Saturday, June 17, 2006
The Hurricanes center injured his shoulder in the last loss to the Oilers.
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- The Edmonton Oilers lost a key player at the beginning of the Stanley Cup finals.
Now, it's Carolina's turn to deal with an injury.
Hurricanes center Doug Weight won't play in Game 6 tonight after a crushing hit by two Edmonton players apparently left him with an injured shoulder.
"Obviously, it's a tough loss for us," said coach Peter Laviolette, who's usually tightlipped about injuries but decided not to conceal the severity of Weight's condition. "Doug is a part of the reason we have gotten this far."
The Hurricanes won't get much sympathy from the Oilers.
Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson, a major reason the eighth-seeded team made it to the finals, sustained a series-ending knee injury in the waning minutes of Game 1 when he was knocked into the net during a goal-mouth collision.
The Oilers rallied around third-string goalie Jussi Markkanen, who has played well enough to keep the series going this far, though Carolina still leads 3-2.
Carolina still confident
The Hurricanes are confident they can close out the series without Weight, a 35-year-old center who was acquired from St. Louis in January to provide some depth and leadership on the front line.
"Weight is a great player and we're going to miss him tremendously," said Eric Staal, the team's top scorer during the regular season and in the playoffs.
"But we've had other guys go down and other guys step up."
Indeed, Carolina already has shown it can cope with injuries, reaching the finals even though 30-goal scorer Erik Cole went down with a fractured neck in early March and several other players have been banged up.
"I'm not sure that many teams sustained as many injuries as we did," Laviolette said.
"We had, I think, close to 270 man-games lost through the course of the season, yet we were always able to maintain a winning attitude and record."
But the Hurricanes are clearly hurting, and the Oilers believe their physical play is taking a toll in the series. Torres, in particular, has been a one-man wrecking crew.
Aging Hurricanes
Age could be another factor. Many of Carolina's top players -- not just Weight -- are in their 30s, including centers Mark Recchi (38) and Rod Brind'Amour (35), left wingers Ray Whitney (34) and Cory Stillman (32), and defensemen Glen Wesley (37), Bret Hedican (35), Aaron Ward (33) and Frantisek Kaberle (32).
"The big thing is that we know they're a little bit older than us," said Ryan Smyth of the Oilers, who turned 30 earlier this year.
"If we can continue to be relentless, then great."
In Game 5, Weight was sandwiched between Torres and Chris Pronger on a check in the opening minute of the third period.
The Carolina player doubled over in pain and headed to the bench, both arms hanging limply at his side.
The Hurricanes haven't revealed any particulars about the injury, though it appeared Weight's right shoulder took the brunt of it.
He returned to the bench during the game, but never got back on the ice.
"I have a lot of respect for the way Dougie plays the game," Torres said. "The last thing I want to do is hurt him. But I thought it was a clean hit. I didn't think there was anything dirty about it. It was just unfortunate."
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