COMMENTARY
By Mark Spector
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 6:09 p.m. ET June 6, 2006
 | Mark Spector |
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RALEIGH, N.C. - "The goalie's not good," reported a grim-faced Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish after the game. And with that, he spoke the words that will likely be the Edmonton Oilers epitaph for the 2006 Stanley Cup finals.
"He won't be back in the series."
There isn't a player on the Edmonton Oilers roster — not even sturdy defenseman Chris Pronger — whose loss that resilient team could not have overcome in this Stanley Cup finals. Except, of course, the No. 1 goalie: Dwayne Roloson.
The goalie who played 19 straight games — all but the final, meaningless regular season contest — after being acquired at the trade deadline. The goalie who, back in Edmonton, stood as the only other Conn Smythe candidate next to Pronger, if the Oilers had managed to win their sixth Cup.
The goalie who was only acquired by general manager Kevin Lowe because the two netminders who preceded him simply could not get the job done for the Oilers. Now, MacTavish will choose from those backup goaltenders, Jussi Markkanen and Ty Conklin, for his Game 2 starter, after his team gassed a 3-0 lead and lost in heartbreaking fashion, 5-4 to the plucky Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The winning goal was itself the first sign of cracks in the Oilers' armor, caused by Roloson's departure with 5:54 left in the game.
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Defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron checked big Carolina rookie Andrew Ladd into Roloson with the game tied at 4-4. Roloson was down in his butterfly position and took the brunt of Ladd's heft on his right knee, then left with what is believed to be an MCL sprain. He was replaced by backup Ty Conklin, who promptly mishandled the puck behind his goal in an exchange with defenseman Jason Smith, giving Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour an open net freebie. It was a knife to Edmonton's heart with 32 seconds left in the game.
In Edmonton, they'll equate this goal to defenseman Steve Smith's fatal gaffe in 1986, when he fired a pass off of the back of Grant Fuhr's leg, losing a Game 7 against Calgary in the second round. That left a hole in what might have been five straight Stanley Cups for the Oilers, who won in '84, '85, '87 and '88.
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This goal only cost them Game 1, but the circumstances are perhaps just as dire.
"Don't get too many of those. I'll definitely take it," said Brind'Amour, who had scored late in the first period to cut into Edmonton's 3-0 lead.
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