Stillman a Man in Perpetual Motion

Driving to the RBC Center on Tuesday, Cory Stillman couldn’t hold back a smile when he saw Carolina Hurricanes car flags rippling in the breeze and tents pitched in the parking lot to accommodate the pregame tailgating that has become a tradition here.

Today’s festivities, though, will be like none before.

The Hurricanes can clinch their first Stanley Cup championship tonight with a victory over the Edmonton Oilers, and Stillman can become only the second player to win the Cup with two different teams in consecutive seasons. Like his teammates, the 32-year-old left wing is eager to get the party started, but he’s not practicing his champagne-cork popping just yet.

“It would be nice to win in front of your home fans, and it’s going to be exciting and loud in here,” said Stillman, who won the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and is in position to duplicate the feat Claude Lemieux accomplished by winning the Cup with New Jersey in 1995 and Colorado in 1996.

“But we have to remember that we don’t have to put on a show. We just have to play our game.”

Their game is based on skill seasoned with grit and animated by energy, with a dash of good timing thrown in. It’s a formula Stillman exemplifies.

Stillman, set loose by the Lightning when management decided to keep its superstars and couldn’t fit him into a new budget, scored 21 goals and 76 points this season to tie for second among the Hurricanes. He has excelled in the playoffs, scoring series-clinching goals in the first round against Montreal and in the second round against New Jersey. He has recorded a point in 12 straight games, contributing six goals and 16 points during that span.

That total includes having scored the tying goal and assisting on Mark Recchi’s winner Monday night at Edmonton, a performance that gave the Hurricanes a 3-1 series lead and three chances to earn the one triumph that stands between them and the franchise’s first Cup.

Hurricanes Coach Peter Laviolette said Tuesday that whenever he’s asked about Stillman’s value, he thinks back to the introductory news conference the Hurricanes held to announce they’d sign Stillman.

“At the time, we were the lowest-scoring team in the league,” Laviolette said, “and my response was we expect him to bring his 80 points, which he did, and we expect him to make other players on our team better, which he did. We expect him to bring his Stanley Cup experience, which he did.”

Stillman has also brought a quiet confidence and maturity to a team that smoothly blends youngsters, players in the middle of their careers and veterans.

Like Stillman, Recchi got his name on the Cup once before, with Pittsburgh in 1991. But veterans Rod Brind’Amour, Glen Wesley and Doug Weight have toiled for years without earning the sport’s ultimate reward. Then there’s 22-year-old rookie goaltender Cam Ward and 21-year-old center Eric Staal, both potential superstars who are enjoying success at an early stage of their careers, but are learning from players such as Stillman the amount of effort required to take the final step in a long playoff journey.

Stillman recalled that during the 2004 Cup finals the Calgary Flames relaxed after they’d built a 3-2 series lead over the Lightning and lost at home, setting up a Game 7 loss at Tampa. Stillman is on the other side now and is intent on ensuring that the Hurricanes don’t squander this chance tonight. Should a sixth game be necessary, it would be played Saturday at Edmonton. A seventh game would be played Monday in Raleigh.

“When we went there, we had the confident feeling that we were going to win,” Stillman said. “That was just the buildup of that team. It’s a buildup of this team. ... We expect to go to the rink every night and win hockey games. That’s our mind-set right now.”

But he hasn’t forgotten the Oilers’ second-round rally from a 2-0 series deficit against San Jose and said the Hurricanes won’t let up tonight.

“They’re a hard-working team and that’s why they’re here,” he said. “They’ve played great teams, and until we win and it’s closed out, we will not take them for granted.”

Then, they can party.