Oilers arrive in Raleigh

They're here! The Travelling Wilburys, or whoever they are, finally arrived for the Stanley Cup final.
Actually they're the Edmonton Oilers, but they could be just about anybody to the folks here, not having played the Carolina Hurricanes here since 2001 and nobody knowing where the heck Edmonton is anyway.
But they're here!
Let the Stanley Cup final begin!
For a team with a nine-day break between games, the Oilers certainly cut it fine here yesterday.

For a team with a nine-day break between games, the Oilers certainly cut it fine here yesterday.

First a van rolled up and Ryan Smyth, Chris Pronger and Dwayne Roloson, direct from the airport, jumped out and were hustled -- without having time to stop to sign autographs for four Oiler fans camped in front of the Marriott Crabtree -- to a press conference scheduled to start one minute after their arrival.
"Seeing you guys just magnifies everything," said Smyth as he sat down on the dais in a room filled with media.
Eight days is a long time to wait to get to your dream after you realized it. For nine straight seasons Pronger had made the playoffs but suddenly he was here.
"Today is probably the first day I've finally felt like we're getting close to play in the Stanley Cup final," he said.
Smyth said if they had to wait another day it might have gotten ugly.
"We needed to get here because the last couple of practices we had at our get-away were scrimmages and were getting a little intense. I think if it went on any longer we'd have had some scraps. It's time to play."
The three stayed on the dais for the better part of half an hour while NHL support staffers nervously awaited their team bus. It, too, arrived in the nick of time.
The players paraded directly to the ballroom where their sweaters were draped on the walls and where they were required to stand in front of them, on 2' x 2' risers, to take questions.
"It's exciting to walk in here. It's exciting to be here," said Shawn Horcoff.
But they hadn't been there long when some picked up on the tone of the questioning which was focused a lot on the Oilers being the first eighth seed to get to the final.
"We're a very good team," said Ethan Moreau. "It's not like we're a bunch of nobodies who got this far."
When everybody had filled their notebooks in that session, it was back to the press conference room where GM Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish were ushered in.
It was suggested to MacTavish that the fans here don't know much about the Oilers or about Edmonton and wondered if the reverse was true.
"They know," he said.
"They know exactly where Raleigh is right now. It's the centre of the universe in Edmonton right now."
Lowe laughed.
"They probably know your team a lot better than your fans know our team. And probably every one of them has come golfing here at some point of their lives."
MacTavish jumped in.
"To get away from that blistering heat in Edmonton."
Seriously, though ...
"It's a little bit different venue here than what is maybe the norm in the Stanley Cup final. We'll get a sense of it very quickly. We just flew in so we really don't have a sense of the atmosphere yet other than what we've seen on TV. The atmosphere looks pretty electric in the building, so we're looking forward to that. We're ready to play a game."
Tonight it begins.
HERE'S HOPING ...
"I think what's going to make this series really exciting is that there's great drama from both dressing rooms. I think there are all sorts of great storylines in this series. Let's hope the Oilers are the final storyline," said Lowe.
"Obviously there are going to be some ramifications in terms of our readiness," said MacTavish. "Are we going to be refreshed and energized or are we going to have a tough time adjusting to the quicker pace of the game having been off for nine days? As a coach, I don't have an answer. I'm as interested as anybody else to see."
With that, he and his hockey team went and checked into their hotel. They're here!