Saturday 26 May 2012

new jersey devils advance to cup finals



I thought the New Jersey Devils would be put out in the first round by the surprising Florida Panthers.  But here they are, in the Cup finals, four victories away from giving Martin Brodeur his fourth Cup ring. Not bad for a franchise who called three cities home in it's first eight years. After two unsuccessful seasons in their founding city playing as the Kansas City Scouts they moved to Denver in 1976 becoming the Colorado Rockies and fared marginally better, but lasted just six seasons before settling in New Jersey for the 1982-83 season. The team didn't play very well in the first couple seasons in Jersey, and were publicly humiliated by Gretzky after the Oilers routed the Devils 13-4 in November of the 1983-84 season. 99 was upset the former teammate and friend Ron Low played for a franchise that was not NHL worthy. "Well, it's time they got their act together folks. They're ruining the whole league. They had better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization and put someone on the ice," said Gretzky after the victory. He later publicly admitted he regretted the comment, but that didn't stop fans in Jersey from wearing Mickey Mouse tshirt, fake ears or any other Mickey like paraphernalia they could get their hands on for the Oilers visit to Jersey later in the season. The Devils were in the basement of their division, or close to it, until April 1987 when they named Lou Lamoriello, former Providence College GM and athletic director, as team president, and shortly after that Lou appointed himself as GM before his first season. His first season was quite the change for the Devils, who around a strong nucleus of young players like Kirk Muller, Pat Verbeerk, John McLean, made it all the way to the conference finals, losing to the Boston Bruins in 7 games. Fast forward to 1994, where the Devils are now a legitimately good team, whose team now boasted the likes of Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Danyko, Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Bobby Holik, Claude Lemieux and this years playoff renaissance man, Martin Brodeur, who had just captured the Calder Trophy as the league best rookie. This was the year of Mark Messier legendary guarantee in game six that the Rangers would win. The Devils would go on to lose the series after Messier's game six natural hat trick and Stephane Matteau's double overtime goal to win it for the Rangers in game seven. It is viewed as one of the best playoff series in the history of the NHL. The next season would not end in disappointment, however, as they swept the powerhouse favourite Detroit Red Wings, bringing New Jersey it's first pro sports championship of any kind. They couldn't keep the momentum going the following season, suffering from the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover all season long, and they missed the playoffs. After two first round exits, and a second round exit the Devils entered the next season playing great hockey, but nearing the end of the season the team was showing cracks, so Lamoriello fired his coach Robbie Ftorek  and replaced him with assistant coach (former Montreal Canadien before finishing up his career in Los Angeles) Larry Robinson. It was a gamble to change coaches late in the season, especially since they had one of the best records in the league, but the move turned out to be a master stroke. The Devils took out the Panthers, Maple Leafs and Flyers then beat the defending champion Dallas Stars in six games to win the Cup. Carry-overs from the 1995 team like Stevens, Niedermayer, and Brodeur were joined by key performers Patrick Elias, Petr Sykora, Jason Arnott, Alex Mogily, Brian Rafalski, John Madden and Scotty Gomez… and made up what I thought was the deepest of their three championship teams. Just a couple short seasons later the Devils found themselves in the finals again against the Cinderella Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim and were taken to seven games before claiming their third Cup. The team, since Lamoriello took over in 1987 have made the playoffs 21 out of 24 seasons, 13 playoff births in a row from 1997-2010, and have made it to the finals 5 times winning 3 times, with a possible 4th coming soon. Still hope LA wins.. Series starts Wednesday in New Jersey!

Brodeur as a rookie
Super Captain Scott Stevens

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