From the Archive: Devils In 3-D

The Hockey News Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 stories for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com. Today, we will revisit a story from Mark Brender from 2004.

Born in the early 1980s, the New Jersey Devils burst into adulthood in the spring of ’94. That’s when they realized they were onto something big. This thing they were building now had talent, it had backbone, and it had staying power.

Naturally, nobody cared. ’Ninety-four will live forever as the year Mark Messier booked his lifetime reservation at the dinner table of New York sporting heroes. In ’94, Stephane Matteau became a household name, Mike Keenan became a soon-to-be-fired Stanley Cup winner, and for the first time in 54 years, the shine was back on hockey in the Big Apple. Out of sight and out of mind, the Devils never; the less had a feeling their time would be next. And, unlike the rival Rangers, they could see theirs would be no one-shot deal. It was because of the Rock, the Roll, and the Wall.

The treasures arrived once a year for three years like stunning back-to-school gifts from: an out-of-touch uncle: Scott Stevens in: 1991, awarded in a historic compensation decision for St. Louis’s free agent signing of Brendan Shanahan; Scott; Niedermayer in 1992, a year after the Devils made him the third overall pick in the draft; Martin Brodeur in 1993, three years after the Devils made him the 20th overall pick in 1990. The Rock, the Roll, the Wall.

In their first season together, they ran headfirst into destiny. Down 3-2 in the ’94 Eastern Conference final, Messier guaranteed victory in Game 6 and delivered with a hat trick; and Matteau threw the knockout punch with a Game 7 double-overtime wraparound. When the Devils’ pain dulled, the perspective kicked in.

“I remember Scotty and me talking about that, saying we finally got things in place,” said longtime New Jersey defender Ken Daneyko, now retired, of a post-series conversation with Stevens.

MATURATION PROCESS

“I don’t know if we knew we were going to win the next year, but that kind of was a stepping stone… Anything less than a championship after losing to the Rangers there was going to be a disappointment. That’s the mentality the organization took from then on. We knew there’s no more excuses, we’ve got the players now. We had a lot of heart, we had a lot of character along the way, but now we’ve got enough talent, too.”

The Devils had emerged from the embarrassment of the 1980s to post three winning seasons in four years, but the new recruits pushed things to an entirely new level. New Jersey never before had a fluid puck-mover who could lug the puck out and start the transition game by himself. They never before had a big-game goalie, so composed and confident. They never before had the most-feared hitter in the game and a perennial all-star anchoring the blueline.

With Rock and Roll protecting the Wall, Pink Floyd had nothing on these guys and Devils GM Lou Lamoriello for seizing on a concept and crafting a masterpiece. For the next decade at least, neither would the rest of the NHL.

“Scotty, Marty and Nieder are our franchise guys,” said defenseman Cohn White recently to the Newark Star-Ledger. “After that, we all just try to chip in.”

THE WALL

The Devils make no bones about it: their team is built from goalie Martin Brodeur out.

Defense may win championships, but it rarely wins hearts. Put aside whatever local allegiances pulled the heartstrings 20 years ago and fess up: if you were a hockey fan in the mid-1980s, you had to gawk enviously at the sweater-flapping flair of the Edmonton Oilers. They played the game with verve and with panache. To a fault, they’d rather score a goal than prevent one.

The same goes for the Mario Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr-Ron Francis Penguins of the early 1990s, as well as, to a slightly lesser degree, the strong Colorado and Detroit teams in recent years. All played an up-tempo, attacking, puck-control game whose entertainment value was indisputable. Their excellence demanded admiration.

So it goes with the Devils. The novelty here is if they’re more than a tad defensive in the way they go about things, the fans, for the moment, have forgiven.

It’s fitting none of those other teams were ever granted the specific gesture of respect recently bestowed upon the Devils. When Brodeur and the two Scotts (Stevens’s health pending) line up for the opening faceoff of the 54th All-Star Game Feb. 8 in Minneapolis, it will mark the first time in 18 years of fan voting that the two starting defensemen and goalie positions will be filled by members of the same team. Could there be a more appropriate tribute to the defensive epoch the three linchpins helped usher in with that first Stanley Cup in 1995?

FANS APPRECIATE DEFENSE

“Scotty’s been sick so (the three of us) haven’t really talked about it, but I’m sure well get to it,” Brodeur said. “I think the guys in the dressing room are really excited for us. We hear in New Jersey a lot of people say, you know, we’re a boring team to watch…I think (the all-star votes) said a lot about the fans, that they appreciate our game.”

Now in their 11th season together, Rock, Roll and Wall have been in New Jersey for all three Cups in 1995,2000 and 2003 (along with Sergei Brylin, a rookie in 1995, and Daneyko, a rookie in, oh, 1953). If Stevens plays in the All-Star Game it will be an extra treat for the Scotts; over all the years they’ve rarely found themselves on the ice at the same time.

Only Detroit, with Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Kris Draper and Darren McCarty, has been able to keep three or more players together as long as New Jersey’s trio. Colorado’s Adam Foote, Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg, in Year 10, are close behind.

IT WAS ON MY JERSEY SO I SAID, ’ALL RIGHT, SOUNDS GOOD TO ME.’ I FIGURED I KNEW WHAT TO DO WITH IT.-NEW JERSEY DEFENSEMAN SCOTT NIEOERMAYER, ON WEARING THE X’ WHILE SCOTT STEVENS IS OUT

-

“I think winning the Cups as we have recently and going to the final three of the last four years, fans have seen these players perform, perform at the level that gave them the recognition that they readily deserve,” Lamoriello said. “It wasn’t really a surprise to me, in my mind in some cases, long overdue.”

Although the Devils went 3-3-1-0 in their first seven games without the captain, who was diagnosed with first the flu and then post-concussion syndrome after feeling run down and “down emotionally,” the way they talked about his absence, as if they were all carrying an extra burden of responsibility, reinforced how crucial Stevens is to their collective identity. Even coach Pat Burns said it was strange not to have Stevens on the ice.

RARELY MISSING IN ACTION

In the 11 seasons since becoming captain in 1992, the all-time games played leader among defensemen with 1,635 had missed a total of 22 regular season games before his recent time off. It’s not known when Stevens sustained the concussion, nor how long he’ll be out of action.

But it also said much about the respect Niedermayer commands in the dressing room that, when Stevens was out for the first time Jan. 9 versus Tampa, Lamoriello and coach Pat Burns - OK, make that Lamoriello - put the ‘C’ on Niedermayer’s jersey. In other cases when Stevens was out during his time in New Jersey, the Devils opted to go without a replacement captain. As is the Devils’ way, they made the shift with zero fuss. Niedermayer didn’t find out until just before game time.

“I just got to the rink, it was on my jersey, so I said, ’All right, sounds good to me,”

Niedermayer said. “I figured I knew what to do with it.”

He’d Roll with it, naturally. It’s a way of life for the 30-year-old skating machine, who would have been a worthy Conn Smythe Trophy recipient last year had it not gone to Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Often overlooked in the regular season, Niedermayer’s playoff performances continually draw rave reviews as the Devils go deep into the playoffs each spring.

“He doesn’t get nearly the recognition and he likes it that way,” Daneyko said. “He’s got a lot more heart than people think because the game is so easy to him because he’s so fluid, people don’t understand. But I’ve seen in the room how much he cares in the playoffs and he turns it up a notch.”

That’s a description that still might qualify as an understatement for Stevens. From Slava Kozlov to Tie Domi, from Shane Willis to Ron Francis, from Eric Lindros to Paul Kariya, the Rock has made a habit of inflicting springtime damage, no less predictable than melting mountain snow flooding the valley. A crushing hit on Kozlov in the 1995 final against Detroit had the Wings vowing revenge until Stevens pointed to his shoulder and spat with venom at the Wings bench, You’re next!

“I think that was the whole series right there,” Daneyko said. “He looked at their team and he meant it and I think they were well aware, it wasn’t until the yapping stopped, that yeah, we might be.”

STEVENS GROWS UP

Niedermayer and Brodeur are true homegrown Devils; Stevens might as well be, because he did his growing up in Jersey as well. When in Washington, Stevens would fly into a rage at the slightest provocation. The Devils used to talk about getting him mad as a matter of strategy. It was after the Rangers series in 1994, Daneyko said, that Stevens finally realized he’d never be his best until he learned to keep his temper in check. That was the same season Brodeur came to town.

“I was a Montreal Canadiens fan, so Scott Stevens, I never really saw and followed his career,” Brodeur said. “I kind of learned playing with him what kind of man he is.”

The Devils learned the same of Brodeur. He was rarely among the league leaders in save percentage, yet his play under pressure has to rank among the all-time greats. Because of the Devils’ defensive focus, he has made a Hall of Fame career by winning tight, one-goal games, the kind where a bad goal can be a backbreaker. At 31, Brodeur has taken on a leadership role as well.

“I think the year 2000, when we won the Cup, I kind of felt that I needed to take the team to a different level,” he said. “Now we had young guys coming in for the first time, like (Scott) Gomez, White, (John) Madden, (Brian) Rafalski, so I needed to step up, along with other guys. But that’s where I felt more that I was a veteran on this team than just one of the key players.”

And if there’s any team that needs strong leadership from core players, this is it. Lamoriello’s ship isn’t just tight; it’s in a permavice. There’s little room for dissent or outspokenness. There’s not another team in the league that would have forced Pat Burns to shave his mustache. There’s not another team in the league that, when asked to help contact “special assignment coach” Larry Robinson for an interview, would politely refuse to do so, explaining the Hall of Famer and six-time Cup winner falls under the category of assistant coach and sorry, Devils assistant coaches are not allowed to talk to the media.

The Rock, the Roll and the Wall, all-star starters all, provide the Devils with all the leadership they need.

“It goes to show you finally, it’s come full circle, cause I knew all along we had stars on our team,” Daneyko said. “It’s just that we’ve never promoted it, we’ve been all within house, team h concept, and that’s the way the players, even those guys, have wanted it as 1 well, because it is all about winning J championships for those guys. They should be awful proud and it’s certainly well deserved.”

Three Devils voted all-star starters. By the fans. It still amazes. And on the Eighth Day, the swamp shall be filled with champagne, the parking lot overrun with daffodils.