The 2006 Stanley Cup Final matches the Southeast Division champion Carolina Hurricanes against the Western Conference's No. 8 seed, the Edmonton Oilers. On season-long form, this should be no contest, but the history of recent weeks shows there's no status quo in the playoffs.

The Hurricanes accumulated 17 more points during the regular season than the Oilers, scored 28 more goals, but surrendered nine more goals. Carolina outscored opponents by 34 goals this season, Edmonton by five. Carolina and Edmonton didn't meet during the regular season.

The data from the regular season is irrelevant, as is your pre-March 5 evaluation of the Edmonton Oilers. On that day, Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe traded for goalie Dwayne Roloson and that changed everything, including the way the Oilers play and their confidence.

Roloson leads the playoffs with 12 wins. Carolina's Cam Ward is next with 11. Roloson is second behind Anaheim's Ilya Bryzgalov, who the Oilers sent to the bench, with a .931 save percentage. Ward's is .919. Ward is second behind Bryzgalov with a 2.09 goals-against average. Roloson is third with a 2.22 GAA.

Edmonton is scoring 3.18 goals per game in the Playoffs, Carolina, 3. The Hurricanes surrender 2.44 goals per game, Edmonton, 2.47.

Not much to choose between on statistics, although Edmonton leads the playoffs by killing off 88.6 percent of its penalties while Carolina is at 83.7 percent. Carolina is best with a 25.9 percent success rate on power plays while Edmonton is 19.8 percent. As has been the case throughout the Playoffs, special teams figure to be very important.

The Hurricanes have a strong cast of veteran forwards including captain Rod Brind'Amour, Ray Whitney, Cory Stillman, Mark Recchi, Doug Weight, Justin Williams, Craig Adams, Kevyn Adams and Matt Cullen, bolstered by young stars Eric Staal, Andrew Ladd and Chad LaRose. The defense is very solid with Glen Wesley, Aaron Ward, Frankie Kaberle, Mike Commodore, Bret Hedican and Nik Wallin. They've got the veteran Oleg Tverdovsky in reserve. Martin Gerber ably backs up Ward in net.

The Oilers have a solid corps of defensive defensemen, some with offensive skills. Former Norris Trophy winner Chris Pronger is seen by outsiders as the leader of the defense, but that honor actually belongs to longtime captain Jason Smith. Smith's teammates speak with reverence of his toughness, character and leadership, to say nothing of his on-ice skills. Pronger, a captain in St. Louis, picked up points with his new teammates and significantly strengthened the squad's character by supporting Smith's leadership. His reward is a backbreaking average of 31:34 minutes per game in the playoffs. He's a big guy and he can handle it.

Those two are solidly backed by Jaroslav Spacek and Steve Staios. Second-year defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron is giving the Oilers a solid 14:43 minutes per game and rookie Matt Greene hasn't hurt the team while averaging 9:46 in 11 games. The only disappointment has been Dick Tarnstrom, acquired in a Jan. 26 trade to add scoring punch from the point on power plays. Tarnstrom has played in only seven Playoff games.

One of the Oilers' strengths is that an opponent can't focus defensively on one or two lines. The Oilers are getting scoring from all four lines. Ten forwards have three or more goals. Shawn Horcoff has emerged as the Playoffs team scoring leader with five goals and 12 assists. Edmonton native Fernando Pisani has been this year's goal-scoring star with nine goals and three assists. Ryan Smyth and Michael Peca both have five goals. Forwards Ales Hemsky and Jarret Stoll have four goals as does Pronger, who is tied with Horcoff with 17 points.

Coach Peter Laviolette brilliantly adapted the Hurricanes' individual attributes into a team game that excelled under the new rules and standard of rules enforcement. The Hurricanes dashed to an early season division lead, never stumbled and defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in the division by 20 points. It was an awesome season-long performance.

In analyzing Edmonton, we see a team with a core that has played together for a long time, augmented last summer by the additions of Pronger and Peca, further strengthened in January by the additions of Spacek and Tarnstrom and finished off in March with the acquisitions of Roloson, Samsonov and Rem Murray. The offense is varied, the defense experienced, effective and respected and the goalie impenetrable.

They have a blend of youth and experience. The coaching is experienced and clever. The Oilers excel on special teams.

The Hurricanes lost the first two games of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series to the Montreal Canadiens, then swept to four-straight victories. They then eliminated the New Jersey Devils in five games. They were all out for a seven-game win over a Buffalo team with a depleted defense.

In the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Edmonton defeated the best team in the regular season, the Central Division and Presidents' Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings. They then dispatched the San Jose Sharks and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Every opponent went away thinking they played better, but failed to solve the Oilers' shot blocking and opportunistic scoring.

In theory, the Oilers, who will have nine days off, should be well rested to take on a team that had a fatiguing series. But the Hurricanes have almost four days to rest in their hometowns. There should be no excuses for either side.

Carolina Game Breakers

1. Rod Brind'Amour: The Hurricanes captain has done it all this season, including scoring the Eastern Conference Final series-winning goal in the third period of Game 7. He takes most of his team's faceoffs and wins them. He pumped in 31 goals and added 39 assists in the regular season and six goals and nine assists so far in the Playoffs. He had five game-winning goals during the regular season and three so far in the playoffs.

2. Eric Staal: He has emerged as an important NHL player this season. He finished seventh in the NHL in regular-season scoring with 45 goals and 55 assists for 100 points. He had four game-winning goals in the regular season and one so far in the Playoffs. Staal leads the Playoffs in scoring with seven goals and 13 assists.

3. Cory Stillman: He is tied for second behind Staal for the playoffs' scoring lead with seven goals and 12 assists. He had the series-winning goals against Montreal and New Jersey and the overtime winner in Game 5 of the Buffalo. GM Jim Rutherford signed Stillman last summer to add a player who had won the Stanley Cup (Tampa Bay in 2004) and Stillman has exceeded expectations.

Edmonton Game Breakers

1. Dwayne Roloson: He has been waiting most of his life for this moment. The Oilers have been waiting nearly as long for a goalie who rose to big occasions. The great thing about Roloson is that he has been in this organization-rescue and rebuilding mode before and triumphed. Roloson was keystone player when UMass-Lowell beefed up its hockey program under coach Bruce Crowder in the early 1990s. He also played very well in tandem with Manny Fernandez when the expansion Minnesota Wild made its first and only Stanley Cup Playoff appearance in 2003. This is his second trip to the Final. He played in four games during the 1998-99 Playoffs as Dominik Hasek's backup in Buffalo, none in the finals. Asked on CBC if he was playing the best hockey of his life, Roloson responded, "No, this is how I play."

2. Chris Pronger: He won the 2000 Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman, a year in which he was also voted the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in the regular season. He's playing better now. He's so good that if you're rooting for the other team, or playing for the other team, you're justifiably scared every time he touches the puck. His passing is top notch and his powerful shot from the blue line sets up rebound goals and sends shot blockers to the bench for repairs. He's a giant at 6-foot-6 and seemingly heavier than his posted 220 pounds. He has speed, strength, savvy and a heavy shot. He was a tremendous acquisition last summer when the Oilers sent three defensemen to St. Louis to get him.

3. Sergei Samsonov: In the early years of the European invasion, a number of players were described as "too much Swedish, not enough finish," meaning great skating and puckhandling skills, but poor or infrequent shooters. Samsonov fit that description for most of his career, until it was discovered he needed corrective surgery on both wrists that had been broken before his pro career started. He got that surgery last year and then was dumped by the Boston Bruins in March, before they lost him to free agency. Samsonov is at last delivering on the promise that made him a first-round pick in 1997. He has three goals and 14 assists to tie for second in team Playoff scoring. That Samsonov has begun to again believe in himself is frightening to the opponent. His foot speed, hand-eye coordination and on-ice vision explain those 14 assists. He averaged .735 points per game in eight NHL seasons. He's averaging .823 points per game in these playoffs, a sure sign he's glad to be here.

X Factors

Glen Wesley (CAR): The defenseman would (quietly) crawl through broken glass on his bare belly to get his name on the Stanley Cup. And, he'd do it without a word. Wesley was the third-overall pick in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft and entered the League that fall, the first of his 18 seasons. This is his fourth Stanley Cup Final. He was with the Boston Bruins in 1988 and 1990 and the Hurricanes in 2002. Wesley, once an offensive defensive, is a top-notch defender with excellent passing skills, well suited to the changes that occurred this season. Wesley plays with an intermittent neck problem that benches him during some games. Teammates watch an awe as he fights off pain to return to the ice.

Rem Murray (EDM): He was a solid eight-year NHL player until neck pain drove him out of the sport after the 2003-04 season. He sat out the lockout year, felt better and signed to play with the AHL Houston Aeros this season. After posting 11 goals and 24 assists in 54 games, Murray signed with the Oilers on March 5 and played in only nine of the last 22 games, posting a goal and an assist. However, he has played in every game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the sixth time he has appeared in the postseason for the Oilers. He's averaging 7:38 minutes per game, often spelling centers Mike Peca, Shawn Horcoff and Jarret Stoll after special-teams situations. Murray assisted on Toby Peterson's first Playoff goal, against Anaheim, and had another assist against Detroit.