PHOTO OF THE DAY

Fernando, what are your thoughts heading into Game 1?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

It's been a huge change from the first day I got here. The first year the team was in Raleigh, I think they had 8,000 fans at the first game that I was at. To see it now change, it's a loud building, the people are enthusiastic. Hockey has been here six, seven years. It didn't exist as a sport pretty much. It's come a long way." -- Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour.

GAME BREAKERS

Rod Brind'Amour (CAR): Game-winner, 1 assist Doug Weight (CAR): 1 goal, 1 assist Jochen Hecht (BUF): 1 goal, 1 assist

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

Edmonton @ Carolina 8:00 PM (OLN, TSN, RDS) -- All times Eastern

RECENT EDITIONS

Friday, June 2, 2006 Thursday, June 1, 2006 Wednesday, May 31, 2006 Tuesday, May 30, 2006 Friday, May 26, 2006 Thursday, May 25, 2006 Wednesday, May 24, 2006 Tuesday, May 23, 2006 Monday, May 22, 2006 Friday, May 19, 2006

Welcome to the Stanley Cup Final. It's a rapidly improving day here in Raleigh on the morning of Game 1. And, it's the perfect time to begin our daily Stanley Cup Final blog, a project that will feature the unique musings of myself, NHL.com Editorial Director Phil Coffey and fellow writer John McGourty.

I feel honored to kick off the festivities. So, here we go.

Chris Pronger is a great hockey player, and by all accounts, a pretty good guy. But, his appreciation for fine music could certainly use a little work.

Sunday, Pronger dissed Brass Bonanza, the legendary song used by the Hartford Whalers to celebrate goals and start periods. That's just wrong. Brass Bonanza is among the greatest hockey songs out there, a classic that screams old-time hockey with its first note.

[Listen to the song, courtesy of brassbonanza.com]

When the Whalers relocated to North Carolina, Brass Bonanza did not make the trip. Yet, it still lives in the hearts of many of the franchise's fans, a harbinger to the old days when the Whalers played their home games in a mall and were striving to climb out of the shadows of the more-established nearby Boston Bruins. It was a catchy, whimsical tune that captured perfectly the independent and non-conformist attitude of the Hartford fan.

And, The Bonanza is far more distinctive than much of the pablum -- Gary Glitter's Rock & Roll, Part 2; The Chicken Dance, Cotton-Eyed Joe and Chumbawumba's Tubthumping -- that have become staples of arenas across the League.

In fact, it is so loved that it lives on today in the hearts of many hockey people. Brass Bonanza tribute sites litter the internet. Audio files of the song are readily available everywhere. But, for many, the allegiance is far more than just casual.

Phil has a provision in his will that stipulates Brass Bonanza be played as he is wheeled out of the church at his funeral. Others are similarly attached to the tune.

For myself, it is just another reminder of my youth, learning the nuances and idiosynchratic traditions that make the game of hockey at the NHL level the pageant that first attracted me to the sport as a young boy growing up in Rhode Island.

Although I was dyed-in-the-wool Boston Bruins fan as a boy, I spent a lot of time watching the Whalers to sate my hunger for the game. They were a team that was hard not to like, with their green-dominated sweaters, the distinctive whale tail, their flirtation with the long hockey pants and the character players that dotted their roster each year. But, it was the Brass Bonanza that hooked me for good.

I still remember the goosebumps when I heard the song liver for the first time, as a teenager attending my first Whalers' game.

But, obviously, Pronger does not have such attachment to the tune. Selected No. 2 overall by Hartford in 1993, Pronger played two years with the franchise before being traded to St. Louis, where he played the majority of his career before this summer's move to Edmonton.

Sunday, he just laughed when asked if Carolina should have kept the Brass Bonanza and admitted, in a not very positive way, that he could not get the tune out of his head.

I, too, cannot get Brass Bonanza out of my head. But, I consider myself a better man for that fact.