Lupul’s Friends Won’t Be of Much Help Now

Joffrey Lupul, who grew up near Edmonton, saw this coming and was prepared. His cellphone began ringing the moment the Edmonton Oilers eliminated the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.

“I had about 30 calls and text messages from friends, all about how we are going down against the Oilers,” said Lupul, who is from nearby Fort Saskatchewan.

His solution was to turn off the phone.

Lupul’s family had season tickets to Oilers games when he was a kid and attended “about 25 games each season. Anytime I wasn’t playing hockey.”

Being an Oilers fan that long, Lupul knows there will be few pulling for him this week.

“My family will be cheering for me, that’s about it,” Lupul said.

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The Ducks’ Corey Perry was very nearly in the opponent’s dressing room this week.

Perry was set to be traded to the Oilers for forward Mike Comrie in December 2003. Bryan Murray, then the Ducks’ general manager, thought the deal was done. But then Oilers General Manager Kevin Lowe asked Comrie to repay part of his signing bonus.

The deal fell apart.

Perry, a Ducks first-round draft pick in 2003, was trying to make the Canadian team for the World Juniors Championship at the time. “The only questions I was getting were about Comrie, the trade and Anaheim,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything about [the trade], so all I did was focus on the world juniors.”

Comrie went to the Philadelphia Flyers for Jeff Woywitka and two draft picks. Woywitka, in turn, was part of the trade that brought St. Louis defenseman Chris Pronger to the Oilers. Perry, meanwhile, scored 13 goals in 56 regular-season games for the Ducks. “I was glad it didn’t happen,” Perry said. “This is where my heart is.”

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The Ducks are a hit in Australia, apparently.

A radio station in Melbourne called Thursday to request a player interview. Chris Kunitz was given the Down-Under duty.

“I think they like hockey because it’s a little like rugby, with the hitting,” Kunitz said.

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And you thought all this time that hockey players grew beards during the playoffs out of superstition, or for team unity.

As in so many aspects of life, it’s a case of following the money.

“I don’t know about tradition; it’s because I don’t like shaving. I hate it,” Ducks goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov said. “You have to buy the razor, spend the money, and buy the cream and spend the money. Who wants to shave?”

The Ducks are itchy not just to play, but because a month’s worth of facial hair has most players chafing and scratching. A few have decided to buck the trend -- Samuel Pahlsson and Teemu Selanne are smooth-faced -- but Scott Niedermayer and Jean-Sebastien Giguere have thick, bushy beards and most of their teammates are similarly scruffy.

“It’s been kind of annoying,” Andy McDonald said, scratching his face.

Giguere agreed. “I’m not going to shave it, but this is the last time I do it,” he said. “I don’t know why I did it this year because it didn’t work. ... It’s too itchy. It’s not me.”

Defenseman Sean O’Donnell sees his beard as a badge of pride.

“This is just a tradition thing,” he said. “I don’t like it, but I’m happy I have one right now because it’s been a month and we’re still playing.”

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The Oilers’ Michael Peca, a two-time Selke Trophy winner earning nearly $4 million this season, has taken a lot of heat because of subpar offensive numbers. But he drew only cheers from the Oilers faithful after his performance in the Game 6 series-clinching victory over San Jose.

The 32-year-old veteran scored Edmonton’s first goal on a breakaway after winning a one-on-one battle with the Sharks’ Scott Hannan. He also won 12 of 19 faceoffs and keyed a penalty-killing unit that erased all eight Sharks power plays. Afterward, Oilers Coach Craig MacTavish said Peca played “as close to a perfect game as you can play.” Peca, whom the Oilers acquired in a trade for Mike York in August, had only nine goals and 14 assists this season.

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Times staff writer Eric Stephens contributed to this report.