The aftermath of game one.
But instead, the big topic -- and rightfully so -- is that Dwayne Roloson ... the man who has backstopped the Oilers all the way from their first playoff game this season until now ... is out with a serious knee injury, and is out indefinitely for the remainder of the series.
I'll tell you this much; At first, when I saw Roloson laying on the ground after the collision into him, I was just shrugging it off. It's Rollie, after all. He's been known to do a little bit of embellishing to get a favorable call or two at times, and delights in agitating the opposing team. But as time passed and he continued to lay there, I really felt like the wind had been taken out of my sails.
I've already made it very clear that I want the Carolina Hurricanes to win, purely from a "grow the sport in non-traditional markets" perspective. But that doesn't mean that I want to see players from the other team -- especially important players -- get knocked out of the series. The fact is that he was one of the key ingredients to making this series exciting, and watchable. I wanted him to frustrate me with his great play, because win or lose it's just amazing hockey.
Either way, what has happened is now set in stone. The Oilers are now forced to rely on their backup goalies of Ty Conklin and Jussi Markkanen. Oilers Country seems all but ready to burn Conklin at the stake for his mishap behind the net with teammate Jason Smith that led to the gamer winner by Brind'Amour with only about 30 seconds left in the game. But let's be realistic here. Yes, it's a backup goalie's job to be ready at all times to come in in the event of an injury to the starting goalie. Yes, Conklin absolutely botched the puck handling behind the net, with Smith not helping his cause either (replays show that he had a couple swipes with the stick to get it under control before Brindy swooped in like a vulture preying on a wounded animal). But we're talking about the Stanley Cup finals, and with only about five minutes remaining in a tense, chaotic game one to the series.
Additionally, more blame should be heaped upon Marc-Andre Bergeron, who in his rush to catch up with a streaking Andrew Ladd, ended up throwing him right in to Rollie, and causing the season ending injury. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, and obviously one can say that he was caught up in the moment of trying to stop Ladd from bearing down on Roloson. Ladd also apparently blew his skate out a bit, but even then he wasn't in for a direct collision course with the goalie, let alone the now wounded leg and knee.
I'm not really sure what to expect from game two. There's always that chance that some sort of miracle will happen, and either Conklin or Markkanen will take their opportunities to shine and will snatch a road win for the currently frazzled Oilers. But the 'Canes won't be backing down now, and even though they won last night they obviously are displeased with the way they played.
On a final note, it would appear that the regional prejudice never seems to end, and now with the worse possible scenario that the Oilers are in, it looks like it's going to get worse and worse. Taken from an anonymous comment over at Covered in Oil, we have this:
"The worst of it is the Hurricanes are s***. Garbage. A crappy team (and ugly to boot: between Staal and Brindamour, they look like a burn victim unit) that benefited from one of the most monumental bed-s***tings in Cup history. Look, Conklin will be lucky if he ever sees blue ice again, but there's no excuse for dropping four straight goals against a medicocre team like the 'canes. None. And now...well, that's it, innit it? They're done. Carolina in four. Enjoy it, you f***ing hillbillies, you Civil War-losing, Bush-loving d*****bags. In fact: choke on it."
I don't think I've ever seen something like this -- or at least the volume of it -- when it comes to the other major sports in North America. How about you?
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I've seen a lot of it, from fans of every team in every sport. Directed at men, women, and children alike (OSU vs. UM football games). Some people get stuck on the short end of the human nature bell curve.
On an unrelated note: I, too, was greatly impressed by Cam Ward last night. Yeah, he allowed four goals, but he made enough saves that made my jaw hit the floor to make up for it (plus, he won... that helps). It will be interesting to see if Leclaire/Denis will be able to show the composure we've seen from so many young goalies when we finally get a taste. -
"I've seen a lot of it, from fans of every team in every sport. Directed at men, women, and children alike (OSU vs. UM football games). Some people get stuck on the short end of the human nature bell curve."
I think part of it is that because this is a two country sport (much more than Basketball and Baseball where it's just one team in Canada), the cross-border heckling gets a lot more emphasized and focused on. If it was just some Joe Schmoe in California or New Jersey, it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal.
As for our goalie situation? I'll be happy just to see MacLean finally make a decision on who is the starter! He'd been namedropping Leclair left and right since the end of the regular season, but got pretty quiet after Denis' pretty good performance at the World Championships for Team Canada. -
Interesting point. I've also noticed more in hockey that tradition plays a large role in heckling. Nobody complains when the Rangers win the Cup. Why? Probably because they're an Original Six team (I can hear the oohhs and ahhhs throughout the blogosphere). When I was in Detroit for the March 25 game this year, I actually heard a [supposedly knowledgeable] fan sitting behind me suggest that all the Original Six teams should be in their own division, so they didn't have to play the 'lesser' teams as much. You've even seen the heckling around the blogosphere in this Stanley Cup final revolve around the fact that Edmonton has won more Cups than Carolina/Hartford since they both joined from the WHA.
I still say that a bunch of drunken OSU fans picking on a four year old boy wearing maize and blue walking back to the car with his parents after the Wolverines got pasted by the Buckeyes in '03 might have been one of the most disgusting things I've seen.
Oh, no doubt. I know that these people aren't "real" fans, in the sense that they'd let prejudice and/or political reasoning drive their hate for a team just because they're from a certain place in the two countries.
But I've been seeing a whole lot of it, even before last night's game. It's really hard not to ignore, which is frustrating and sad.