT goal by Fernando Pisani, the surprising sniper who authored five winners over the course of the playoffs and was Edmonton's most consistent offensive threat throughout?

And then there was the shocking return of Erik Cole in Game 6. To see a man come back less than four months after suffering a broken neck, and not only contribute to the cause, but shrug off a couple of massive hits -- well, that gives you all the ammo you need for your next "which sport has the toughest athletes" debate.

Given time to reflect, I'm sure other moments will come to mind, but I'm happy with these off the top of my head for now. How about sharing some of yours?

Remarkable Markkanen

JR — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:03:00 +0000

2:15 PM ET, 6/19/06

Remarkable Markkanen

Posted by Michael Farber

The Oilers rally has been extraordinary, especially sinc it has been accomplished with Jussi Markkanen in goal. After acquiring Dwayne Roloson at the trading deadline, the Oilers rode their No. 1 until they slithered into the playoffs. Markkanen and Ty Conklin, who each had .880 save percentages during the regular season, were shunted aside, alternating as backups.

If Conklin had not been the Game 1 reserve the night that Roloson was injured - and not made the egregious puckhandling gaffe in the final minute that cost Edmonton a win - he might have gone from backup to backbone, like Markkanen. When asked three days ago, coach Craig MacTavish thought about it and finally said no, based on his superior work in practice, Markkanen probably would have been Plan B in any case. But that was far easier to say after watching the Finn ease himself into the series.

Markkanen still handles the puck as if it were loaded, but his puck-stopping after the Game 2 debacle has been first-rate. His shutout in Game 6 was his first since 2003, a feat that came so easily it seemed lost in the Oilers' crushing win. He could become the first injury replacement to win the Cup since the Oilers' Andy Moog in 1984 unless the Hurricanes find another way into Game 7. The obvious solution would be a glut of power play goals, which carried them through Game 5.

Obviously, the Oilers need to stay out of the penalty box, a matter of ratcheting up their smarts and discipline, but this is an element of the game that also confronts Carolina now. It hardy seemed to matter, given the rank incompetence of Edmonton's power play - at one point, a pathetic one-for-25 - but the Oilers have found the ability to get two-on-ones down low with the man-advantage. They scored three power play goals in nine chances in Game 6.

Even when they weren't scoring, the Oilers were throwing the puck around like they were the Harlem Globetrotters and the Carolina penalty-killers were the Washington Generals. It was amazing that point-man Chris Pronger didn't douse Hurricanes checker Kevyn Adams with a bucket of confetti.

When the Oilers landed Roloson for a first-round choice and conditional third rounder in March, MacTavish talked about the need for "one more save." If Markkanen can deliver it, one of the most improbable comebacks in the Stanley Cup final will be complete.

'Canes running out of chances

sidotcom — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:13:00 +0000

2:11 PM ET, 6/18/06

'Canes running out of chances

Posted by Allan Muir

After capturing Game 4 in Edmonton, the task for the Carolina Hurricanes was tantalizingly clear: take just one of the next three games and they would capture the Stanley Cup.

Two of those chances now have gone by the wayside. The first, a heartbreakingly close affair that was a late-third period post away from going their way. The second, one of the most lackluster efforts ever turned in outside of Team Canada in a bronze medal game.

Neither or those losses matter now, at least not in the sense of having diminished Carolina's ability to accomplish its goal. But there's just one more chance, the third chance, and it comes Monday night. The question is, do the Hurricanes have anything left at this point to take advantage of it?

Sometimes a team can take a little something out of a loss like that 4-0 shellacking, but it's not really a heartening spin on the events for the 'Canes to say that they can't possibly play any worse and that, momentum or not, Edmonton can't possibly play that flawlessly again.

But on the bright side, rebounding off a blowout like that can be a lot easier than coming off the emotional crushing of an OT nail-biter when the Cup is in the building. It allows a team to throw everything away, to start with a clean slate. It reminds them of what it took to get where they are in the first place.

It certainly worked that way for the Oilers after being humiliated in Game 2. That 5-0 blowout never really was a contest as Edmonton struggled to adjust to the presence of Jussi Markkanen in net, and the emotional weight of wondering whether its Cup dreams had ended with starter Dwayne Roloson's injury.

The difference, of course, is that the Oilers used the latter stages of that hide tanning to establish the physical presence that they've used since to turn the tide of the series in their favor. Carolina, a team that struggled to put together a solid shift in Game 6, failed even to put up a fight.

The Hurricanes were thwarted all night long by the ferocious forechecking of the Oilers. Time and again, the first pass out of the zone was disrupted. If it wasn't the first, it was the second. Bottled up or bogged down, Carolina simply couldn't establish the speed through the middle that defined its better games of the series.

Even the many penalties the 'Canes took as their frustration grew were pointless, failing to exact any sort of physical toll that might help produce a positive result in Game 7.

So it was a complete failure. Toss it away. The Hurricanes now have about 36 hours to find a way to change their mojo.

They burned one option by inserting Erik Cole into Game 6. Coming off a 45-game injury layoff, there was reason to hope for an emotional bump from his presence. That didn't happen and Cole, although active in his first few shifts, looked every bit like a player who'd gone nearly four months without game competition. You have to wonder what, if anything, he'll have to offer on Monday night.

The 'Canes still have the choice of changing their netminder. Cam Ward was not bad in Games 5 and 6, but he didn't help them win, either. Giving up four goals in back-to-back contests to a team that was on the ropes has to put his start in jeopardy. It would be a bold move to bring Martin Gerber off the bench for Game 7, but coach Peter Laviolette has rolled the dice before in these playoffs and won.

Or perhaps they leave things the way they are and look to the advantage they worked 82 games to earn. Thanks to home ice, the 'Canes have a few things going in their favor. History, for one. Of the 13 previous Finals that have gone to seven games, the home team has captured 11. The boisterous Raleigh crowd will help, as will the last line change, and that little edge in the faceoff circle.

But in return, Carolina faces all the pressure that falls on a team that earned three wins, but failed to cash in on their first two chances to finish off the Oilers.

And now, there's only one chance left.

The captain's crunch time

JR — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:48:00 +0000

1:03 PM ET, 6/19/06

The captain's crunch time

Posted by Michael Farber

If the Carolina Hurricanes are going to win the Stanley Cup tonight, they better play this one like it's a Game 7.

The margin for error dissipated when their nerves seemed to fail them at home in Game 5 and their nerve totally deserted them under a physical onslaught in Game 6 when they were run out of Edmonton's rink like some garage-league outfit. While the Hurricanes have home-ice advantage and fans louder than Don Cherry's sports jackets -"Given a choice between momentum and home ice, I'll take the ice," Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore said Sunday - they also have the weight of knowing that they have wilted under pressure.

If coach Peter Laviolette can't help the Hurricanes gather themselves in Raleigh, then redneck hockey is going to have a matching red face on Tuesday morning.

The burden also falls on Rod Brind'Amour, the Carolina captain who did not make it to a media session late Sunday afternoon because he wanted to be with his children on Father's Day. This might qualify him as a finalist for the NHL's Father of the Year, but certainly not the NHL's captain of the year. This is the one sport in which the captaincy means something more than calling heads or tails. In the NHL, the captain speaks for the team. He is its voice if not always its face. With Carolina suddenly on the brink, it was entirely appropriate for Brind'Amour to have devoted 20 minutes of his day to lay out the situation, especially after his indifferent play late in the series.

What Brind'Amour would have said - changes in attitudes, changes in platitudes - would have been less significant than the fact that his mouth actually moved. This is the kind of thing that, if the Oilers win tonight, goes down on what your high school teacher called a permanent record. (Indeed, Eric Lindros has not been exonerated since ducking out of a back door of the visitor's dressing room in Detroit before Game 4 of the 1997 final after Philadelphia coach Terry Murray described his team as being in a "choking situation." Left to respond in the absence of the captain, defenseman Eric Desjardins uttered one of the most famous lines in recent Stanley Cup history: "Aiy, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi.")

Brind'Amour was a lock for the Conn Smythe Trophy midway through the series, but he won't win it if the Oilers take Game 7. Indeed, if Brind'Amour does not regain his faceoff touch or pot a goal or at least set one up, there is an outside chance that Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger will be voted the playoff MVP even with a Hurricanes win.

Cole's return doesn't provide boost

sidotcom — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 04:13:00 +0000

12:14 AM ET, 6/18/06

Cole's return doesn't provide boost

Posted by Michael Farber

If you are going to throw out the hockey equivalent of Willis Reed onto the ice in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final, your team better not play like Lou Reed.

Erik Cole was the mystery guest, returning from a cloak-and-dagger trip to Denver on the off day for a CT scan on his broken neck that he sustained in early March and being inserted into the lineup in place of the injured Doug Weight, a surprise move that should have boosted the Carolina Hurricanes, inspired them to their best performance of the playoffs and enabled them to skate away with the Cup in Edmonton.

Instead they curiously were as flat as a tortilla, flat as the Earth pre-Galileo, flat as Saskatchewan. For all the good Cole did on the scoreboard -- and for a winger who hadn't played in 14 weeks, as Carolina coach Peter Laviolette noted after the game, he was one of the Hurricanes' better players -- he might as well have been Nat King Cole. Carolina got an impressive 18:31 from Cole -- even-strength, a ton of power-play time and even a dollop of penalty killing -- but a coaching move by Laviolette and a stubborn desire to play by Cole -- two things that could have smacked of genius -- suddenly, in light of the tepid performance by the Hurricanes, seemed more sour than smart.

The Hurricanes held a team meeting after the 4-0 rout. According to veteran defenseman Glen Wesley, who otherwise adopted a what-is-said-in-the-room stays-in-the-room Las Vegas approach, mentioned the word "embarrassed" had come up.

Not humiliated?

The Oilers outshot Carolina, 10-3, in the first period and had a 21-3 lead in shots with fewer than six minutes remaining in the second. But it wasn't merely the laughable disparity in shots. The game swung on the Oilers willingness to scrap for every loose puck, to win every foot race, to play a game with their legs and heart as well as their heads. If you need any further proof of the collective brain cramp suffered by the Hurricanes, they took a pair of too-many-men penalties among the nine power-play opportunities they afforded the Oilers. Earlier in the series, it might not have mattered. But Edmonton has started moving the puck quickly, scoring three power play goals and finally managing to get two-on-ones down low, looking dangerous with the man-advantage even when they didn't score.

Carolina center Kevyn Adams said he didn't think his team was uninspired, just off on a night when it squandered its remaining margin of error in the best-of-seven.

Certainly Cole's shocking appearance didn't rattle the Oilers, who bumped him around -- Ethan Moreau got a particularly solid check on him on the second shift of the game, a bit of headhunting, according to Cole -- and abused him about as much as anyone else in a white sweater. When they saw Cole take the warmup, the Oilers figured something was up. When Cole's name appeared on the greaseboard prior to the game in the Carolina lineup -- he played the right side with Eric Staal and Cory Stillman -- Edmonton defenseman Steve Staios said, "It was business as usual. We were just worried about our own game."

"We didn't even mention it," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "He looked to me like he was a threat out there. He wasn't tentative by any stretch of the imagination. He got some hits out there."

Cole, who said he didn't feel particularly strong in the third period, at least had one game to shake off the rust. Now he gets to rest, or at least as much rest as a five-hour plane ride across two time zones affords, before trying to win a trophy he said he has been dreaming of his entire life.

He wanted to return to the Cup chase, forcing the issue, badgering the coaches when Weight went down. He didn't owe the Hurricanes that.

But now the Hurricanes owe him at least the same honest effort that he gave to the team.

Carolina fans denied Cup celebration

sidotcom — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 05:58:00 +0000

1:55 AM ET, 6/15/06

Carolina fans denied Cup celebration

Posted by Allan Muir

Doesn't matter which horse you've got in this race, you have to feel sorry for the Hurricanes fans on hand for Game 5.

With Edmonton defender Steve Staios whistled off for tripping early in overtime -- further proof, if it was needed, of the NHL's commitment to calling the game correctly -- the RBC Center started rumbling, like a rocket ready for liftoff. Although the faithful couldn't see it, they surely sensed that the final coat of polish was being applied to the old silver mug somewhere in the bowels of the arena. With five skaters on the ice to Edmonton's four, it would soon be theirs.

As the puck dropped, some Caniacs held hands. Others peered through clasped fingers, almost unable to watch the drama unfolding in front of them. But all felt their hearts pounding, their nerves jangling electric, anticipating the impending arrival of the most perfect moment in sports: an overtime Stanley Cup clincher on home ice.

And why not? The Hurricanes had been ruthlessly efficient with the extra man during regulation, scoring three times on six chances. And in a series that had been defined, as much as anything, by the success of Carolina's power play against the Clousseau-esque bumbling of Edmonton, it seemed preordained that this game would be decided with an Oiler in the box.

It was. And surely, nothing could have been as deflating to that crowd as seeing Fernando Pisani's shorthanded laser find its mark over Cam Ward's left shoulder … except perhaps seeing the Cup placed lovingly back in its padded crate, its new claimant to be decided on another night, perhaps in another town.

Still, they were witness to a magnificent game, weren't they? Game 5 offered three lead changes, several well-rung posts, and as much grit and intensity as we've seen in these playoffs.

And if you're gonna lose, a true fan might say, at least they lost on a good goal rather than some fluky bounce. Pisani's breakaway, created off a soft breakout pass by Cory Stillman, was about as good as it gets, another in a remarkable string of goals authored by this unlikely hero.

Now, there are questions as the series heads back to Edmonton for Game 6. Certainly the health of Doug Weight and Aaron Ward, two key performers who missed significant stretches of action due to injuries suffered during the game, will be an issue. Both might play Saturday, but will their effectiveness be compromised?

Cam Ward, though not to blame on any of the four goals, no longer offers a clear advantage in the nets for the 'Canes. After getting blistered for five goals in Game 2, Jussi Markkanen has given his team a chance to win in three straight contests. Is he capable of rattling off at least one more such effort to get his team to Game 7?

And despite finally netting one on the power play Wednesday night, can Edmonton really hope to complete the comeback when they're being this badly outclassed on special teams?

Even with that last thought in mind, a loss like this means there won't be many happy Hurricanes fans this morning. Perhaps they can console themselves with one simple thought: Imagine how much sweeter that OT Cup clincher would be if it came in Game 7.

Oilers storm in, grab momentum

sidotcom — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 04:54:00 +0000

12:55 AM ET, 6/15/06

Oilers storm in, grab momentum

Posted by Michael Farber

The remnants of tropical storm Alberto ravaged Raleigh on Wednesday, flooding low lying areas, blocking routes to the rink, creating havoc in the Triangle and getting the starved-for-attention region some national recognition on the Weather Channel if not on NBC. If the morning deluge were any heavier Wednesday, the Carolina Hurricanes could have arrived for the morning skate by pontoon.

But just when things seemed bleakest -- and being one game away from elimination in the Stanley Cup final is as bleak as it gets -- the Edmonton Oilers espied a silver lining, deciding to change the name of Tropical Storm Alberto to Hurricane Alberta.

"So," said Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger said, who played 33:46 and was a plus-three, "it was nice to see that we were getting as little bit of love from the weather."

At 11:07 p.m. the storm was downgraded to a depression for almost 19,000 disappointed celebrants at a hockey rink in North Carolina.

So you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows after this particular natural disaster in Carolina. For the Hurricanes, blowing Game 5 at home, 4-3, in overtime, necessitates another five-hour plane ride, another game, or two, against an Oilers team that keeps finding ways to stay afloat.

This was the unlikeliest way to end it, however. There never had been a shorthanded overtime winner in the history of the Stanley Cup final, maybe because there never had been a penalty called in overtime before. (Just kidding. Sort of.) But was it any wonder that it would take fewer than four minutes of the first overtime game in the "new NHL" for a shorty. The winner was scored by Fernando Pisani, Edmonton's favorite son even before he lasered a shot over the glove of Carolina goalie Cam Ward at 3:31 of overtime, bailing out defenseman Steve Staios -- he had taken a tripping penalty -- and the entire city, province and perhaps country. There might not be anything like a free lunch in the Stanley Cup final, but Pisani will never have to buy dinner in Edmonton's Little Italy for the rest of his life. He can dine out on the play, a sleight-of-hand perpetrated on the estimable duo of Eric Staal and Cory Stillman, a pair of forwards who have been the Hurricanes' most dangerous offensive players.

(Like many teams, the Hurricanes use a forward on the point of the power play. The only defenseman Carolina had on the ice was Frantisek Kaberle, and he was nowhere in sight.)

The problem is Staal and Cory Stillman were playing pitty-pat with the puck: Staal to Stillman and up to Staal near the blueline, passes so languid that they had a "use by" date. Pisani, who had tipped home a Pronger point shot 16 seconds into the match to announce that the Oilers really meant business, swooped in on Staal, who uses one of the longest sticks in the NHL, and managed to deflect the puck. It wound up in Pisani's pants -- a foreign object, for sure -- and he shook it free, skating in with enough time to peek at Ward, who was cheating a tad to his blocker side. Then, whoosh.

"He made no mistake tonight, just ripped it through the back of the net," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said of Pisani's goal. "He's played incredibly well through these playoffs. [Pisani is tied with the Hurricanes' Rod Brind'Amour for the playoff lead with 12 goals.] That's really what's been absent through the first four games of the series, that timely scoring. He's at a level now where you expect it from Fernando, but prior to the last round or two, (we'd been getting scoring from) unexpected sources, and (recently) we haven't been finding those unexpected sources offensively. And when your power play isn't that proficient" -- the Oilers snapped a 1-for-25 streak when Ales Hemsky cashed in the Oilers' first man-advantage of the game -- "it's a tough combination to overcome. And tonight we got a power play goal, we got some goals from varied sources, and that's the reason we won the hockey game."

Sure. That and Hurricane Alberta.

Apparently Oilers and water do mix.

That's Oil, folks

JR — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:16:00 +0000

12:26 PM ET, 6/14/06

That's Oil, folks

Posted by Tom Layberger

An inconvenient truth of hockey life: one must seize a golden opportunity when it is presented, lest there be no tomorrow. The Oilers failed to capitalize in the opening period of Game 4, and tonight they venture into a region of Carolina that may as well be called the Devil's Triangle, although it is the home of the Hurricanes, a sea of red anxiously anticipating its first sip from the silver chalice.

While Edmonton may not disappear from the radar easily –- these Oilers are a little too resilient to do just that –- the Hurricanes are on the verge of becoming the sixth different winner to lay claim to Lord Stanley’s Cup in the last seven postseasons.

They will not disappoint.

On Monday night, Edmonton had its chance to narrow this series down to a best-of-three. But the Hurricanes played like they were on a larger mission, which is why it is difficult to imagine them letting what would be the greatest moment in franchise history slip away in front of a roaring faithful. (Can we please get a shot of some other joint besides Damon's?)

True, we have come to expect the unexpected in this two-month playoff journey. But tonight belongs to Rod Brind'Amour, Cory Stillman, Eric Staal, Cam Ward, and Glen Wesley (a former Hartford Whaler who will shed the label of having participated in the most playoff games among active players without winning the big prize), Bret Hedican, Doug Weight and all the 'Canes and their Caniac supporters.

What do you think? Do the Oilers, with their malfunctioning powerplay and backup goaltender, stand a chance tonight?

Staal's up and down game

sidotcom — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 05:16:00 +0000

1:15 AM ET, 6/15/06

Staal's up and down game

Posted by Yi-Wyn Yen

This was supposed to be Eric Staal's celebration. One win shy from clinching the Stanley Cup, the Carolina Hurricanes had hoped to end the series at the RBC Center. Instead of spraying champagne on his teammates, Staal stood in the locker room with his arms crossed and a glum expression as he talked about how the night "sucked."

It certainly didn't start that way. The 21-year-old center got off to a promising start when he scored Carolina's first goal early in the first period. Punching his fists into the plexiglass and hugging his teammates, Staal looked poised to win his first Stanley Cup. After taking some heat for being noticeably absent in the first three games of the series against Edmonton, Staal made a big splash in the first 60 minutes of Game 5 by scoring twice and assisting on all three of the Carolina Hurricanes' goals. Then overtime came.

Three and a half minutes into sudden death, Staal missed a pass from Cory Stillman and turned over the winning goal to the NHL's leading playoff scorer Fernando Pisani (tied with Rod Brind'Amour at 12 goals). Though Stillman admitted he made a "soft pass," Staal took the blame for allowing Pisani to score the first-ever overtime, shorthanded goal in Cup history. "I didn't really see him coming till the last second," said Staal. "It's my fault as well. I have got to make a better play than they did."

Despite scoring two goals in a playoff game for the first time, the 4-3 loss will give Staal plenty of time to think about all the things that went wrong on that long flight back to Edmonton for Game 6. This was only the second time the Hurricanes have allowed a shorthanded goal in the playoffs. After converting three goals on seven power-play opportunities, Carolina seemed to get a lucky break when Oilers' defenseman Steve Staios got thrown into the penalty box for tripping.

Instead, Pisani's breakaway gave the Oilers its third shorthanded goal for the postseason. "It hurts. We're in overtime. We have a chance to end this thing and we didn't," said Hurricanes center Kevyn Adams. "But we're up 3-2. We got to pull together in this locker room. ... We're going to have to go in there and play the game of our lives. Bottom line."

Oilers' top line is back

sidotcom — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:35:00 +0000

3:15 AM ET, 6/11/06

Oilers' top line is back

Posted by Yi-Wyn Yen

Edmonton Oiler Shawn Horcoff was parked in front of the net Saturday night when he finally caught a lucky break. After being denied twice by Carolina Hurricane goaltender Cam Ward in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, the first-line center tipped the puck with his stick off a Jarsolav Spacek slapshot to end a five-week scoring drought. With the addition of left wing Ryan Smyth's first goal in four games, the top linemates have not only revived their performance but have now put the Oilers back in the Stanley Cup series with a 2-1 win in Game 3. "We put pressure on ourselves to come out tonight and play a good game," Horcoff said. "We weren't looking for help from any other line. We wanted to come out and produce. That's our job."

Three nights ago, after losing the first two games in Raleigh, Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish criticized his most productive pairing (a combined 12 goals, 21 assists) for trying to "do too much" and be "difference makers." After skating around the ice like overexcited puppies in the first two games, MacTavish's top line returned to play more controlled and structured hockey. Horcoff's line delivered four points in Game 3 after combining for one through the first two. Horcoff's goal in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the first period was complimented by Smyth's rebound in the final minutes of the game. Right wing Ales Hemsky assisted on both his teammates' goals at Rexall Place. "Everybody knows the scrutiny the first line is under when you are not winning and to combine that not scoring," MacTavish said. "We were a little tight, and hopefully this win will help us loosen up offensively and we'll be able to capitalize better."

Horcoff and Smyth both struggled earlier when they were matched up against Rod Brind'Amour's line in the first two games. Unable to control that line offensively, MacTavish mulled over having Horcoff's line do battle against Brind'Amour's on a five-on-five for Game 3 and chose Michael Peca's line to take a stab at them.

That turned out to be pretty successful for the Oilers. While Horcoff took the opening faceoff against Brind'Amour, center Peca took the majority against Brind'Amour, who scored in the third period to tie the game. Horcoff, who accused Brind'Amour of cheating at faceoffs earlier during the series, won 11 of 18 faceoffs and the Carolina captain was held to just 10 of 27. "We were able to free [our top line] up a bit so they didn't have to face the Brind'Amour line," Peca said. "It seemed to suit them. They had great chances all throughout the entire game."

Horcoff scored against Carolina's fourth line and Smyth took advantage of Eric Staal's line. Creating chaos in front of the net in typical fashion, Smyth charged towards the net just as Ward swatted the puck away. "He went there and just had the composure in that situation to stand in there," MacTavish said. "A chip-in par. Vintage Ryan Smyth goal. It couldn't have been prettier in our estimation."

The Hurricanes had a different take. In his postgame news conference coach Peter Laviolette suggested the 11-year Oilers' veteran should have been penalized for goaltender interference. A league official said video replay showed Ward knocking the puck out, which bounced off Smyth. "Finally we got some breaks tonight," Smyth said. "Hopefully we can get some confidence and feed off of that."

Ward stacks up nicely

sidotcom — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 04:11:00 +0000

12:09 AM ET, 6/13/06

Ward stacks up nicely

Posted by Tom Layberger

Cam Ward did not emerge from an Ivy League institution, does not engage in conversation with the posts, nor does he rattle his stick against them. But are we witnessing a performance that bests the efforts of Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Ron Hextall when it comes to top playoff performances among rookie goaltenders -- at least since expansion?

Carolina coach Peter Laviolette tabbed Ward to start Game 3 of the opening series against Montreal and, though Martin Gerber would get into the win column during the conference finals, it has been Ward's show. He would lead his team past the Habs, what was a scorching Devils squad and the Sabres in a memorable seven-game series. With the exterior calmness of a librarian, he has taken his team to within one win of the franchise's first Stanley Cup. The series could easily go beyond a fifth game, but Ward's postseason numbers following Game 4, a contest in which he did not have to face much quality rubber, are fantastic at 14-6, 2.00 GAA with a .924 save percentage.

Keep in mind, we are referencing three different eras and stats that might not cut it today, which may have been very good years ago.

Here is a look how the other three rookies performed (two Cup winners) in their memorable inaugural postseasons and you decide where Ward stacks up:

Dryden, 1971: Coach Al MacNeil told veteran Gump Worsley to take a seat on the bench so he could insert the rookie and Cornell product Dryden, who had all of six games (all wins) to his credit at the end of that season.

The 23-year-old goalie shocked the hockey world with a superb, headline-grabbing effort in a seven-game opening series against an ultra-powerful Boston Bruins club that boasted the league's top four scorers (Esposito, Orr, Bucyk, Hodge, with each topping 100 points) and shattered several league records for offense. Boston also had home ice.

Dryden and the Canadiens then beat the North Stars in six before another electrifying seven-game series win in the Cup round against Chicago. Dryden led his club back from a 3-2 series deficit to beat Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and company. After the Habs fell behind 2-0 in Game 7, Dryden held the host Blackhawks off the board the rest of the way while his team roared back for a 3-2 win.

Playoff Stats: 12-8, 3.00 GAA, 0 SHO, SA% (not available)

Roy, 1986: He played 47 games as a rookie and established himself as the No. 1. So it was no surprise Doug Soetaert was the backup when the playoffs began. But it was surprising that a 20-year-old rookie was about the put the seventh-best team in the Eastern Conference on his back and carry it to a title.

Roy's playoff debut resulted in a 3-1 win over Boston. The Habs swept that best-of-five division semi before needing overtime of Game 7 to get past the pesky Whalers. Roy held Ron Francis and Hartford to two goals or less in five games.

Next up was a conference final engagement with the Rangers and their young goalie, John Vanbiesbrouck. A five-game series victory set the Stanley Cup finals stage for Roy, who limited the Blueshirts to nine goals while recording his first postseason shutout in Game 4.

In the finals against well-stocked (nine 20-goal scorers) Calgary and their rookie goalie Mike Vernon, Roy allowed a playoff-high five goals in Game 1. Not the least bit shaken, he then led Montreal to four straight wins, holding on for dear life against a Flames comeback attempt at the end of Game 5. Roy was awarded the Conn Smythe, the youngest winner of the award.

Playoff Stats: 15-5, 1.92 GAA, 1 SHO, .923 SV%

Hextall, 1987: The Flyers dealt Bob Froese and turned the keys over to the feisty 22-year-old Hexy. The puck-handling netminder delivered a league-best 37 wins in helping lead the Flyers to the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Philly hooked up with the sub-.500 division rival Rangers in the opening round. Hextall's playoff debut was a not-so-memorable 3-0 setback. But the Flyers took the series in six with the young goalie posting two shutouts, including the clincher.

Next up was another fierce rival, the Islanders, with their mix of great veterans (Trottier, Bossy, Potvin) that had seen better days and younger players such as Pat LaFontaine. Hextall experienced his first Game 7 and passed that test with a 5-1 win. The victory sent to Flyers into an conference final matchup with Montreal and Roy. Hextall allowed at least three goals in each game, but it was a series the black and orange claimed in six to set up a meeting for a memorable Cup battle with the mighty Oilers.

Edmonton had three of the league's top four scorers in the regular season (Gretzky, Kurri, Messier) and went 12-2 through the first three rounds, winning the tight games and not-so-tight games. The Oilers won the first two at home, but Hextall and the Flyers would turn the series into a seven-game affair before bowing. Hextall, who did not allow the Oilers more than four goals in any game while compiling a 3.09 GAA, became the fourth player from the Cup-losing team to win the Smythe.

Playoff Stats: 15-11, 2.77 GAA, 2 SHO, .908 SV%

Carolina's plumbers clogging Oilers

JR — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 18:25:00 +0000

2:41 PM ET, 6/9/06

Plumbers are clogging Oilers

Posted by Michael Farber

In this most unconventional of NHL seasons, a most unconventional group of defenseman has the Edmonton Oilers flummoxed.

The Carolina Hurricanes have no defenseman who is talented enough to play on the top pair of what usually is thought of a Stanley Cup contender. The nominal No. 1 pairing consists of a player, Aaron Ward, who was berated so often early in his career with Detroit that he could have legally changed his first name to Bleepin', and another, a Czech, Frantisek Kaberle, who isn't even the best defenseman in his own family. (His brother, Thomas, plays on the top pair for the Toronto Maple Leafs.)

The others logging big, effective minutes are Glen Wesley, whose claim to fame at this point in his career is having played about six trillion regular-season games without having won a Cup, Kristi Yamaguchi's husband (Bret Hedican), a Swede with a knack for the odd big goal (Nic Wallin), and a guy, Mike Commodore, who usually gets more attention for his Sideshow Bob mane than he does for his ability.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had a defense with a relatively slim portfolio for a Cup champion in 2004, but those guys were Hall of Famers compared to this collection of bearded No Names.

Like televised poker, the whole Carolina defense thing shouldn't work - but it has. Superbly. With forwards willing to get into shooting lanes and a defense that doesn't often physically engage the Oilers but through good positioning still manages to keep them away from goaltending wunderkind Cam Ward, Carolina has forged a 2-0 cushion in what figured to be a hyper-competitive final.

"The defensemen on this team are heavily relied on to help with the transition of the game, so you do derive some benefit from the forwards being successful," Aaron Ward said. "It's like an offensive line. When your quarterback acknowledges you once in a while, you're doing okay. We get a lot of positive feedback from our forwards."

Ward contines: "With (our defense), it's chemistry. It encapsulates our season. It's what this team is built on. We have the right mix. We have guys who are never going to be Norris Trophy candidates. That's about where we stand, and we know that. We're more or less plumbers -- just guys who are going to get the job done. We still need to be a little crisper with our passes. We had a delayed reaction (in Game 2)sometimes to where the puck should have gone. We need to be a little faster with our decision-making."

This was how it was supposed to work: Edmonton's quick if not overwhelmingly skilled forwards -- Ales Hemsky, excepted -- would get in on the forecheck, wreak havoc in Carolina's end, watch Hurricane defenseman cough up the puck the way a 10-year-old tabby hics up hairballs, and create bushels of goals from turnovers.

For the first two periods of Game 1, there was a modicum of truth to that assumption as both Ward and Commodore seemed shaky. But their jitters subsided, the three pairs started taking better care of the puck, and the Oilers' notion about abusing the Hurricanes defense proved to be as false as the teeth that winger Ryan Smyth will have implanted to replace the three he lost in Game 3 against San Jose.

"We said coming into this series that we had to be careful about underestimating them as a team," Oilers center Michael Peca said. "We also know what the keys are to exploit some of their weaknesses. Kaberle is a guy that's got some offense, but we showed in Game 1 that if we can get in on the forecheck, we can really make things happen for ourselves. We just didn't do that enough (in Game 2). We didn't recognize some of the matchups we had at times, didn't get pucks in and make them turn and get into the corners and play with the puck in the zone ... They've got some guys who are a little hesitant to get on the puck first and that allows us to get in and get pucks and make plays."

Edmonton has only intermittently pressured Kaberle, who is a hallmark of the new-style NHL defenseman. He is neither physically imposing nor a bulldozer around the crease, but he is a capable skater and an excellent puck-mover. Like the Flyers' Legion of Doom learned in the 1997 final against Detroit's defensive pairing of Nicklas Lidstrom and Larry Murphy, you can't really forecheck if the defensemen move the puck swiftly and expertly enough.

Oilers left winger Ryan Smyth praised Kaberle faintly, noting that the defenseman who had a power play goal and two assists in Game 2 has "an offensive upside" -- a polite way of saying that Edmonton remains suspicious of his defensive worth.

Either the Oilers have to quit fooling themselves or the underrated Carolina defense is going to have to quit fooling the rest of the hockey world.

Carolina's rental came up big

sidotcom — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 04:43:00 +0000

12:41 AM ET, 6/13/06

Carolina's rental came up big

Posted by Michael Farber

Not that it has been a while since Mark Recchi won a Stanley Cup, but last time he was skating with the hardware, one of the NHL rinks was The Garden.

The Garden of Eden.

Actually Recchi won the Cup when there was a Bush in the White House, the first Bush. This was back in the paleozoic, and pre-American Idol era of 1991 as Recchi was a key part of the Pittsburgh Penguins' powerhouse that won the first of their two Cups. A compact right winger, Recchi was called the Wrecking Ball on Penguins broadcasts while he put together a 40-goal, 113-point season.

He no longer wrecks. Recchi now succeeds by eroding, by letting his heart and his brain carry him rather than his legs.

Recchi scored the goal that put the Carolina Hurricanes one game away from their first Cup, a 2-1 win in Game 4 that would have seemed quaint -- the old NHL -- if not for the rash of penalties. Recchi drew a big one on Oilers stalwart defenseman Chris Pronger in the final minute of the second period, giving the Hurricanes a four-on-three advantage. If it looked more like a Recchi dive than a Pronger crosscheck, remember that the 38-year-old Recchi has been around this particular block. If he can take off the Oilers' best player in a critical situation -- it negated what would have become an Edmonton power play -- he will go deeper than Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt. (If you don't get the reference, ask your parents.)

Recchi is a Carolina rental, a Triangle time-share. He could have played out the string in Pittsburgh this season, a team that will go nowhere for a few years -- other, of course, to another city if the new arena isn't built in the city of three rivers. But at the trading deadline, he decided to waive his no-trade clause, leaving his wife and three children in her hometown, for a chance at the brass ring/silver Cup.

"All I know is how hard it is to get here," said Recchi, who had four goals and three assists in 20 regular-season games, his getting-to-know-you time in Raleigh. "This was what I was hoping for when I agreed to waive the no-trade. [The Penguins] had played them four times before so I had a pretty good idea of what they were like. They came at you in waves. They could skate. The way the game is played now, I thought they played a style that would succeed. They were also getting quality goaltending. At the time it was [Martin] Gerber, but the goaltending was solid. This was one of the Eastern [Conference] teams that I would have considered.

"It's never easy to make a decision like that. It meant moving away from my family for three months. Maybe more. But this could be my last opportunity to take a shot. And it's worked well so far."

The winning goal came when Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette, who dressed six centermen among his 12 forwards, threw out one of his mix-and-matches as he juggled on this Monday night like one of the circus acts on the Ed Sullivan Show. (Again, ask your parents.) In an effort to get Eric Staal going, Laviolette double shifted the phenom, often using him on a line with Cory Stillman, one of his regular wingers for most of the season. Stillman created the series-turning play with about four minutes left in the second period by pressuring Pronger, getting a stick on a clearing attempt from the corner. The puck popped in the air, landed at Staal's feet, and the 21-year-old centerman moved it to Recchi, who was camped to the right of Oilers goalie Jussi Markkanen. "All I had to do," Recchi said, "was put it in the open net." The goal travelled three feet, but you don't ask how far or even how many. (It was his seventh of the playoffs.) You ask when.

Staal's revival was a predictable validation of his 100-point regular season and solid playoffs. (He also assisted on Carolina's first-period goal that came 29 seconds after the Oilers scored, a goal that didn't quite make Rexall Place a library but certainly tamped down the rabid crowd). Stillman, who scored the first goal, has been a perfect fit no matter where Laviolette used him and Justin Williams, who hits and scores and kills penalties and does everything but fill the water bottles, continued to have the best under-the-radar playoffs than anyone in recent memory.

On March 9, he made an educated guess that the right place would be Carolina.

What's up with Staal?

sidotcom — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:31:00 +0000

5:29 PM ET, 6/11/06

What's up with Staal?

Posted by Michael Farber

So three games into the final, the question must be asked: Is Eric Staal's Stanley Cup half full or half empty?

Half full: Staal continues to lead playoff scoring with 21 points, tied with Hurricanes teammate Cory Stillman. Said Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish: "He's played well in this series. A very good transporter of the puck. He's maybe the guy we worry most about carrying the puck through the neutral zone, and we have to do a good job of slowing him down. Otherwise he's a handful for the defense. He can shoot the puck. He's physical. It's quite clear he's the whole package."

Half empty: At the local Mac's Milk stores in Edmonton, his mug is starting to show up on the side of cartons.

The burden is enormous, unfair. He is only one piece of the intriguing Carolina puzzle, one of three premier centermen -- Rod Brind'Amour and Doug Weight being the others -- who should be expected to carry the load. But the precocious Staal set the bar so high, it seems inevitable that at some point that bar would conk him on the noggin.

For almost three series, 21-year-old was the most dangerous forward in the playoffs, cobbling together a remarkable point streak of 15 games, among the longest in history. He set up Brind'Amour with a surgical cross-ice pass in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final against the Buffalo Sabres, a match in which the Hurricanes would rally from a 3-1 deficit. This would turn out to be the final game of the point streak. Staal petered out after that, going pointless in the final two games of the series. While he seemed to hit the wall late against the Sabres, the smart money was the weekend off before the final would revitalize him. But Staal, whose ice time is slipping, has not been any more dominant in the first three games against the Oilers than he was late in the Sabres series. He managed one assist in Game 1, another in Game 2 and a fat goose egg Saturday night when resilient Edmonton scratched its way back into the series, Ryan Smyth scoring the winner when Staal was on the ice. Perhaps the most notable statistic, one most indicative of the drop in the level of his play, is his shots. In the final, Staal's shot total has slipped from four to two to zero. (If the arithmetic progression continues, then we have a scoop.)

"He's a great player who's in a bit of a lull," Stillman said. "We're trying to get him through it. Everybody goes through a frustrating period. Maybe this is his. I wouldn't be surprised if he were the difference maker tomorrow night."

"Sometimes you go through little spells where the puck doesn't go in the net," teammate Matt Cullen said. "He's such a dominant player that any day he could take over a game. We have all the confidence in the world in him. A lot is made out of it because it's the Stanley Cup final, but by no means is he playing bad. We around him have to do a better job of getting him the puck. I don't think [he's hit a wall]. He's 21 and is excited as anyone here. If you hit a wall, it might be in the second or third series possibly. But now, it's like starting over."

The start has been stuttering even though Staal, who had a minus-1 rating through three games, has not had to deal with the top Oilers defensive pair, the towering Chris Pronger and captain Jason Smith -- except on the power play. "You just have to be aware of where he is on the ice," Pronger said. "He likes that off-side, one-timer, that kind of soft area over there."

The operative word might be soft. Staal doesn't play soft but his body is not going to threaten Brind'Amour, the NHL's resident fitness freak. Staal's problem might be nothing more profound -- yet no more solvable in the short term -- than a lack of jump for a player who packs only 210 pounds on a 6-foot-4 frame. Staal is not, in the lexicon of the sport, "hockey strong," probably playing at 25 pounds less than he will be when he fills out. The September-through-June season is a marathon for anyone, especially a player still growing into his body. Staal now has slogged through the exhibitions, 82 regular-season games, plus another 21 high-intensity playoff matches. His previous high was the 88 AHL regular-season and playoff matches in 2004-05.

"I still feel good out there," said Staal, one of a handful of Hurricane players who did not skate Sunday. "I can't get worried. It's been a great year, and it's not over yet. Obviously when you play over 100 games it's been a long year, but this isn't the time to be thinking about that. I'm not giving myself any excuses."

The slump would be a miserable coda for an otherwise stunning season. Staal, an 11-goal scorer as an NHL rookie, broke through with a 45-goal, 100 point season following the lockout year. He ranked sixth in the NHL in points, eighth in goals. He was included on the Canadian Olympic team taxi squad, confirmation he is in the van of the next generation of stars such as Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.

"There was one instance in Buffalo, late in the game, and the play was coming out of the Carolina end," MacTavish recounted. "And he swung behind the net, and [he] got one of those [Mark] Messier-type looks where [he] just demands the puck. 'Give me the puck and I am going to make a difference.' And he had an end-to-end rush that almost tied the game for Carolina. At that point I knew this guy was going to be quite a player."

He still is, but it would be a convenient time for Staal's star to twinkle.

Quick changes needed for Oilers

sidotcom — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 00:09:00 +0000

8:07 PM ET, 6/08/06

Quick changes needed for Oilers

Posted by Yi-Wyn Yen

After losing the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals to the Hurricanes, the Oilers returned to Rexall Place on Wednesday afternoon where they were greeted by dark, rain clouds and a fierce onslaught of reporters. After explaining for five minutes how the Oilers managed to get shut out 5-0 for the first time this postseason, center Michael Peca was thrown this doozey by a radio reporter. "Mike, you lost the Stanley Cup with Buffalo [in 1999], and another one is starting to slip away. What's going through your mind right now?" As if Peca didn't have enough to think about how his team will come back from a two-game deficit to avoid elimination, now he has to deal with really bad questions.

At the top of the Oilers' biggest hurdle is trying to figure out a way to get a puck past 22-year-old standout goaltender Cam Ward, who became the first rookie to post a shutout in the finals in two decades when he stopped all 25 attempts in Game 2. Forwards Shawn Horcoff, Ryan Smyth and Peca -- each with five goals in the postseason -– have been held scoreless in the finals with 13 shots among them. "You can't get to a case where you're trying to be too gung ho and prove how physical you can be how," he said. "It all needs to be done in control. Carolina is going to pick you apart if you do that kind of stuff."

Frustrated by Carolina's relentless shot blocking, which ranked first in the regular season, Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said he thought Horcoff and Smyth had tried too hard to become "difference makers" in Game 2. Forced to dump the puck behind the net or off the end boards, the forwards have found the red jerseys to be an unnerving obstacle in the offensive zone. "We haven't got a lot of breaks in the series in front of net," MacTavish said. "We have to do some things tactically different. We have to devise a different game plan to make sure that we're freeing up some space and some unobstructed shooting lanes that we can get the pucks to the net. Their forwards have done a real good job stopping us. They collapse down low in their defensive zone….On the occasion that the puck does get through, it's been in pretty tight to Cam and we're having a hard time getting it up and over him."

Since their top goaltender Dwayne Roloson went out with a knee injury, Edmonton has failed to score at even strength in the last four periods. "I don't know if anybody planted some seeds of doubt or built excuses because Dwayne's out now ... but the task at times is going to be more difficult," Peca said. While the team doesn't blame backup Jussi Markkanen, who allowed five goals in his first game in three months, they'll need to find a way to turn around their game plan quickly. "We got caught in Game 2 running out of position which left pretty big holes in our system," said Jarret Stoll. "I think San Jose and Anaheim were more physical than Carolina. We have to got to pick our spots and play smarter on the ice."

Langenbrunner pops the Rangers' bubble

sidotcom — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:56:00 +0000

12:03 AM ET, 4/27/06

Langenbrunner pops the Rangers' bubble

Posted by Brian Cazeneuve

This was the New York version of a transition game. Walk into Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night and the energy went through you. Sound had feel for about five minutes when the Rangers took the ice for their first home playoff game in nine years. Then Jaromir Jagr, the wounded superstar, skated onto the ice and you could almost hear Marv Albert scream "and here comes Willis," all over again. It was a great postseason-Garden moment that called to mind Willis Reed hobbling onto the court for the victorious Knicks in 1970 ... except that this moment fizzled in 68 seconds.

How fitting on a night that Jagr, No. 68, returned from an ugly arm injury -- he said it would take a miracle to get him into the lineup for Game 3 -- that 68 should be the magic number for the evening. That was all it took for Devils forward Jamie Langenbrunner to score the first goal of the evening and turn the Garden from Mardi Gras to morgue. "It kind of popped their bubble a bit," Langenbrunner said modestly after the game.

Yes, and for the next five minutes, that pop was the only pleasant sound emanating from the unforgiving folks in the MSG rafters. "One #$%^@# minute," a voice yelled. "Same old @#$%," declared another. For all the international flavor on this year's Rangers roster, the language was never quite as colorful during this upbeat, 100-point season as it was after 68 seconds Wednesday night. The invective directed at Sandis Ozolinsh, New York's slow, overmatched defenseman, is best left for the imagination.

"The first goal changed the whole mood of the game," Jagr said. "The fans were great, but we didn't help them. We didn't give them a chance to be a factor."

Eight minutes later, Patrik Elias increased the lead to 2-0 and the Devils were on their way to a 3-0 lead and a stranglehold on the series. Martin Brodeur made 25 saves to record his 21st career playoff shutout, but he didn't need to be at his best once the Rangers followed the lead of their fans. "This is a loud place," Brodeur said, "and I've seen the Rangers feed off that emotion for many years. The first goal really changed everything. It gave us a chance to play our game, clog the middle of the ice and counter their mistakes. You could feel the change in the building."

Why the Oilers won't be swept

sidotcom — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:18:00 +0000

8:15 PM ET, 6/09/06

Why the Oilers won't be swept

Posted by Yi-Wyn Yen

If someone gave me a loonie for every time I heard the Edmonton Oilers say "our backs are against the wall," I'd finally have enough to retire. I have yet to encounter any free cash coupons (or those free breakfast coupons for the media I keep hearing about), but a far easier way to make some spare change is to bet on the Oilers to win the next two games to even the series.

In the past six weeks, the underdog Oilers have upset top-ranked Detroit, San Jose and Anaheim to become the first eighth seed to make the Stanley Cup finals. When the Oilers lost goaltender Dwayne Roloson to a knee injury and subsequently, the opening two games of the finals to the Hurricanes, many hockey prognosticators started musing there was no need to head back to Raleigh for Game 5. Here are five reasons why the Oilers will not be swept:

-- The Oilers have bounced back from this predicament before. After losing their first two games against San Jose by one goal, the Oilers returned to Rexall Place, where they shifted the momentum with an overtime victory in Game 3 and then closed out the series with three straight wins. "We feel we win [on Saturday], we're going to win the Cup," says winger Ethan Moreau. "We're going to have that extra bit of energy, just like the San Jose series. It's very similar. We feel like we're close, and we just need that extra little push that hopefully our fans will provide for us."

-- Edmonton will capitalize on Hurricanes rookie goaltender Cam Ward making his debut at Rexall Place. Until Friday's afternoon practice, Ward, from nearby Sherwood Park, had only seen the view of the rink section 114 with his parents, Ken and Laurel. Said center Shawn Horcoff, "He's coming home and a lot of people are watching him. Hopefully, he's going to get the jitters a bit." Ward has held Edmonton to four goals in the last 63 shots, but coach Craig MacTavish, who has played on three Cup-winning teams, is confident his Oilers will be more effective at getting pucks through. After all, Edmonton slipped three goals past him in the opening 40 minutes. "There are a couple areas that we think he's vulnerable," MacTavish said.

-- An extra day off between Game 2 and Game 3 was critical for Edmonton. Both teams made the cross-country flight from Raleigh, N.C. to Edmonton, Alberta the morning after Game 2 and got an extra day of rest. For the Oilers, an extra 24 hours was essential to digest adjustments like clamping down on odd-man rushes and tailoring a more structured, technical game against Carolina (see Edmonton-Detroit series). Said defenseman Chris Pronger, "As players we kind of understand and are aware of some of the changes we need to make, but it is the coaches that are able to break it down and lay it out in simpler terms so we can understand it and correct things for Saturday."

-- Despite losing two games that included a 5-0 shutout, the Oilers will make this a close series. Though they won 5-4 in Game 1, the Hurricanes admitted that they had to rely heavily on Ward to make crucial saves. Edmonton nearly outshot Carolina twice as much in the first game, but it was a couple of flukey goals by Rod Brind'Amour, including scoring on an empty net, that made the difference. The 'Canes also got a lucky break in the first period of Game 2 when a puck bounced off Oilers' defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron's skate and into the net, which shifted momentum in their favor. "It'd be a different story if we felt outmatched or outclassed, but that's definitely not the case. We're a better team," Moreau said. "We feel we match up better than them in most aspects of the game."

-- Lastly, the Oilers will play better because they'll be wearing protective hazmat suits. If they were confused before about who they were playing, the Oilers now know what to expect. "Carolina is a little bit like carbon monoxide poisoning. You don't really sense it, but it's lethal," MacTavish said. "We put a lot of pressure on them and tried to steamroll them and impose our will and our game on them and they survived it, and thrived under it. So we have to do a few things a little differently for us to be successful. We're going to make those changes."

Just another winner for Brind'Amour

sidotcom — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:42:00 +0000

1:42 AM ET, 6/06/06

Just another winner for Brind'Amour

Posted by Kostya Kennedy

RALEIGH -- Sitting before the media, some 30 minutes after he'd won yet another playoff game for his Carolina Hurricanes, Rod Brind'Amour had the sober bearing of a man just off a day at the office. He didn't laugh or crack wise. He didn't exult. He scarcely raised his voice. And of the puck he had knocked into Edmonton's suddenly wide-open net with just 31 seconds left in the game, the winning goal, Brind'Amour said: "It wasn't much that I did."

That's four game-winners for Brind'Amour this playoff season, and it was second goal of the game. He's used to this.

He wore a black ballcap and a black jacket zipped to his collarbone, and he regarded everyone with those shiny, unwavering blue eyes. You don't forget Brind'Amour's face once you've studied it: Hard angles at the chin and cheek. A certain pallor. Too much nose. Now it's the face of a franchise closing hard on a Stanley Cup.

"We're fun to watch," said Brind'Amour of the Hurricanes, who are becoming expert in third-period comebacks, "but it's not the way you want to do it."

That the Hurricanes did it at all in Game 1 is because of where Brind'Amour was when Carolina trailed 3-0 late in the second period: standing determinedly in front of Edmonton's net whence he put back a rebound and gave his team life.

"If we go into that second intermission down 3-0 we've got nothing, nothing," said Carolina defenseman Aaron Ward at his locker after the game. "We'd be sitting there looking at each other cross-eyed. [Brind'Amour's] goal was the catalyst, it gave us something to build on."

Or as defenseman Frantisek Kaberle said: "Roddy's goal was the big one. When you're down two goals, you can stay in your game, keep playing the way you want to. You know that one more and you're right there."

Carolina is not a team of newbies, not with Doug Weight and Mark Recchi, Bret Hedican and Glen Wesley, in the locker room. And yet as this playoff season rolls on the Hurricanes are beginning to regard their captain with kind of awe. "He just does so many things so well," said Brind'Amour's linemate Justin Williams after the game. Added center Eric Staal: "He's our leader. He has been all year. And he will continue to be."

Brind'Amour is in his second Stanley Cup final and he remembers well what happened after the Hurricanes won Game 1 over Detroit in 2002. The Red Wings didn't like that, came back and won four straight.

So Brind'Amour keeps his keel even, and never seems to blink. In the press room, he answered the questions about his goal ("just a matter of flipping it into the net") and about the entertainment value of a 5-4 game decided in the final minute ("I don't know, I [was] playing it"). Then he looked around at everyone and said, "Thank you," before taking a pull off his water bottle and heading back to the locker room. Game 2 of the finals, and the 136th playoff game of his career was less than two days away.

Sabres keep hope alive

sidotcom — Wed, 31 May 2006 04:43:00 +0000

11:56 PM ET, 5/30/06

Sabres keep hope alive

Posted by Yi-Wyn Yen

Overcoming hardship is part of the lore of being a Buffalo Sabre. If a Sabre can survive Brett Hull’s controversial winning goal, bankruptcy and the dreariness of downtown Buffalo, losing half your defensemen to injuries deep in the playoffs is just a minor blip in Sabres history.

After a week in which many dismissed the team’s chances to advance to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in seven years, Buffalo staved off elimination by winning Game 6 in overtime 2-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes.

“When you know you don’t have much left in the tank and you left everything out there, there’s nothing more rewarding,” says defenseman Jay McKee. “It’s certainly a real sweet feeling.”

The win was especially satisfying for Sabres coach Lindy Ruff who has spent much of the series publicly railing on his forwards for their lackluster and unproductive performance in finishing shots on odd-man rushes. In danger of being eliminated in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,690 at HSBC Arena, captain Daniel Briere scored a power-play goal that hit goalie Cam Ward’s shoulder 4:22 minutes into OT.

“I knew if the shot could just get to Ward, we could jump on the rebound,” Briere said. “[Carolina] is so good at blocking shots. We have to find ways to get it past their defensemen because they challenge us.”

The Sabres had never trailed in the postseason until Carolina took a 3-2 lead in the series. Struggling to convert power-play opportunities despite being ranked third best in the league during the regular season, the Sabres went 230 minutes without a power-play goal before Briere’s game-winner in Game 6.

“We played so well [in the first period] that we knew we were going to get a bounce,” Briere said. “I knew we were going to find a way to get it done.”

With their brilliant comeback, the tough-luck Sabres have shifted the pressure back to favored team.

“I thought this was the road that we were supposed to go down, but it’s not,” said Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette, who complained with the referees’ decision to not call a hook on defenseman Bret Hedican and right wing Justin Williams on the OT penalty kill. “Our backs are up against the wall, and we have a chance to show up and play.”

'Canes guardedly optimistic up 2-0

sidotcom — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:24:00 +0000

1:30 AM ET, 6/08/06

'Canes guardedly optimistic up 2-0

Posted by Yi-Wyn Yen

Eric Staal arrived at the RBC Center for Game 2 in a dark black suit driving his silver BMW 700 series sedan. As a middle-aged fan wearing a Carolina jersey chased after his luxury sedan, the 21-year-old Hurricanes center, with one hand on the steering wheel, made a right turn into the players' parking lot.

Three hours later, Staal was weaving through traffic down the center lane of the rink with just as much confidence when he coolly set up the game-winning goal for Andrew Ladd, the youngest player in the finals. Says Staal, who leads the league with 22 points, "Laddie was a little ahead of me when I picked up [the puck], so I had to give it to him. It was a big goal for him."

With a 5-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2, the Hurricanes are now just two shy from claiming the Stanley Cup, but they are far from sitting comfortably in the driver's seat. "If we breathe easy, we're going to be in a situation where San Jose was," said Hurricanes defenseman Aaron Ward. "The worst mistake you make is underestimate your opponent. I'm not saying San Jose did, but there is an obvious potential."

The Sharks lost in six games after winning the first two to Edmonton in the Western semifinals, and the Hurricanes are fully aware that the plucky Oilers can repeat a sweep again. Carolina dominated all three periods by stumping the Oilers with 24 blocked shots and relying on superb goaltending of 22-year-old Cam Ward, who stopped 25 shots to put him second behind Anaheim's Ilya Bryzgalov for the most shutouts in the postseason (two).

Oilers' backup Jussi Markkanen replaced Dwayne Roloson, who is out with a knee injury. Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said he had full confidence in his backup, who stopped 21 of 26 shots in his first game in three months and didn't get much help from his team that took nine sloppy penalties.

The Hurricanes, though, were cautious of reading too much into the victory as they prepared to fly out to Edmonton on Thursday morning for Game 3. Said veteran Aaron Ward, "It'll be an interesting situation for the young guys [to receive their] christening at Rexall Center. It's pretty crazy. If you take the perspective of the situation, they've got an entire country behind them." Added center Doug Weight, "We know it's going to be a close game on Saturday. We'll have to make a commitment on every shift when we drop the puck."

The Oilers are looking to become the first Canadian team in 13 years to win the Cup, and the meaning isn't lost on a team that hasn't claimed that title since 1990.

"We're not particularly interested in historical percentages on the what the stats are being down two," said Oilers center Michael Peca. "We're the only ones to have been in this spot, so we're going to leave the baggage in the locker room and get prepared the next two days for a home game." And that is what the Hurricanes fear most.

Time for Oilers' stars to step up

sidotcom — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 19:26:00 +0000

3:26 PM ET, 6/10/06

Time for Oilers' stars to step up

Posted by Allan Muir

A team travels a long, difficult road to get the Finals, but once they arrive, there's no real trick to winning the Stanley Cup. It all comes down to everyone doing his part.

The Hurricanes are up 2-0 entering tonight's pivotal Game 3 because all hands are contributing. The work they've put in, especially on special teams, has been textbook, forcing the Oilers to react to the 'Canes rather than play their own game.

And in the course of playing a more complete team game, Carolina's big players are coming up big.

Rod Brind'Amour has been like a highlight reel version of himself, scoring crucial goals and winning so many faceoffs that they've practically become a gimme. The defense may look like a Toyota, but it performs like a Lexus. Cam Ward's been doing his best Grant Fuhr impression. Ray Whitney and Mark Recchi and Cory Stillman all are playing like they've been here before, and they know what it takes.

Conversely, the Oilers are down because, outside of all-world defender Chris Pronger, they've gotten little of substance from their best players.

It's not for lack of effort. You can make important contributions all over the ice, but they still pick a winner based on who scores the most goals. And right now, Edmonton has far too many players who aren't finishing -- or worse, aren't getting into a position to get shots past the block-happy Hurricanes defenders.

The most worrisome aspect for Edmonton coach Craig McTavish is that the top-six power outage hasn't been limited to this series. The trend was established in the Western Conference Finals against Anaheim.

First line center Shawn Horcoff has just three assists in his last seven games. He's pointless in this series and is a staggering minus-five.

Ryan Smyth's been as abrasive in the trenches as Ann Coulter, but he has just one goal in his last eight games, and is a minus-three against the 'Canes. Ales Hemsky, Edmonton's most talented offensive weapon, has matched Smyth's string of futility with two markers in nine games. While he did notch a big goal in Game 1, he was conspicuous by his absence in Game 2.

The other key members of Edmonton forward corps -- Jarrett Stoll, Radek Dvorak and Sergei Samsonov -- have chipped in with a measly five assists over the past six games --and four of those were authored by Samsonov.

Through the Anaheim series, their failings were glossed over by the superlative efforts of Pronger and the support staff. Fernando Pisani carried the mail through three rounds, but a team that relies on a third liner to light the lamp in the Finals is not a team capable of competing.

Say what you want about the importance of Jussi Markkanen and the need for him to steal one tonight. He can stop 58 of 60, but it won't matter without offensive support. If the Oilers want to prove they belong in these Finals with the Hurricanes, it's time for the big boys up front to deliver.

Oilers' woes more than goaltending

sidotcom — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:03:00 +0000

12:00 AM ET, 6/08/06

Oilers' woes more than goaltending

Posted by Michael Farber

There are all kinds of formulas for winning the Stanley Cup, but using all three goaltenders on your roster in the first two games probably isn't one of them.

Faced with a choice that was goaltending equivalent of Tastes Great or Less Filling after losing starter Dwayne Roloson for the series late in Game 1 -- either Ty Conklin or Jussi Markkanen, both with egregious .880 save percentages during the regular season -- Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish decided on Less Filling, the sometimes feckless Finn. After being lit up for five in Game 2 of the final by the determined Carolina Hurricanes, Markkanen might be known as More Filling. At least that's what the Hurricanes were doing to the net.

And the startling thing on a night when the Oilers didn't merely lose but started running around like a fourth graders at recess is that Markkanen fit right in -- no better or worse than the team in front of him.

Indeed, MacTavish could have used both Markkanen and Conklin in net at the same time. It hardly would have mattered.

"I thought [Markkanen] played well," said Oilers winger Ryan Smyth. "He kept us in the game early. For a guy who hasn't played in a while" -- Markkanen last played March 1 but hadn't won since Jan. 25 -- "he did well. No need to put the blame on him."

Fair enough. Sure, his save percentage for his first playoff start wound up as .808 -- five goals on 26 shots in the 5-0 rout -- but he was as much the victim as he was victimized by a team that simply melted. After some promising moments in the first period, when the determined Hurricanes were forced to block 11 shots, the Oilers simply never were in the game. They played river hockey for the first eight minutes, allowing three two-on-ones, the puck finding the net when Andrew Ladd banked one in off Edmonton defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who is killing his goalies. (Remember it was Bergeron who shoved Ladd into Roloson with fewer than six minutes remaining in the third period of Game 1 and knocking the goalie out with a knee in jury, which ultimately put the Oilers in this predicament. If Carolina wins, Bergeron might get an extra playoff share.)

They could not stay out of the penalty box and when they were on the penalty kill, they could not maintain the integrity of their four-man box, allowing Carolina three power play goals in 10 opportunities. As MacTavish noted, there were some truly quirky bounces on the Carolina goals, but Markkanen left some greasy rebounds, failing to corral Nic Wallin's shot that eventually led to Cory Stillman flipping in the puck with a few seconds left in the second period, a goal that seemed to crush the Oilers' spirit and wreck their discipline.

"I thought we were being too impatient," Oilers center Michael Peca said. "We got caught in the river game they like to play, and that opens us up to being vulnerable. They took advantage of that. The last thing you need to do is to continue to give a team the opportunity to score on a guy who hasn't played in four months."

Now there is nowhere for MacTavish to go, other than to Edmonton for Game 3 Saturday. He is committed to Markkanen for the rest of the series, hoping that the goalie's confidence level -- one reason he chose Markkanen over Conklin, who made the puck-handling gaffe that resulted in Carolina's last-minute winner in Game 1 -- improves. If Markkanen's indifferent play were a question of nerves, MacTavish suggested, it would have been evidenced in the way he handled the puck. He didn't handle it badly. And he certainly swept it out of his net with aplomb.

If Edmonton is going to rebound in this series, it has to make the goaltender irrelevant. The Oilers need to bubblewrap Markkanen, get in even more shooting lanes to block shots, play the way they did when their pre-Roloson netminding was left to the shaky troika of Markkanen, Conklin and Mike Morrison (traded at the deadline to Ottawa). The Oilers have to avoid penalties, bang the Carolina defense on the forecheck, tighten up in the neutral zone.

MacTavish has a terrific selling job in the next 72 hours, getting his team to ignore that it has been outscored 10-1 in the series since late in the second period of Game 1 and that its injured bulwark goalie, now cleanly shorn, his playoff beard as much as a memory as his generally solid postseason play, has yielded to a backup goalie who was one reason eighth-seeded Oilers scuffled just to get into the playoffs.

If you're an Oilers fan, it's enough to make you cry into your (lite) beer.

Hurricane hoo-doo

JR — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:59:00 +0000

4:13 PM ET, 6/06/06

Hurricane hoo doo

Posted by Michael Farber

If it happens once, it is an event.

If it happens twice, it is a pattern.

If it happens three times - and you think Arlo Guthrie knew what he was singing about a few generations ago in Alice's Restaurant - it is a conspiracy. And if it happens to almost every team that you play and you are the Carolina Hurricanes, you have an even better chance of winning the Stanley Cup.

Maybe hydra-headed Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore has a voodoo doll and keeps sticking pins in it before each series. Maybe it is nothing more than the basic attrition of a sport that exacts an enormous physical toll, a two-month marathon of pain. But the knee injury that Edmonton Oilers goaltender Dwayne Roloson sustained in the third period in Game 1 is only the latest in a series of misfortunes to befall the opponents of a team that might be making its own luck, but certainly seems to be getting a nudge from the hockey gods.

Not that the noble Hurricanes are into Schadenfreude in a big way - "You don't want to see anyone hurt," Commodore said -- but this is getting ridiculous. To recap:

After dropping the first two games at home in the first round, Justin Williams inadvertently gets his stick blade under the visor of Canadiens captain Saku Koivu in Game 3 in Montreal. Koivu sustains a serious eye injury, one that still is not completely healed. The Canadiens, as shallow as Jessica Simpson, have to move Radek Bonk to center on the first line and a nascent Stanley Cup bid by the NHL's heritage franchise collapses. Carolina moves on in six games.

In the third round, Carolina faces a depleted Buffalo defense. Dimitri Kalinin is out for the entire series, but then Henrik Tallinder, the Sabres most effective blueliner, breaks his arm on a seemingly harmless play. The veteran Teppo Numminen, who has pulled his groin in Game 1, returns for four-plus minutes in Game 6, aggravates the injury, then misses Game 7.

Okay, stuff happens. But then bulwark defenseman Jay McKee develops a weird infection in his foot and misses the seventh game, forcing the Sabres to employ what amounts to four minor-leaguers. The Sabres are like the Black Knight chasing Monty Python's holy grail: no matter what, it's only a flesh wound. Carolina trails 2-1 after two periods, but the natural order of the hockey universe is restored in the third period in Game 7. The Hurricanes advance.

Now Roloson goes down, the victim of a well-intentioned shove by Oilers defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who was trying to prevent Andrew Ladd from scoring and knocked the onrushing forward into his netminder. These kinds of plays happen to goaltenders once every few games. As Roloson stayed down, some of the Hurricanes thought he was just trying to buy some time. In fact, he had strained his right medial collateral ligament and hyperextended his elbow, spelling the end of his season.

Ty Conklin subbed the final six minutes, making two saves and then handling a puck behind the net as if he should have been wearing a hazmat suit, coughing it up to Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour for the winning goal with about a half-minute left.

For the rest of the series, coach Craig MacTavish can choose between Conklin and Jussi Markkanen, both of whom auditioned for the No. 1 job on Tuesday during practice. (If this were American Idol, both were playing the William Hung role although maybe nothing should be read into any of those pucks whizzing by.)

MacTavish says he has two NHL goaltenders "who've done it on the big stage before," but goaltending was an issue all season until the acquisition of Roloson just prior to the trade deadline. General manager Kevin Lowe kept talking about needing "one more save," exactly what Roloson provided down the stretch even if he was not particularly effective in Game 1 against Carolina. (He yielded a particularly bad rebound on Brind'Amour's first goal, which cued the comeback.) But given the 2005-06 track record and the recent inactivity of Markkanen and Conklin, the goaltending picture in Edmonton certainly isn't a Rembrandt.

The Hurricanes -- forced to play without dynamic left winger Erik Cole for the playoffs after Brooks Orpik's hit from behind broke Cole's neck in March -- bristled at the notion of luck or destiny after their practice. They have connected the injury dots of their playoff foils -- "Yeah, we've talked about it in here," fourth-liner Craig Adams said -- but all parrot the line that it hardly matters who they play than how they play.

"It doesn't matter who they have in nets (in Game 2)," veteran right wing Mark Recchi said. "If we play the same way as we did in the first game, we're going to get beat."

Maybe. But if you need a director for the Stanley Cup highlight film, definitely check on Oliver Stone's availability.

Gotta see it to believe it

sidotcom — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 05:51:00 +0000

12:44 AM ET, 6/07/06

Gotta see it to believe it

Posted by Tom Layberger

A couple of very casual hockey fans I know, the type that were not bothered in the least by last season’s lockout and whose tuning in goes from infrequent in the regular season to periodic in the playoffs, commented generally on how exciting the playoff games they watched have been and, specifically, how much they enjoyed Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. Suddenly, they said, they can’t wait until Wednesday’s Game 2.

Of course, no small byproduct of the lockout was the type of play they witnessed Monday night. But the bottom line is that their reaction can only be music to the ears of the suits on Avenue of the Americas in midtown Manhattan.

Game 1 featured some things that we generally have not seen in a decade or so of Stanley Cup rounds, not the least of which was a three-goal lead more than halfway through the game that went by the boards. There were a few other things that took place that can only help the overall product and keep the casuals tuned in along with the diehards:

• A third-period comeback in which the winning team scored four goals. In only nine of the previous 38 Stanley Cup finals contests had a team scored as many as four goals in a game, forget a period.

• The teams combining for nine goals. Only once in the last 31 games had the lamp been lit as many times.

• The novelty of a goaltender allowing four goals and posting the win. Cam Ward was eight years of age the last time it happened in 1992 when Tom Barrasso and the Penguins nipped the Blackhawks 6-5 in the Cup-clinching Game 4.

• A successful penalty shot. It was something that had never happened before in the finals and it came from a player (Chris Pronger) that never attempted one in his career.

It all made for a great game loaded with storylines. Unfortunately, one of them was the injury suffered by Dwayne Roloson, who was knocked out before he could complete his first game in a Cup round. But like the Hurricanes, the Oilers are a resilient team that will continue to dip deep.

Sure, larger markets and a larger television audience would be desirable. But the league has to take what it can get and, to date, it cannot ask for much better this spring as far as the caliber of play.

The much broader and dependable lens of NBC (OLN going off the air in the entire Philly region for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final was unpardonable) picks up the series starting with Game 3 for what could be some serious primetime viewing. And maybe the peacock can pick up a few more casual fans along the way.

Ghosts of the WHA

JR — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:39:00 +0000

3:57 PM ET, 6/05/06

Ghosts of the WHA

Posted by Michael Farber

If the NHL really had soul, it would not just award the 113-year old Stanley Cup at the end of Carolina-Edmonton final.

It would also present the Avco Cup.

For those of you who came in late, the Avco Cup, named for an insurance company, was awarded to the champion of the World Hockey Association - the Rebel League, as Vancouver Province columnist Ed Willes dubbed it in his terrific, anecdotal 2004 book.

The start-up league of the 1970s - which enticed Bobby Hull to Winnipeg from Chicago, gave jobs to top players like Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg and housed more oddballs and reprobates than anyone could imagine. It lasted until 1979 when four of its teams were folded into the NHL, a merger of unequals. Of the four WHA teams - Edmonton, Hartford, Winnipeg and Quebec - the Oilers are the only one that has managed to stay in the same city. The Hurricanes are, of course, progeny of the New England/Hartford Whalers, making this the first Stanley Cup final pairing grounded in that wild and wacky time when hockey was more fun than it was corporate.

Although the Oilers and Hurricanes did not meet during the 2005-06 regular season, their forefathers actually played two playoff series in the WHA. In 1978, the Whalers beat the Oilers, four games to one, in the first round. The following year the Oilers won a seven-game semifinal against the Whalers, the coming-out party for someone you might have heard about: Wayne Gretzky. The Great One had 15 points in the series. But it wasn't only the playoffs that created a bizarre rivalry between these franchises.

During one star-crossed season when some WHA teams folded - not an uncommon occurrence in the seat-of-your-pants league - the Whalers and Oilers played each other more than 20 times, Skip Cunningham, the Hurricanes equipment manager, told me at the morning skate. "Our arch-rivals," he said. "For a rival team, that's a pretty good distance."

The games might not have all been memorable, but the travel certainly was. These were basically 13-hour days. The flights, all commercial, might go from Hartford/Springfield to Buffalo or Chicago, then to Minneapolis, then to Winnipeg and finally on to Edmonton. Middle Seats 'R Us.

"Basically there was two requests," Cunningham said. "That Gordie Howe had an aisle seat and Davey Keon had a window seat. For the rest of the boys, it was get there early and try to get something decent. Six across wasn't really pretty. Not all this first-class flights and gourmet meals that the guys have now. The planes weren't at your beck-and-call, ready to go when you were."

While Hartford would become the home of Howe, it would also become musically prominent within the hockey world for two reasons. One was the Whalers' theme song, a pernicious ditty called Brass Bonanza, which is to the musical canon what fingernails are to a chalkboard. When asked Sunday what he remembered from his days in Hartford, Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger, a former No. 1 draft choice of the Whalers, said, "Brass Bonanza." The players uniformly hated the song, played after every Whalers goal and before every period, but still it stuck in some crevice of the brain, wrapping itself around the axons like ivy.

Cunningham can't recall if the Whalers used the song when they played their first two seasons in Boston, but it definitely was the rage in Hartford. It actually was played at some point during the New Jersey series; Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos showed great restraint by not breaking the furniture in his suite.

The other was anthem singer Tony Harrington. He used to do a lounge-singer version of the Star-Spangled banner, unique to the game. The only thing that was missing from his rendition was a piano and a brandy snifter so players could shove dollar bills in it after the final note. Maybe it wasn't Roger Doucet illuminating the Montreal Forum with his voice, but Harrington in Hartford had unmistakable style.

Mark Messier's retirement was the NHL's last playing link to the WHA, but there are enough people around - CBC commentator Harry Neale, the coach of the Whalers team that beat Edmonton in 1978, and Sportsnet analyst John Garrett, the losing goalie in the seven-game series against the Oilers, to name two - that the Rebel League spirit looms over this improbable series. The very least NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman can do is round up the Avco Cup wherever it may be - there are rumors that there are actually three of the trophies - and hand it over to the winning team. For old, crazy time’s sake.