For 'Canes - and league - nothing could be finer
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by user Pack Mentality
The NHL has just completed their triumphant return from oblivion with one of the best Stanley Cup playoffs - and one of the strangest and most breathtaking Finals series - in recent memory. In the end, the Carolina Hurricanes, unofficial representatives of the league's "new breed" of teams in non-traditional hockey cities, has brought Lord Stanley to a region better known for Cups named Winston and Nextel. To do it, they had to survive an onslaught by the least likely finalists in at least fifteen years, the Edmonton Oilers, eighth seed in the West but this year's standardbearers for the NHL's "old school," with five Cups and a legacy embodied by a fellow named Wayne Gretzky to their credit.
Until tonight, the Oilers were the team that would not die. Having lost top goalie Dwayne Roloson to a knee injury in Game 1, then losing that game on a bizarre misplay of the puck in the closing seconds of regulation, then falling behind 2-0 and eventually 3-1 in the series, Edmonton's playoff run looked to be grinding to a halt - but Carolina couldn't seem to put them away. Even as the old hero Roloson was sidelined, new heroes Jussi Markkanen and Fernando Pisani stepped in to give their team new life, just as their teammates began to slowly wear down a Hurricanes team not used to the sort of frequent long-distance road trips that are old hat to a Western Conference team like the Oilers. Indeed, going into tonight's game their team looked for all the world like the ones with the momentum, the energy and the destiny to lift Stanley for a sixth time.
But in front of their own fans - and the many still cheering on the former Whalers from Hartford - the 'Canes would not be denied. Aaron Ward struck early, Frantisek Kaberle added insurance later on, and the 'Canes played outstanding defense for the entire game, often shutting down Oiler rushes just as they had barely entered the offensive zone. Only a third-period goal by Pisani to keep the Oilers afloat blemished the evening for the 'Canes' D and goalie Cam Ward. Ward and Markkanen together may have redefined clutch goaltending in these playoffs, both backups who carried their teams to within this one game of hockey's ultimate prize. In the end it was Ward who was just a little better, and whose unforgettable third-period saves left no doubt as to who deserved the Conn Smythe Trophy.
For Raleigh, the southernmost U.S. city whose sole major pro sports franchise is an NHL team, it means also becoming the smallest U.S. city after Green Bay to have a champion. For veterans Rod Brind'Amour and Glen Wesley it's the crowning moment of impressive, if not stellar careers. For another veteran, Bret Hedican, it also makes a marriage of champions (his wife is Olympic gold-medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi). For Ward it's the culmination of a rocket ride to stardom after replacing Martin Gerber (himself an Olympic hero for Switzerland in this year's Torino Games) in goal. For Eric Cole it's a long-awaited payoff after a season cut short by a severe neck injury. For diehard fans of the Whale it's a night of redemption, albeit nine years overdue. For home-grown Caniacs it's a coming-out party, and a loud-and-clear message that even Southerners can take to the game of the Great White North. For the Oilers and their fans it may not quite be the ending they had in mind, but is nonetheless quite an exclamation point to the franchise's recovery from near-oblivion in recent years. With or without Lord Stanley in tow, they can fly back to Alberta with heads held high.
So can the NHL as a whole. The league emerged from its lockout vowing to deliver a faster-pased and more free-flowing game than ever before, and boy, have they delivered. They promised to enforce the rules consistently throughout games and throughout the season and playoffs, and they delivered that too. They promised more parity with a new economic structure, and given the small markets of the two finalists, it's safe to say that mission has also been accomplished. They set out to grow the sport on its new Southern frontier, and now it's been two seasons and three years since Lord Stanley has resided north of the Mason-Dixon line.
The NHL still has plenty of challenges to confront, such as how to expand its appeal to the casual American sports fan and boost U.S. TV viewership, and what to do about its most economically vulnerable franchise (the Pittsburgh Penguins) with its brightest young star (Sidney Crosby). But tonight, the league can at least now see its darkest days squarely in its rearview mirror as it takes the great silver symbol of its sport for its inaugural cruise down Tobacco Road.
Date
Mon 06/19/06, 7:04 pm EST
