PHOTO OF THE DAY

Edmonton's Raffi Torres chases after a loose puck in Game 3.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Yeah, we don't need it to be exciting. It wasn't too exciting [in Game 3], no run-and-gun, no trading offensive chances. If we do that, we're going to lose like we did in the first two games. We have a to play a smart game and keep them to the outside. If it's not exciting to some people, that's fine with us." -- Oilers forward Rem Murray

GAME BREAKERS

Ryan Smyth (EDM): 1 goal Jussi Markkanen (EDM): 24 saves Rod Brind'Amour (CAR): 1 goal

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

Carolina @ Edmonton 8:00 PM (NBC, CBC, RDS) -- All times Eastern

RECENT EDITIONS

Sunday, June 11, 2006 Saturday, June 10, 2006 Friday, June 9, 2006 Thursday, June 8, 2006 Wednesday, June 7, 2006 Tuesday, June 6, 2006 Monday, June 5, 2006 Friday, June 2, 2006 Thursday, June 1, 2006 Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Hurricanes right wing Craig Adams didn't impress his junior coach, Don Phelps of the Calgary Canucks, with his hockey skills, but Phelps did recognize the qualities that Adams' possesses. The Calgary native helped his team win the 1995 Centennial Cup, emblematic of the Junior A national championship. Adams screened the opposing goalie on the Cup-winning goal.

"Of all the players in the AJHL I thought would make the NHL based on pure hockey ability, he'd be way down the list," Phelps told Eric Francis of theSun Media. "But when you add his character, hard work and determination all of a sudden he hops to the front. One thing I did say was that there was a guy who is going to be successful. In life, I think character wins eventually and he had that."

Red Deer, Alberta, native Brent Sutter is the only player to win both the Centennial Cup and the Stanley Cup. Sutter, who now owns and coaches the Major Junior Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League, won the Centennial Cup in 1980 while playing with brothers, Rich and Ron, on the Red Deer Rustlers. He won two Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders while playing with brother Duane, now the Florida Panthers' director of player development.

If Carolina wins the Stanley Cup, Adams and Rod Brind'Amour would join Brent Sutter. Brind'Amour and Phoenix Coyotes goalie Curtis Joseph won in 1988 with the Notre Dame Hounds.

***

Oilers forward Rem Murray plays a largely defensive role as the fourth-line center and key penalty killer. He was discussing the previous night's 2-1 victory in the dressing room after practice Sunday morning. He was told a group of writers were discussing the game late Saturday night and some didn't think it was very exciting. They didn't think Carolina played very well and didn't show the freewheeling skating skills that they had in the seventh game against the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference Final and the first two games in Raleigh against Edmonton.

Murray hides a competitive fire behind his genial farm-boy upbringing. Having returned from a career-threatening illness, no one wants this Stanley Cup more. He just chuckled.

"Yeah, we don't need it to be exciting," Murray said. "It wasn't too exciting last night, no run-and-gun, no trading offensive chances. If we do that, we're going to lose like we did in the first two games. We have a to play a smart game and keep them to the outside. If it's not exciting to some people, that's fine with us."

"It was exciting for the 16,839 fans inside Rexall Place and about a million more Oilers fans around Edmonton," Murray was told.

"Yup, and it was exciting to 25 guys in this room," he responded with a hearty laugh.

***

Some folks in Edmonton are wondering why Wayne Gretzky hasn't joined Messier here in rooting for the Oilers. Consider Wayne's conflict: He's the head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, a Western Conference rival. Imagine the roasting he'd take in Phoenix.

Gretzky explained that he has "family commitments.

With the friendships Gretzky made in Edmonton and the success he had here, it's probably killing him to stay away. He led the Oilers to four Stanley Cups in the 1980s. What more can be asked of him? Cut the Great One a break: You know who he's rooting for, silently.

***

There are a bunch of pigeon-sized black birds with large white markings on their sides picking at every leftover crumb in the parking lot near Rexall Place. If you travel a lot, you'll notice pigeons don't look the same everywhere, but they're all part of the same species. Similarly, about 20 percent of the squirrels near Hobey Baker Rink on the Princeton University campus, near where I live, are black rather than gray. No matter, same species but some with greater amounts of melanin. So, I asked a local about the Edmonton birds.

"Those pigeons?"

"Nope, magpies," he said. "World's biggest scavengers. Watch out, they're nasty, they make a racket, eat everything and they'll attack you, if they think you're a threat. They raid other bird's nests, including crows. No other birds do that, that I've seen. They group to kill injured birds, too."

Being from the northeastern United States, I'd never seen a magpie. Another benefit of being part of the traveling Stanley Cup Final show.