Losing Roloson was devastating for ’06 Oilers
Remember Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup final, when Dwayne Roloson crashed to the ice after Carolina rookie Andrew Ladd piled into him, on being pushed by Marc-andre Bergeron on a drive to the net?
His wonderful body of playoff work in net for the Edmonton Oilers ripped apart.
“I actually thought I broke my arm, to be honest with you, the way he came into me and the way I was positioned. My arm was against the post and he came straight into it,” said Roloson, who now works for the WHL’S Victoria Royals.
“I just remember Kenny (Lowe, trainer) ran out and said, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ And I said, ‘I think I broke my arm.’ He said, ‘How’s your knee?’ I said, ‘My knee’s fine.’”
It wasn’t.
“He goes, ‘Seriously?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Did you feel a pop or anything?’ I said, ‘Yeah, a little pop but nothing major.’ He goes, ‘Stand up,’ so I stood up. He goes, ‘Go down, we’re out of here.’ That was it. As soon as I went down, it was like a knife going through my knee. He knew right away that I was pretty much done and obviously I didn’t break my arm and it is what it is,” Roloson said.
Roloson, challenging Chris Pronger and Fernando Pisani as the Oilers’ Conn Smythe playoff MVP, had the ligaments torn in his right knee with six minutes left in a 4-4 game. Ty Conklin came on in relief. There was a malfunction with Jason Smith behind the net and Rod Brind’amour scored the winner with 32 seconds left.
Jussi Markkanen was terrific from Game 2 on, but the Oilers lost in Game 7.
Roloson’s injury was the signature point of the playoff ride with GM Kevin Lowe trading for the goalie, Pronger, Mike Peca, Sergei Samsonov, Jaro Spacek to go with his holdover cast of Ethan Moreau, Jason Smith, Ryan Smyth, Pisani, Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff.
“We went from having the best goalie in the world at that time — and these comments have nothing to so with Jussi or Ty’s abilities or qualities as teammates — but Rollie was at a different level,” said Moreau, who played 11 Oiler seasons.
“I truly believe when we entered the playoffs, we had the best goalie in the world and the best defenceman in the world (in Pronger).
“Rollie was such a big part of our success that losing him was insurmountable. We almost did it through sheer will, but losing Rollie was the turning point.”
The Oilers knocked off Detroit in six games in Round 1, then were down 2-0 in Round 2 to
San Jose before Shawn Horcoff scored in triple overtime in
Game 3 at Rexall Place, and they outscored them 14-6 in games 4 through 6. They knocked off Anaheim in five in the Western final, then went seven with Carolina.
It was party central for two months. Whyte Avenue was the hub, players and fans raising the roof.
“Simple word: Crazy,” Roloson said. “I think the city ran out of beer two or three times, everything was getting trucked in from Calgary. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a city that was that excited about anything.”
Jarret Stoll went on to win two Cups in Los Angeles after being traded there in 2008 with Matt Greene for Lubo Visnovsky.
“Whyte Avenue was bouncing,” he recalled. “The one word we used that whole playoffs was ‘electric’ in the city and the arena. Being from Saskatchewan, I had so many family and friends in. One of my buddies had his phone stolen after a game, and the guy started running down the street. My buddy tracked him down and there he was on the six o’clock news the next day, curb stompin’ some guy getting his phone back.”
The Oilers bathed in the sheer joy with their supporters.
“What was different, compared to now, is that we were part of it. We were on those streets, and in those bars. Probably too much,” Moreau said.
“It was a little bit before social media, probably couldn’t do that now, but we got a chance to witness it first hand.”
Knocking off the Wings with Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Chelios was the stuff of dreams.
“I think they finished with
124 points. We had no business winning that series. But we outworked them and outplayed them and we had Dwayne Roloson,” said Stoll, now in player development with the Kings. “After that Game 6 win, we all went to Hudsons on Whyte and the fans were all there.
“Going back to my place afterwards, couldn’t get Rollie out of there for two days,” Stoll said, laughing. “The ‘Let’s Go Oiler’ chants. too. Sitting in the dressing room, you could hear that so loudly. To hear the fans like that gave us so much juice.”
Losing Game 7 in Raleigh 3-1 was a bitter pill. Then having Pronger ask for a trade was piling on.
“It was a shock, I had no idea what was going on,” said Stoll. “He was in every situation, dominating every situation, we were a really hard team to play against especially in our building and Prongs was a huge part of that.”
“To lose Prongs, yeah, it definitely hurt. You lose your best player and that’s a hit through your team and the locker-room.”