PHOTO OF THE DAY

Edmonton's Shawn Horcoff and Carolina's Eric Staal collide in Game 4.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"He's one of those guys that on the bench you get caught watching him and we look at each other every game and just shake our heads." -- Oilers forward Ethan Moreau comments about teammate Ales Hemsky.

GAME BREAKERS

Cory Stillman (CAR): 1 goal, 1 assist Jussi Markkanen (EDM): 18 saves Cam Ward (CAR): 20 saves

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

No game scheduled

RECENT EDITIONS

Monday, June 12, 2006 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

If this coaching thing ever gets old, Oilers coach Craig MacTavish should consider a career in comedy. In addition to his daily press conference being pretty informative -- no real injury or strategy news, but we don't expect that -- MacTavish also keeps things loose.

The other day, MacTavish brought the house down with a routine about his team being the only one to deliver "real" complaints to the NHL.

"I think the league does a very good job of ... Colin Campbell, Mike Murphy, they have got a lot of experience and they have got a lot of savvy and I think they do a good job separating the legitimate complaints from the illegitimate complaints.

They maybe don't do quite a good a job with our team because we're one of the few teams or maybe the only team that of at all teams have legitimate complaints," he said with a straight face as the laughter started. "And we try and get that through to them as best we can."

What don't you understand about no? -- There was speculation Monday that the Hurricanes' Erik Cole might return late in the series, speculation that 'Canes coach Peter Laviolette shot down in no uncertain terms.

"Erik Cole is not playing," Laviolette said. "The doctors have said that about three weeks ago, based on the X-rays they saw at the time, that he will not play."

Then came the inevitable "but" ...

"I just answered that question," Laviolette said. "Erik Cole is not healthy based on the report from the doctor three weeks ago. ... Erik Cole's season, based on the report that we got three weeks ago from a couple doctors, his season is over."

Singing Ales' praises -- Oilers forward Ales Hemsky is the quiet type, so you certainly aren't going to hear much from him regarding his game, so teammate Ethan Moreau took a stab at it."

"He's one of those guys that on the bench you get caught watching him and we look at each other every game and just shake our heads," Moreau said. "I mean, he's -- it's unbelievable the skill level he has and there's no reason why he shouldn't be probably one of the top five players in the League with a little bit of hard work in the off-season. He's an incredible player and he's a guy that we have on our team that can win games for us and he has done that. He scored some huge goals, he plays hurt, he's huge for us. It's nice to have a guy like that on your side, that you know if you need that big goal or if you need a big play to be made, he can do it and that's something that we have lacked here in the past."

Blast from the past -- Mark Messier and Paul Coffey have made appearances in Edmonton to boost the Oilers and their presence in the building in which they won so many Stanley Cups hasn't gone unnoticed by the current players.

"I think it's one of the special things about playing here," Ethan Moreau said. "There is tradition here and we're very aware of it. We would like nothing better to have our names put aside the guys that played here in the '80s. It's a pretty cool feeling to know that they are interested and they are in the building. It definitely makes it more special."

"It's great to see those guys in the house here ... they have excelled and they have won and know what it takes to win," Edmonton native Ryan Smyth said of seeing Messier. "He has got six of them (Stanley Cups), I believe, him and Kevin (Lowe)."

Facing up to faceoffs -- Rod Brind'Amour is getting to the point where he would rather talk about politics and religion than faceoffs.

"Well, I don't know, never had so much questions about it in my life until the last few days," Brind'Amour said. "It's kind of caught me off guard, just wasn't that big of an issue. For whatever reason it has become something now. I don't know that you work on it in practice. I never do because coaches don't drop the puck the way linesmen do. I never get involved in those type of things that will throw your timing right off.

"If you look at the end of night on the faceoffs and if your team is doing pretty good on an average, it's because they are getting in there, fighting for those pucks."