Lucky coin dug out of ice by Oilers' Smyth
June 14, 2006
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Ryan Smyth jammed his stick into the ice in the middle of the Carolina Hurricanes' home rink on Wednesday morning and dug out an embedded good luck charm.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width=280 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=adlabel width=270 height=10>Advertisement</TD><TD width=10 rowSpan=3><SPACER width="10" height="1" type="block"></TD></TR><TR><TD class=onav vAlign=center align=middle width=270 height=270><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center align=middle width=268 height=268><SCRIPT language=JavaScript> <!--// /*mag spot*/if (!vTag) {var vTag="ros;type=ros";}if (!random) {var abc = Math.random() + ""; var random = abc.substring(2,abc.length);}document.write('<script src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/imus.vegasinsider.com/'+vTag+';sz=250x250;tile=7;ord='+random+'?"><\/script>'); // --> </SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/imus.vegasinsider.com/nhl;arena=nhl;feat=stories;type=psa;sz=250x250;tile=7;ord=5406623858954849?"></SCRIPT>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD width=270 height=10><SPACER width="1" height="10" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Smyth and the Edmonton Oilers were already down 3-1 in the Stanley Cup finals and didn't want the Hurricanes to have any other advantages heading into Game 5 on Wednesday night.
With minimal effort, the fan favorite winger from Edmonton extracted a golden dollar coin that depicts Sacagawea - an American Indian woman who aided Lewis and Clark - on one side and an American eagle on the other.
``It was not very deep in the ice,'' Smyth said. ``I thought some guys might trip over it, so I dug it up. Now the luck will probably go in their favor.''
Smyth knows the power of the coin. He was on the 2002 Canadian Olympic team that won the hockey-crazed nation's first gold medal in 50 years, a victory accomplished after a Canadian ice maker placed a $1 coin into the playing surface at the Salt Lake City Games.
The Lucky Loonie - a Canadian coin named after the country's national bird, the loon - was held up by Wayne Gretzky after the team broke the long Olympic losing streak. Gretzky displayed the coin as a symbol of luck, and many held the belief that it was the difference for Canada.
It was then sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Canada didn't have any such good luck charm in the ice at this year's Turin Games and went home without a medal.
Oilers coach Craig MacTavish had little to say about Smyth's handiwork, but didn't seem to mind that the coin was removed.
``As Ryan is prone to do, he doesn't miss a lot out there,'' MacTavish said. ``He surveys every inch of the ice and he did that today. Might have found a nickel or loonie or whatever, I don't know.''
---
HARVEY'S WALLBANGER: Energetic forward Todd Harvey was back in the Edmonton Oilers' lineup Wednesday night, following a six-game absence, with his team facing elimination in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The hard-hitting, run-around forward played the first three games of this year's playoffs against Detroit before sitting out eight straight. He then returned for the final contest of Edmonton's second-round series against San Jose and was on the ice for the opening three games versus Anaheim.
Edmonton lost the postseason opener with Harvey in the lineup, but won the other six games he's played. The left-winger hadn't been in a game since May 23.
``Todd's not a guy that you can play every night, but you know, I can generally see when he's ready to go back to the lineup and I was seeing that, oh, a couple of games ago,'' coach Craig MacTavish said Wednesday. ``He gets his legs back and he gets fresher and then he plays three or four games and then he starts to drop off again and it's time to come out.
``Given where this series has been played the last little while, it hasn't really been a north, south series. And he's a smart guy. He's highly skilled, smart. ... I think given the opportunities that we have had, his style of play may suit this game.''
Georges Laraque, who played a total of 6 minutes, 38 seconds in the previous two games, was scratched from Game 5.
---
CONSUMED COACH: Peter Laviolette admits he is out of the loop with everything other than the Stanley Cup finals. His job as coach of the Carolina Hurricanes is consuming, leaving him little or no time to pay attention elsewhere.
``My head has been in the sand,'' he said, with his team one win away from it's first Stanley Cup. ``I just found out that New Jersey got a coach, so just things happen.''
Well, at least he found out that hockey industry news on the same day New Jersey hired former Montreal coach Claude Julien to run its bench. Other sports information trickles in even slower to Laviolette.
It took until Tuesday for him to find out that Tiger Woods' father died on May 3.
``It's amazing what you don't hear,'' he said. ``I was watching Tiger Woods is going back to play golf. I didn't know his father passed away. Three weeks ago? Is that correct?
``I don't know. I don't hear a whole lot outside of what is going on here.''
---
POWERING UP: Talking about the Edmonton Oilers' struggling power play wasn't going to make it any better.
Yet, just hours before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, Edmonton defenseman Chris Pronger was dealing with the same questions about how the club was going to snap out of its 1-for-25 funk with the man advantage.
``Last power play question,'' he announced Wednesday morning before taking one that inquired about what new tactics the Oilers were working on.
``It's a secret,'' Pronger said, with the hint of a smile on his face. ``We don't want anybody to know what we're doing out there. Well, apparently they already know.''
---
SECOND CHANCE: One win away from his first Stanley Cup title, redheaded Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore wasn't going to jinx it.
He didn't want to get too far ahead of himself. That happened before and there was no reason to test the theory that history repeats itself.
In 2004, Commodore and the Calgary Flames had two chances to eliminate Tampa Bay from the finals, but they dropped Game 6 at home and the clincher back in Florida.
Now, he and the Hurricanes had three chances to win the Cup since they carried a 3-1 series lead over Edmonton into Wednesday night's Game 5 at home.
``I started thinking about it two years ago, and that's all I ended up doing ... thinking about it,'' he said. ``I was just hoping for another chance.''
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June 14, 2006
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Ryan Smyth jammed his stick into the ice in the middle of the Carolina Hurricanes' home rink on Wednesday morning and dug out an embedded good luck charm.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width=280 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=adlabel width=270 height=10>Advertisement</TD><TD width=10 rowSpan=3><SPACER width="10" height="1" type="block"></TD></TR><TR><TD class=onav vAlign=center align=middle width=270 height=270><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center align=middle width=268 height=268><SCRIPT language=JavaScript> <!--// /*mag spot*/if (!vTag) {var vTag="ros;type=ros";}if (!random) {var abc = Math.random() + ""; var random = abc.substring(2,abc.length);}document.write('<script src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/imus.vegasinsider.com/'+vTag+';sz=250x250;tile=7;ord='+random+'?"><\/script>'); // --> </SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/imus.vegasinsider.com/nhl;arena=nhl;feat=stories;type=psa;sz=250x250;tile=7;ord=5406623858954849?"></SCRIPT>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD width=270 height=10><SPACER width="1" height="10" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Smyth and the Edmonton Oilers were already down 3-1 in the Stanley Cup finals and didn't want the Hurricanes to have any other advantages heading into Game 5 on Wednesday night.With minimal effort, the fan favorite winger from Edmonton extracted a golden dollar coin that depicts Sacagawea - an American Indian woman who aided Lewis and Clark - on one side and an American eagle on the other.
``It was not very deep in the ice,'' Smyth said. ``I thought some guys might trip over it, so I dug it up. Now the luck will probably go in their favor.''
Smyth knows the power of the coin. He was on the 2002 Canadian Olympic team that won the hockey-crazed nation's first gold medal in 50 years, a victory accomplished after a Canadian ice maker placed a $1 coin into the playing surface at the Salt Lake City Games.
The Lucky Loonie - a Canadian coin named after the country's national bird, the loon - was held up by Wayne Gretzky after the team broke the long Olympic losing streak. Gretzky displayed the coin as a symbol of luck, and many held the belief that it was the difference for Canada.
It was then sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Canada didn't have any such good luck charm in the ice at this year's Turin Games and went home without a medal.
Oilers coach Craig MacTavish had little to say about Smyth's handiwork, but didn't seem to mind that the coin was removed.
``As Ryan is prone to do, he doesn't miss a lot out there,'' MacTavish said. ``He surveys every inch of the ice and he did that today. Might have found a nickel or loonie or whatever, I don't know.''
---
HARVEY'S WALLBANGER: Energetic forward Todd Harvey was back in the Edmonton Oilers' lineup Wednesday night, following a six-game absence, with his team facing elimination in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The hard-hitting, run-around forward played the first three games of this year's playoffs against Detroit before sitting out eight straight. He then returned for the final contest of Edmonton's second-round series against San Jose and was on the ice for the opening three games versus Anaheim.
Edmonton lost the postseason opener with Harvey in the lineup, but won the other six games he's played. The left-winger hadn't been in a game since May 23.
``Todd's not a guy that you can play every night, but you know, I can generally see when he's ready to go back to the lineup and I was seeing that, oh, a couple of games ago,'' coach Craig MacTavish said Wednesday. ``He gets his legs back and he gets fresher and then he plays three or four games and then he starts to drop off again and it's time to come out.
``Given where this series has been played the last little while, it hasn't really been a north, south series. And he's a smart guy. He's highly skilled, smart. ... I think given the opportunities that we have had, his style of play may suit this game.''
Georges Laraque, who played a total of 6 minutes, 38 seconds in the previous two games, was scratched from Game 5.
---
CONSUMED COACH: Peter Laviolette admits he is out of the loop with everything other than the Stanley Cup finals. His job as coach of the Carolina Hurricanes is consuming, leaving him little or no time to pay attention elsewhere.
``My head has been in the sand,'' he said, with his team one win away from it's first Stanley Cup. ``I just found out that New Jersey got a coach, so just things happen.''
Well, at least he found out that hockey industry news on the same day New Jersey hired former Montreal coach Claude Julien to run its bench. Other sports information trickles in even slower to Laviolette.
It took until Tuesday for him to find out that Tiger Woods' father died on May 3.
``It's amazing what you don't hear,'' he said. ``I was watching Tiger Woods is going back to play golf. I didn't know his father passed away. Three weeks ago? Is that correct?
``I don't know. I don't hear a whole lot outside of what is going on here.''
---
POWERING UP: Talking about the Edmonton Oilers' struggling power play wasn't going to make it any better.
Yet, just hours before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, Edmonton defenseman Chris Pronger was dealing with the same questions about how the club was going to snap out of its 1-for-25 funk with the man advantage.
``Last power play question,'' he announced Wednesday morning before taking one that inquired about what new tactics the Oilers were working on.
``It's a secret,'' Pronger said, with the hint of a smile on his face. ``We don't want anybody to know what we're doing out there. Well, apparently they already know.''
---
SECOND CHANCE: One win away from his first Stanley Cup title, redheaded Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore wasn't going to jinx it.
He didn't want to get too far ahead of himself. That happened before and there was no reason to test the theory that history repeats itself.
In 2004, Commodore and the Calgary Flames had two chances to eliminate Tampa Bay from the finals, but they dropped Game 6 at home and the clincher back in Florida.
Now, he and the Hurricanes had three chances to win the Cup since they carried a 3-1 series lead over Edmonton into Wednesday night's Game 5 at home.
``I started thinking about it two years ago, and that's all I ended up doing ... thinking about it,'' he said. ``I was just hoping for another chance.''
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