Wesley remains on own cup quest

RALEIGH -- Glen Wesley has been close enough to it to read the names on it, but he refused to touch it. Though he dreamed as a kid of holding it one day, he really doesn't like to talk about it. The Stanley Cup.

On Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes open play against the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Wesley again will be on the ice for the Canes, on defense, for his 156th career playoff game.

No other active NHL player has been in more playoff games without winning a Cup. No one even is that close, with Jeremy Roenick of the Los Angeles Kings second at 136 games.

The record for most playoff games without a Cup is 186 games by Dale Hunter, who played with Quebec, Washington and Colorado from 1980 to 1999, according to Elias Sports Bureau statistics.

Asked about his somewhat dubious mark this week, Wesley shrugged.

"I didn't know that," he said. "You can look at it two ways. One is getting opportunities and the longevity you have and the experience of it. Some guys don't get opportunities their whole career.

"To be able to do it at this stage of my career obviously would be icing on the cake. It would be fantastic. I've got another shot, another opportunity. Hopefully, we can make the best of it."

The Canes, seeded second in the Eastern Conference, have won eight playoff games in besting the Montreal Canadiens and then the New Jersey Devils in their first two playoff series. But that leaves them only halfway to the Stanley Cup. They still need eight more wins.

"I use the analogy that we're halfway up Everest," Wesley said, smiling. To which captain Rod Brind'Amour added, "Yeah, climbing Everest with danger every step of the way. One slip and you're dead."

Brind'Amour, who has played 127 playoff games without a Cup, said most sports fans can't fathom how difficult it is to survive four consecutive best-of-seven series.

"Every game feels like a Super Bowl, the way it goes up and down," he said. "And you have to win 16 of those to win the Cup. It's pretty incredible."

So close, so fleeting

Wesley, 37, was a first-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins in 1987 and reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1988, his rookie season, when the Bruins were beaten by a powerful Edmonton Oilers team led by Wayne Gretzky. In 1990, it was a repeat when the Oilers again ripped the Bruins.

"You're young, and you think it will come along every two or three years," Wesley said. "Trust me, it doesn't come around often."

One of Wesley's former Boston teammates, defenseman Ray Bourque, spent 22 years in the league before finally holding the Cup. That was in 2001, when Bourque played his final season with the Colorado Avalanche.

Not long after Colorado's victory, Wesley was at a party with Bourque. And the Cup.

"It's one of those things you look at and see the names on it," Wesley said of the old silver trophy.

But touch it? Wesley would not do it. It's a part of hockey superstition that you touch it only after you've won it.

"To be able to grab it one day is everybody's dream as a kid," said Wesley, who grew up in Red Deer, Alberta.

A little something extra

Canes defenseman Aaron Ward realized that dream when he was 24. Ward twice was able to grab the Cup and then have fun with it -- once taking it into the shower with him for a scrub -- as a member of the Detroit Red Wings' Cup-winning teams in 1997 and 1998.

"You have to earn it," Ward said. "There's a certain amount of respect that goes with winning a Stanley Cup. People can discount it and talk about NBA championships or Super Bowls, but there's a certain amount of je ne sais quoi that it takes to win it."

That is, it's something that's hard to define, to put into words.

"When you win," Ward said, "you realize it's something to behold and certainly nothing you can take for granted."

In 2002, Wesley and Ward were in their third Stanley Cup finals. The Hurricanes won the first game against the Red Wings, only to lose the next four.

Now, the Canes are back in the Eastern finals. Although the Sabres' playoff run has been impressive, the teams left in the Cup quest hardly rival the talent-thick Oilers of 1988 or the Red Wings of 2002.

But Wesley, in his 18th NHL season, knows better than to get too far ahead of himself. There's no time to dwell on the Cup.

"You don't even think about that with a very difficult series coming up, with so much work ahead of you," he said. "Both teams know how important this is. Both know you don't get too many opportunities like this."