6/12 Nhl Today

[Derek21]

Edmonton looks to even up the best-of-seven Cup Final series:

THE NHL TODAY - MONDAY, JUNE 12

THE BIG STORIES

-- 'CANES ALREADY WINNERS IN FANS' HEARTS

-- OILERS' SMYTH FOCUS OF ADMIRATION, RIBBING

-- HURRICANES' STILLMAN CONFIRMS STATUS AS ELITE SCORER

-- OILERS LOOK TO EXPLOIT 'INTANGIBLES'

-- WHITNEY FAMILY TIES AN INTRIGUING CUP STORYLINE

-- FROM WORLD CUP TO STANLEY CUP FOR OILERS' MARKKANEN

'CANES ALREADY WINNERS IN FANS' HEARTS

Caulton Tudor writes in the RALEIGH NEWS AND OBSERVER , "T he Carolina Hurricanes haven't won the Stanley Cup yet, and there's still a chance they may never win one. Still, regardless of what happens tonight in Game 4 of the championship series in the Edmonton Oilers' Rexall Place -- or in what's left of the playoffs -- the Hurricanes already have won. They've won big. That's because -- yet again -- they have won the hearts, admiration and devotion of their market. That one fact isn't going to change for a long time. By doggedly weaving the sport of ice hockey into the regional culture, they've done what once seemed impossible. They have become a primary force in what much of the country still sees as a secondary market, and they've done it in the face of unremitting collegiate competition for the attention of sports fans...They're young, successful and hungry, and they have forged a fan following that won't forget their achievements."

http://www.newsobserver.com/769/story/449700.html

OILERS' SMYTH FOCUS OF ADMIRATION, RIBBING

Scott Burnside writes on ESPN.COM , "Here's the scouting report on Ryan Smyth. Bad shot. Bad stick. Bad wheels. World-class hockey player. 'It's a mystery. We try and figure out how he scores so much all the time. He has got a horrible shot, terrible stick. I don't know. He's a hockey player. He knows how to play the game,' offered longtime Edmonton Oilers teammate Ethan Moreau. 'Sometimes, he winds up, takes a slap shot -- my five-year-old can shoot better. Sorry, Smitty.'...The ribbing, all good-natured, of course, belies a simple truth about Ryan Smyth -- he is the ultimate example of the total being greater than the sum of all the parts."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2006...tory?id=2479899

HURRICANES' STILLMAN CONFIRMS STATUS AS ELITE SCORER

Adrian Dater writes in DENVER POST , "On NHL draft day in 1992 at the Montreal Forum, Cory Stillman was the sixth name called in the first round. A high-scoring forward from the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, Stillman seemed on the fast track to a starry career with the Calgary Flames. Through his first 142 NHL games, however, the formerly prolific goal scorer had only 22 goals. Stillman was the latest in a string of Flames draft busts, the critics harped. The critics have been silenced. Stillman enters tonight's Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals with a league-best 11-game points streak for the Carolina Hurricanes. He scored more than 20 regular-season goals for the seventh time in his career, and he has a Stanley Cup ring in his jewelry chest."

http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_3926167

OILERS LOOK TO EXPLOIT 'INTANGIBLES'

Cam Cole writes in the VANCOUVER SUN , "In their minds, Saturday night was for the city, maybe even the whole country. Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final, in what the signs outside of town call the City of Champions, was about self-respect, and respect for tradition, and a heartfelt desire not to let the fans -- or, more importantly, the ghosts -- down. Or maybe it was just a playoff hockey game the Edmonton Oilers could not let themselves lose. Maybe all the other stuff was just background music, and it was all about X's and O's, and Jussi Markkanen. But that's not how it felt, in the hours leading up to it...All the other stuff, the intangibles that the serious-minded among us dismiss as romance, could not be scoffed at any more, by the time the Oilers skated out in the closing moments of Saturday night's game, needing a goal."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/sp...362f5788&k=6403

WHITNEY FAMILY TIES AN INTRIGUING CUP STORYLINE

Larry Wigge writes on NHL.COM , "He was surrounded by a horde of reporters seeking information. He had seen mob scenes like this before in June, when he used to live in Edmonton and was the stickboy for the often-crowned Stanley Cup champion Oilers in the 1980s. This time, Ray Whitney was on the other side, as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes, competing for a Cup title against a new era of Oilers."

http://www.nhl.com/cupcrazy/2006/serieso/whitney061106.html

FROM WORLD CUP TO STANLEY CUP FOR OILERS' MARKKANEN

Paul Hunter writes in the TORONTO STAR , "Under different circumstances, Jussi Markkanen would soon be packing his bags for Germany for a long-ago planned trip to the World Cup. But who knew a different championship on this side of the ocean would be occupying his focus and the name of the long-forgotten goaltender would be chanted by the frenzied fans here at Rexall Place. 'You have the mindset that anything can happen,' Markkanen said yesterday in his typical understated fashion. 'Things change.' No kidding. Markkanen, who happily cancelled his soccer excursion, is a perfect example of how fickle hockey can be. There was no hint the 31-year-old was headed for Stanley Cup stardom three years ago - or three weeks ago for that matter - when the Oilers sent him away in a deal that has the makings of a trivia question."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...93064&t=TS_Home

http://www.newsobserver.com/769/story/449700.html

Canes already winners

Caulton Tudor, Staff Writer

The Carolina Hurricanes haven't won the Stanley Cup yet, and there's still a chance they may never win one.

Still, regardless of what happens tonight in Game 4 of the championship series in the Edmonton Oilers' Rexall Place -- or in what's left of the playoffs -- the Hurricanes already have won.

They've won big.

That's because -- yet again -- they have won the hearts, admiration and devotion of their market. That one fact isn't going to change for a long time.

By doggedly weaving the sport of ice hockey into the regional culture, they've done what once seemed impossible. They have become a primary force in what much of the country still sees as a secondary market, and they've done it in the face of unremitting collegiate competition for the attention of sports fans.

Not that there's any compelling reason to think it will happen, but the Hurricanes could finish last next season in the NHL's Southeast Division, and it wouldn't destroy the foundation they've built this season.

There are obvious reasons behind the explosion of Canes mania we're experiencing.

First, of course, is winning. Nothing succeeds more than victories in athletics, and the Hurricanes absolutely had to win in 2005-06.

Coming off the lockout season and a disappointing record the season before in 2003-04, the franchise was in a must-win predicament. The afterglow of the 2001-02 Stanley Cup finals season had faded. Attendance was beginning to sag, and the ability of the players to re-establish that popularity of old was questionable at best. Ron Francis had retired. Arturs Irbe's run had ended. Jeff O'Neill had moved on, as had Bates Battaglia.

Regardless of where the responsibility for a work stoppage really belongs in professional sports, the players absorb most of the public blame. They carry the burden of dealing with hostility from the fans. And, if this team had bombed in the standings, there's little doubt that the players today would be at the opposite end of the popularity scale.

But that brings us to the second factor in the current tidal wave of euphoria: Not only have the Canes won, they have won without being bitter at the establishment that wiped away last season's paychecks.

It would have been easy -- even understandable -- for the players to point fingers at the owners and the NHL front office over what happened. And, among some NHL teams, that probably happened. The players lost the work war. But in the Hurricanes' situation, the players have clearly won the peace.

You look at these guys and talk to them, and you can identify with their lifestyles.

Most of the Hurricanes are earning salaries most of us can't even comprehend. And, yet, it's still very easy to envision these professional athletes dealing with the same daily routines we all face: pumping their own gas; scouring the neighborhood in search of the family's lost dog; trying to figure out the difference between real milk and 2 percent fat at the grocery story.

For some reason, NHL players come across as real people, and maybe that's the hidden beauty of the league's lack of national and international popularity on television. They don't act like movie stars and rock singers, and that can be a big plus in a smaller market.

There are challenges ahead, of course. Erik Cole, Eric Staal, Mike Commodore and Justin Williams need to be retained. Management can't afford to lose Peter Laviolette to some big-market rival in need of a brain transplant.

But, for now, the Canes are one-up on most of the league. They're young, successful and hungry, and they have forged a fan following that won't forget their achievements.

Columnist Caulton Tudor can be reached at 829-8946 or ctudor@newsobserver.com.

[Derek21]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2006...tory?id=2479899

Homegrown Smyth the face and heart of Oilers

By Scott Burnside

ESPN.com

Archive

AP Photo/Jeff McIntosh,CP

Ryan Smyth has spent his entire NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers, spanning 10 seasons.

Bad shot.

EDMONTON, Alberta -- Here's the scouting report on Ryan Smyth.

Bad stick.

Bad wheels.

World-class hockey player.

"It's a mystery. We try and figure out how he scores so much all the time. He has got a horrible shot, terrible stick. I don't know. He's a hockey player. He knows how to play the game," offered longtime Edmonton Oilers teammate Ethan Moreau. "Sometimes, he winds up, takes a slap shot -- my five-year-old can shoot better. Sorry, Smitty."

"You look at his shot, he's got a muffin, but it's effective," added Chris Pronger. "Off-speed pitch. We've seen him score a number of goals this year. I don't know how they go in, but they go in."

Netminder Dwayne Roloson said he thinks he can shoot harder using his goalie stick and wearing his blocker and catching mitt.

Even coach Craig MacTavish couldn't help himself from piling on the longtime Oiler.

"I think I'll take the fifth on that one," MacTavish said. "Wasn't it Howie Meeker that said, 'Can't skate, can't hit, can't shoot, can't handle the puck, what a hockey player?'"

Sometimes, MacTavish added, "you can see Gary Bettman's name on the puck when he shoots it. That's it, though. That's the end. I will apologize to Ryan for that."

With friends like that, it's no wonder Smyth feels most comfortable with his faced pressed against the end boards by an opposing player or, as was the case late in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals, draped over opposing netminder Cam Ward. At least he's appreciated there.

The ribbing, all good-natured, of course, belies a simple truth about Ryan Smyth -- he is the ultimate example of the total being greater than the sum of all the parts.

It is so with Smyth's on-ice performance as witnessed by his hotly debated, game-winning goal late in Game 3 that breathed new life into a dying Edmonton Stanley Cup dream. And it is so with Smyth's entire career and his place of prominence among the greatest Oilers of all time.

"He's had quite a career here. Outside of the group of guys we had here in the '80s, he's probably the most recognized of any player and probably the best player outside of that group," Moreau said. "So, he gets everything he deserves. He works extremely hard, his practice habits, he's quite an example for the young guys that come into our organization."

"I am a young guy coming in here and I look at him in practice deflecting shots, just working on every part of his game. It rubs off on me, that's for sure, when I am out there working on things for myself," said Raffi Torres. "That's why he's pretty much the heart and soul of our team."

Broken down, the Smyth phenomena doesn't quite add up, but it has somehow evolved beyond simple math.

If you took Smyth, 30, and put him just about anywhere else -- Philadelphia, Detroit, Montreal -- and if he did exactly the same thing in exactly the same way, there is no way Smyth would be what he is in Edmonton, which is to say something that transcends being simply a hometown hockey player.

Beginning, perhaps, with the day he was run over by Oiler great Glenn Anderson in a parking lot during a Canada Cup training camp in Smyth's hometown of Banff, Alberta, this is quite simply where Smyth belongs.

The fit goes beyond hand-in-glove and approaches the cosmic.

He is rough-hewn and rough edges, bloodied noses and blackened eyes that encases an oversized Canadian heart. He gets misty-eyed watching old Oilers videos or looking at posters celebrating Oilers championships.

An orator?

Not really.

There are plenty of malapropisms, nonsequiturs and quirks when Smyth is in front of the cameras and notepads. It merely adds to the charm.

Earlier this spring, Smyth accommodated an Edmonton woman celebrating her 101st birthday by visiting her so she could run her hands through his distinctive mullet. If the Oilers are a community-based team, Smyth is the hockey community's adopted son.

Not long after Pronger, Moreau, MacTavish, et al. departed after Game 3, Smyth arrived and said he was speechless at being made sport of.

"Yeah, I'm not the flashiest player, that's for sure," Smyth said.

He also admitted the teasing is not a one-time thing. "It's nonstop. It's not just those guys. I think it's pretty much everybody in that locker room," Smyth said.

Before this spring, Smyth had become the face of a franchise that had gone from dynastic to simply hanging on. The post-Gretzky-Messier-Coffey Oilers always played with the same joie de vivre, but the results were hardly comparable.

In a decade with the only NHL team he'd known, Smyth had played just 44 playoff games with the Oil before the start of the current playoff campaign.

At no point during his tenure did the Oilers advance beyond the second round, and much of Smyth's significant profile in Alberta and the rest of the country was due to his stellar work with Canadian national teams either at the World Championships or the Olympics. Last spring, he established a record for playing the most games for Canada at the World Championships, a fact that earned him the nickname Captain Canada.

At an Olympic orientation camp last fall, Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe joked it was time for Captain Canada to take a rest, that Smyth needed to turn some of that magic inward for the Oilers during the NHL playoffs.

With the new collective-bargaining agreement and the significant moves made by Lowe in the offseason and leading up to the playoffs, one of the main questions was whether Smyth, Captain Canada and the loveable face of the hard-scrabble Oilers could be a playoff performer with a team that believed itself a contender.

His performance this spring -- he is third among Oilers scorers with 15 points -- has served as an answer in the affirmative.

"The experience that you gain over there, it doesn't hurt you one bit," Smyth said of playing in the Worlds. "And I think you can bring your success over there back here, and I think I have learned so much over there that hopefully it can trickle through our lineup here."

Former Islanders captain Michael Peca got to know Smyth through international competitions and has always enjoyed his company. But Peca said his respect for Smyth's game has grown exponentially playing alongside him this season, especially in the playoffs.

"You don't realize the sacrifices he's making" to play the style of game he plays, Peca said.

The ability to control pucks behind the opponent's net while being repeatedly hammered, the nerve to stand in front of opposing goaltenders, waiting for the rebound or deflection. Sometimes they are reflected on the score sheet, sometimes not. They are, however, always noted in the dressing room, Peca said.

"The way he's played in the playoffs is going to validate, for a lot of people, Ryan's career. What will be a great career for Ryan Smyth," Peca said.

Scott Burnside is an NHL writer for ESPN.com.

[oilers88cup]

Monster game tonight.I'll be at game 5 regardless.I bought one ticket.I'll leave Wednesday morning for the game,it's about a 7 hour drive I believe.C'mon boys!

Go Oilers Go!

[Derek21]

Cool. You're going. How much was it?

[Derek21]

I am on the Oilers site. It's pretty good. They have all sorts of cool Interactive stuff.

Here's Jussi Markkanen's pregame comments:

http://www.edmontonoilers.com/interactive/...2-markkanen.wma

[Derek21]

Here's Ethan Moreau's comments:

http://www.edmontonoilers.com/interactive/...0612-moreau.wma

Game 3 hero Ryan Smyth:

http://www.edmontonoilers.com/interactive/...60612-smyth.wma

[Derek21]

Go Oilers!!!!! Tie it up.

[Masked Fan]

THAT WAS FRIGGIN B E A U T I F U L!!!

1-0 Samsonov

And of course a PP goal ties it up in a blink. 1-1

Edited June 13, 2006 by Masked Fan

[Derek21]

That was a very entertaining period. Back and forth.

Edmonton really needs to start burying those PP chances. Geez. Another 5-on-3 wasted.

[Derek21]

Anyone watching this second period? Good stuff. Markkanen with a couple of big saves and then Ward robbed someone.

Penalty Edmonton.

[LucifersDog]

Great game so far.

[NJDevs4978]

:rant:

It's now gotten to a point where I'm surprised the Canes don't whine for a second call on the same play when Edmonton takes one penalty.

['7']

Very exciting game, unfortunately the refs have taken too much of it into there hands. Let them play! That cross check by Pronger was barely a bump!

[oilers88cup]

I'm really sick and tired of this Canes coach,Lavomoron.Give this jerk a towel he cries so much.2-1 canes end of 2 now.Not looking too good,the Oilers have a huge kill coming up.C'mon Oilers!

Go Oilers Go!

[RowdyFan42]

And the ref just gave the Canes the game.

[sandman441]

And the ref just gave the Canes the game.

I'm sure they did I saw where an Edmonton player got plowed from behind and ofcourse there was no call. This is ridiculous I can't believe a bunch of crybabies are going to win the cup.

[Sarge18]

COuld they have found a weaker penalty to call with this late in the game after everything left go both ways?

[sandman441]

COuld they have found a weaker penalty to call with this late in the game after everything left go both ways?

Yes. I'm sure there is a penalty in the book about touching a Carolina player. This might be because I absolutely cannot stand cryolina but when a team gets calls for 4 rounds something is going on.

Edited June 13, 2006 by sandman441

[Sarge18]

Blatent take down of Smyth while Horcoff was behind the net with the puck, no call, go f'ing figure.

Edited June 13, 2006 by Sarge18

[RowdyFan42]

[LucifersDog]

Carolina plays great defense and the offense is terrific and their goaltending is great as well.

They are a well rounded team.

Great game

[sandman441]

Carolina plays great defense and the offense is terrific and their goaltending is great as well.

They are a well rounded team.

Great game

That and having the refs in your pocket helps also.

[Sarge18]

Ya know there has been a ton of complaining about the refs all playoffs long, but all people still ask for is consistancy. One guy at one end still calls things differently from his counterpart reffing the other side. Its absolutely iritating to see really soft calls at one end when the same play occurs the other way with nothing. This goes for both teams. And makeup calls wtf, there should be no need. THe refs have had too much of an impact on games all playoffs long.

[Satans Hockey]

Im tired of hearing everyone whine, both ways. The Oilers don't deserve to win. They have had so many PP's this series and their PP is god awful. They have had 4 or 5 different 5 on 3 PP's in this series and they can't score on it if their lives depended on it. The Oilers choked a 3-0 lead in the first game and lost a game that should have been an easy win. Torres who is a moron couldn't take a much stupider penalty than he took right after the Oilers scored. fvck the Oilers, Canes and this series, I can't wait until its over and we can move on.

[Derek21]

I agree with Sarge regarding the penalty in the third. They had let both teams play.

A couple of calls on Carolina were equally as weak. The refs were consistent tonight. They call all the soft stuff.

Would it really have mattered Sarge? Edmonton's power play is atrocious. And btw they had more PP's again.

The man-advantage has cost them big time thus far in this series.