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Well, Peter Laviolette wanted to snap Eric Staal's six-game goal drought. And he wanted to continue Cory Stillman's point streak.
He got half the equation right. And even though Staal did not end his goalless streak, he assisted on Mark Recchi's game-winner as the Carolina Hurricanes are about to become the second, consecutive team from the Southeast Division to hoist the Stanley Cup.
Carolina 2, Edmonton 1 in Game 4. Canes have a 3-1 stranglehold as the series shifts back to the East Coast.
Honest, I will give a looney to anyone out there who can prove to me they had the Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup last July coming out of the lockout. Just contact Eklund with proof.
What? None of you did? Well, neither did Eklund or myself. But it's about to happen.
I'll tell you what has fascinated me watching the Canes and Edmonton ... It's how aggressive Carolina is on the penalty kill. A lot of people will look back at what happened to goalie Dwayne Roloson in Game 1 and say that's why the Oilers didn't win the Cup this June.
Yet you could make an argument that the Oilers pathetic power play has cost them the series. Carolina attacks the puck. They attack the points. They are quicker on the puck, faster in anticipating where the pass might go, and they are quicker on the man at the points, not allowing Edmonton time to set up properly.
And because the Canes don't play some of their older players on the PK, that means a guy like Recchi has plenty of juice left in the tank to score a big goal late in the game like he did in Game 4.
Here's some post-game highlights from the news conference, courtesy of the NHL and FastScripts:
Q. More than just being physical here, they were really trying to get under your skin. Did you sense that was happening? How did you stay composed?
ERIC STAAL: I felt I was getting involved. I wanted to get dirty, get in the physical battle, and you know, it was intense out there, you know, he had a few words for me, but it was a battle, but I felt good getting in the mix.
Q. Rod and Cory, the last couple of days the story has been that Eric has been slumping. You guys have been around this league a long time. Talk about his composure, how he responded tonight with a strong game?
ROD BRIND'AMOUR: I think [Monday] I got asked that question and I said you know what, just watch what is going to happen. He's one of the best players in the league for a reason. It's not just because he has talents, it's because he's consistent night in, night out. I thought he has been playing great hockey, just hasn't been scoring. Tonight he made two great plays, that's the difference in the hockey game. Can't say enough about him.
CORY STILLMAN: You know what, it was good to see him get back, you know what, we knew it was going to happen. I think the biggest thing for him tonight right from the start, he came skating and when he can do that he opens things up, and he's going to make plays. We're not necessary -- everyone was talking about he's not -- first, he doesn't have points, et cetera, not goal scoring. To be honest with you, if he plays well and doesn't score, as long as he makes plays, it's great for our hockey club.
Q. Eric, walk us through that second goal, how it happened from your perspective in the middle there?
ERIC STAAL: Well, I was the third guy high and Stiller made a good job pressing Pronger and kind of got a stick on puck and Pronger tried to throw it, I think, make a pass or something and he kind of deflected it and good thing I am eight feet tall and I caught it, and then put it down. I knew Recchs was kind of back door, I just tried to make a move and throw it back there to him there.
Q. Rod, just a question about the penalty kill again being such a big factor in the game tonight, and also there was a lot of talk yesterday about the Oilers might be wearing you guys down by being physical. Talk about the physical nature of your team's play tonight.
ROD BRIND'AMOUR: Well, the playoffs are physical, and it doesn't -- I don't know it's any more physical this round than any other rounds, to answer that question.
And yeah, I mean, penalty kill has been huge for us, no question. We're getting too many penalties. We talked about it, we didn't want to do that and we walked into the same thing as the other night. Fortunately for us our penalty kill has been great and our best penalty killer has been great and that's our goaltender. It's not the recipe to do it but we got through it.
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Stillman, who played for Tampa Bay before the lockout, is trying to become just the second player in NHL history to win consecutive Cups with different teams. The only other player to do it was Claude Lemieux with the New Jersey Devils in 1995 and the Colorado Avalanche the season after.
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Tough to findwhat Mark Recchi had to say about his game-winning goal but he was not on the podium and is not quoted in any publications we glanced at this morning. At least, about the goal.
Recchi won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh and the LA Times caught up with him late after the game:
"You envision this, but I think we all know how hard it is to get here," said Recchi, who won the Cupwhen he was 23. "This is what I was hoping. If we could finish it off, it would be a dream come true."
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Carolina coach Peter Laviolette on his line juggling to get Staal, Brind'Amour and Stillman together:
"Actually it was for both [Stillman and Staal]. Trying to spread Cory around a little bit, just I mean everybody -- well, you would know that Stiller and Staalsie and Colesie were together for most of the year.
"I think there's a little bit of chemistry with Cory and Erik. But it's tough to break up your top line as well, and I think that Rod and Willie were clicking pretty good with Cory. So what we tried to do was really mix the lines up completely to try and avoid matchups.
"But I think most of the combinations that we threw out there had played together at some point in the year together and so there shouldn't have been that. They were totally unfamiliar with each other or how they play.
"And you know we were able to, I think, accomplish that by splitting Cory between the two lines and popping Josef Vasicek or Cullen or Ladd or whatever it might be on different lines at different times. Just really trying -- I guess, what you said, trying to accomplish both things."
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