REMEMBERING THE PLAYOFF RUN OF 2006
Who knew it would take so long to get back into the hunt?
It’s been 11 springs since the Edmonton Oilers were in the playoffs. People get older and memories lose clarity, but Hall of Famer Chris Pronger recalls the team’s last thrilling ride to the Stanley Cup Final like it was yesterday — not June 19, 2006.
“We were one goal away from winning the Cup,” said Pronger, who now works for the NHL’s player safety department and still is on the books of the Arizona Coyotes until the end of the season when he’s paid out.
“I’m sure that’s the frustrating part (for the city),” he said.
Nobody — not Pronger, not anybody who was part of that team — thought it would take this long to get back.
The star defenceman was one of the few people who thought the team had the right stuff to go the distance, before they beat the Detroit Red Wings in Round 1 of the playoffs and the San Jose Sharks in Round 2 of the playoffs, a series that saw them lose the first two games and go to a nail-biting triple overtime to win Game 3. While it caught the entire fan-base off guard, Pronger had an inkling of how good they could be.
“We felt we matched up against anybody,” said Pronger.
Even the Red Wings, who had 124 points, 29 more than the eighth-seed Oilers?
“Yeah,” said Pronger, ever the optimist.
Coach Craig MacTavish shocked the hockey world by employing the trap against the Wings in that first series. That had long been a dirty word with the Oilers franchise from the Gretzky glory days when they went full-bore and never played passively. This was a different time and a different place.
“We executed it,” Pronger recalled.
“And the way we came together and how we won some of those games, it was something to see,” he said. “I think it was Game 5 in Detroit, right at the tail end of the game, myself, Smytty (Ryan Smyth) and Gator (Jason Smith) and Horc (Shawn Horcoff ) dove face-first to block a shot with two seconds left. The things guys were willing to do to win games. We had to lay it all the line, but once we won that series we thought we could win.”
But they fell behind 2-0 to the Sharks, the fifth seed, in Round 2. But won in six games.
In Round 3, they beat the Ducks; Anaheim’s then-general manager Brian Burke was steamed. Burke would trade for Pronger a few months later as we all know, but in May of 2006, he couldn’t figure out how the Oilers had gone all the way to the Cup final.
“You know what it came down to … a different hero every night,” Pronger said. “Four lines were scoring and I know we’ve heard it before, but teams that do win championships there’s a belief, no matter who’s in the lineup. The group really jelled.”
The final with Carolina still hurts, of course.
Pronger almost certainly would have been the Conn Smythe Trophy winner if the Oilers had taken out the Hurricanes.
That all important series started with a Game 1 that the Oilers were winning 3-0. “They get a late crappy goal late in the second, and we start sitting back in the third and Roli gets hurt and we’re thinking ‘Omygawd,’ ’’ said Pronger.
Oilers goalie Ty Conklin stepped in to finish Game 1 after Dwayne Roloson ripped up his knee when Marc-Andre Bergeron rode a charging Andrew Ladd into his goalie. They lost 5-4 on Rod Brind’Amour’s goal.
After that Jussi Markkanen played in net for Games 2 through 7.
“To Jussi’s credit he hadn’t played in three months and he comes in in Game 2 and we play like garbage and get shellacked (5-0), then in Game 3 Jussi played really good (2-1) and we won,” said Pronger. “We lost a heartbreaker in Game 4 … puck hits a stick and goes over to somebody. And Game 5. Man, we win in overtime on the shorthanded goal. They’ve got the champagne in their locker-room. Then we pound them in Game 6 at home (4-0).”
They had to fly back to North Carolina for the final game, which they ultimately lost 3-1.
“It was a tough way to lose,” Pronger said, after recalling details of that game. “Looking back if Roli’s healthy, they don’t win Game 1. Then it’s a different series.”
Pronger won the Cup the next spring with Anaheim after being traded there, but the memory of how close he came to hoisting the trophy up as an Oiler still sticks in his gut.