Roenick has played 1,321 NHL games and another 136 in the playoffs and all he's done is watch other people act like four-year-olds on Christmas morning.

"There's a massive sense of urgency for me," admitted the 38-year-old San Jose Sharks winger, who considers himself a role player now on the league's second-best regular-season team. But he also had a resurgence offensively after two lamentable seasons in Los Angeles and Phoenix, scoring 14 times -10 of them game-winners, No. 2 in the NHL in that category to Washington Capitals sniper Alex Ovechkin.

The number that counts most, though, is zero, as in no cups.

"I remember my early years in Chicago we made the semifinals twice and the finals once (1992). I was young and it was flowing pretty easy back then. Playing on this San Jose team is probably the best opportunity I'll ever have. This is a much better defensive team than the one we had in Chicago (they lost to Pittsburgh in '92) and we're more adept at scoring goals. But the Hawks had great role players and we'll see if ours can pull their weight to win a cup," said Roenick, who considers himself one of those lunch-pailers.

Mike Keenan was Roenick's coach 16 years ago. Now he's behind the opposing Calgary bench for this first-round series and Roenick remains a huge fan. He still gets a kick out of Keenan's manipulating ways.

"During the '92 Stanley Cup final, I got slashed by (Penguins') Kevin Stevens and Mike threw a cast on my hand and threw me in front of all the media at a press conference, trying to get his point across that they were cheap-shotting us and slashing us and the referees were blind and missing everything. He used me as the guinea pig to show why we were getting screwed by the referees. It was kind of embarrassing, but you have to do what Mike Keenan says," laughed Roenick.

He fully expects Keenan to be up to his old tricks again in the series with the Sharks.

"I think he's toned down a lot, but he can still get into players' heads. He can manipulate people with what comes out of his mouth. He's a genius at it," said Roenick. "I'll be telling our guys to put the earplugs in."

Roenick wasn't deaf to the cries he should retire last spring. He was fed up and seemingly unable to do much offensively (20 goals and 50 points total those last two years in L.A. and Phoenix), but he changed his mind when former Hawks teammate Doug Wilson, now the Sharks GM, called.

Roenick kept his head down, worked industriously throughout the lineup, and with three shootout winners on top of his 10 game-winners in regular-season, it led the league.

"My mouth has got me into a lot of trouble and almost did a couple of times this year, but I was able to bite it and move on," he said, with a laugh. "It's a lot easier when you're part of a winning organization and not the spotlight. I enjoyed that feeling, watching other people lead."

He was one of Wilson's most portable players, night to night.

"I played better than I expected I would ... there were times I was on the top line playing 20, 21 minutes a game. On an average I was about 14 minutes a night, though, which is perfect for the style I see myself playing now," said Roenick, who has 509 goals and 1,203 points. Still, there's no Cup and only one trip to the finals in almost 20 years.

"I signed here with the expectation of giving it one final shot and calling it a career," said Roenick. "But I feel great physically. I feel I can skate all day long. It's been an uplifting experience in San Jose. Maybe it won't be my last shot, unless we win the Cup and I have to rethink it. I think I can keep it going another year, and Doug (Wilson) seems to think I should play another year, too."