EDMONTON -- In a dramatic about-face, Carolina coach Peter Laviolette surprisingly inserted forward
Erik Cole into his Game 6 lineup Saturday night.
For the past two weeks, Laviolette has dismissed suggestions that Cole, out since early March with a
broken vertebrae in his neck, would be available for this series. He insisted repeatedly that the potential
for re-injury to the player far outweighed any boost the power forward could bring to the proceedings, despite the fact that Cole has been practicing with the team throughout the Final without any pain.
"It just came about on the plane ride out -- I didn't know the status of Doug (Weight) until we got on the plane," Cole said following Game 6. "I Kind of made the comment in passing that, you know, if Weight can't go does that mean I am in? And it was kind of cast aside by our assistant coach, Jeff Daniels when we stopped in Des Moines I told him to run it by Peter (Laviolette). And we got to thinking and kicking it around and decided it was certainly worth a look to get another CT scan and see how much more progress had been made in the healing process. We found a way to get it done but it was a long day yesterday."
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In order to get clearance to play, Cole chartered to Denver on Friday for a CT scan, then had his North Carolina doctor, Dr. Bill Richardson of Duke, fly out to Edmonton to discuss the results with him earlier Saturday.
"(Dr. Richardson) looked at it this morning, and we also wanted to have him come and sit down with me face-to-face, so he jumped on the family charter and came out and we sat down over lunch, went over the CT scan with myself, Dr. Martini, Peter Friesen, and Peter Laviolette. ... I think it was after lunch it was still in my court even after warm ups whether or not I felt comfortable, and I felt well enough to go out and try to contribute."
"Well, after further examinations from the doctors that have been looking at him, the healing process is probably gone as far as it's going to go," said Laviolette. "It didn't matter if he waited anymore until next training camp."
Doug Weight's likely season-ending arm injury, suffered in the third period of Game 6, put the Hurricanes in desperate straits. The addition of Cole, who scored 30 goals in 60 games before his injury, appeared to be the desperate answer from the Carolina camp.
When Cole took part in Saturday's pre-game warm-up, many still believed it was nothing more than a diversion to occupy the Oiler coaching staff and a motivational tool to perk up the Hurricanes, who booted their first chance to claim the Cup with an overtime loss Wednesday at RBC Center.
After all, the insertion of Cole seemed too risky to contemplate. Cole, wearing a blue jersey -- denoting no-contact status -- throughout practices in the playoffs, had not absorbed a hit since Pittsburgh's Brooks Orpik rammed him face-first into the glass in a March 4 game. And, the Oilers, determined to extend this series as long as possible after falling behind three-games-to-one here last Monday, have been on a physical search-and-destroy mission for the past two games.
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Erik Cole was tested early in the first period by Ethan Moreau.
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In Game 5, a rampaging Raffi Torres hurt both Weight and defenseman Aaron Ward with thunderous hits that highlighted the Oilers' no-quarter-given philosophy.
As expected, Laviolette thoroughly shuffled his lines with the loss of Weight. Cole occupied the wing on Eric Staal's line, joined by Cory Stillman. Rod Brind'Amour, meanwhile, centered Jason Williams and Josef Vasicek, inserted into the lineup two games ago. Andrew Ladd took the place of the scratched Chad LaRose on the checking line, joining Kevyn Adams and Craig Adams. Matt Cullen moved back to center to serve as the pivot for wingers Mark Recchi and Ray Whitney.
Cole didn't have to wait long to get into the action. He took the ice with his line mates just 44 seconds into the game. Shortly after that, he was railroaded by Ethan Moreau along the side board, lifting both the Edmonton players and fans out of their seats. Cole bounced right back up, however.
Later in the first, he had a scoring chance, but his wrister was deflected by a defender and popped harmlessly into the glove of goalie Jussi Markkanen. Toward the end of the period, Cole blasted defenseman Jaroslav Spacek to announce that he had no intentions of playing timid.
Cole logged 18:31 of ice time on 23 shifts, and registered two of Carolina's 16 shots. He was also credited with three hits.
Asked how he felt after the game, Cole suggested he was feeling the rust.
"I am looking forward to feeling better in Game 7," he said. "Didn't feel great in the third period, but you know, we'll get some rest. And it's my first game in three and a half months, so, I thought I handled it pretty well for being Game 6 of the Cup Finals."
