Get out the brooms . . .

As sad as it makes me to say this, I think the Edmonton Oilers hopes of winning their first Stanley Cup in 16 years effectively ended last night.

You can look at two plays from last night's heartbreaker that Oil fans everywhere will look back on with gritted teeth.

Obviously the biggest, and most damaging, play was the one that led to the loss of Conn Smythe candidate Dwayne Roloson. For a guy who has been bumped around the entire playoffs, the collision that led to his season-ending injury looked to be one of the more harmless bumps that he'd suffered so far.

I'll never understand why defencemen feel the need to drill opposing teams forwards into their defenseless tenders. How many goalies have been injured this way? That's exactly what happened last night when Marc-Andre Bergeron sent Andrew Ladd crashing into "Rollie the Goalie" and basically handed the Hurricanes the Stanley Cup as a result.

I'm not a die hard Oilers fan so I don't necessarily feel bad about saying that for all intensive purposes, they are done. As a Canadian hockey fan I certainly hope that they can pull off the improbably and still capture the Cup. Lord knows they are certainly deserving of that title.

Aside from their unfortunate geographic location in Raleigh, NC, the Caroline Hurricanes are a pretty likeable team as well. There are a lot of good Canadian boys on that team and they, like the Oilers, are certainly a team that has worked hard and earned every success they've enjoyed to this point.

To come back from a 3-0 deficit to a team as solid as the Oilers is no small feat. The 'Canes never stop coming at you. What's not to like about players like Eric Staal, Mark Recchi, Ray Whitney, Rod Brindamour and the unbelievable Cam Ward?

If the Oilers avoid a sweep in this championship series I'll consider that a small victory for them. Let's face it, losing Roloson means losing the Cup. They may as well go without a goalie and play six players all game in the hopes of winning 16-15 because having a fourth forward would probably be better for them then putting either Conklin or Markannen between the pipes.

I certainly hope one of these goalies prove me wrong. In all honesty, I would like nothing more than to be dead wrong here. This just seems like as much of a sure thing as you can get in sports though.

That being said, you can't ever count out the character of the boys from the City of Champions. No team has better leadership and character than this group of players that Kevin Lowe has assembled. They've been the underdogs since the first night of the playoffs and seem to thrive on that role. If they do manage to somehow pull this off it will be one of the greatest championship runs of all time. Something every Canadian hockey fan can truly be proud of.

So, Ty Conklin and Jussi Markannen, prove me wrong . . . PLEASE. Go out there and help write the happy ending to this Cinderella story. And for heaven's sake, stay in your crease and let your d-men play the puck!