I've rarely done a game on these that actually had a real impact on me - rarely did one that had one of my teams playing. But there's a first time for everything. If I had to name my four favorite teams, it would be the Astros, Raiders, Colts and Devils in some order. The first three all had been the worst team in their respective league at least once, all getting the top pick. The Devils were the exception for much of my youth. They were great. They were dominant. They won Cups when I was a kid. They made the playoffs every year in my school life (1996-2009) except for the year when the season didn't happen. This year, while they weren't the worst team in the NHL, they got the first pick. It was a sad time, the one team that never really hit rock bottom did so. More than anything, it made me long for the days of respectability, the days when they mattered.
The Devils won the Stanley Cup in 1995, when I was 4 and didn't know what hockey was. They won again in 2000, clinching the Cup in double overtime, with a 9-year old watching near at 1AM in his parents bedroom. They won again in 2003, when I was 12 and followed them throughout their season and postseason. They remained good through my age 13-19 years, my whole middle and high school life and first year of college, but never made it back beyond the second round of the playoffs. The Devils peaked. The Marty era, while still great, would never be great enough again. The most successful team I ever rooted for would never give me that feeling of satisfaction again after I was 13. It was sad to think the height of joy of rooting for my hockey team would occur when I was barely a teenager.
In 2011, all those slightly negative feelings I admitted to were hardened by their first season without making the playoffs in basically my lifetime. It was supposed to end there. The long road to becoming the team with the #1 pick in 2017 started then and there. But luckily we had 2012 - our one last moment of glory.
The Devils in 2012 were actually talented. They should have been good. They were good. They had the best offensive season the Devils had since about 2000-2001 (a year where they, wait for it, led the NHL in goals scored). They had a healthy Kovalchuk joining Parise, Elias, Zajac, Zubrus, Clarkson, and others on the most talented offensive lineup the Devils had in ages. The defense was a mess, and Brodeur was old. It was a weird reverse of so many other Devils seasons. They got the #6 seed, and struggled through a 7-game series against the Florida Panthers, by far the East's worst team that year. The Devils struggles there should have been a harbinger; instead it was just them getting over the jitters.
The second round saw the Devils fly past Philadelphia, a team that had hilariously undressed the Penguins in teh 1st round. The Devils won in 5 quick games, getting offensive explosions coupled by great Brodeur games. For the first time in 9 years, the Devils were in the Conference Finals. And they got the Rangers. I was too young for 1994. I did remember 2006, when the Devils swept the Rangers in the 1st round, and 2008, when the Rangers paid back the favor, but the analogue here was 1994. A series I knew from mythology more than memory, with Matteau, Matteau, Matteau etched into the hardened soul of me, like it was for every Devils fan.
The Rangers long, storied failure to win the Stanley Cup ended because the Devils blew a Game 6 at home, and then lost in triple OT. The Devils will never be the #1 team in the New York area, but performance-wise they were on the ice. Of course, in their biggest moment against a local rival, they lost in heart-breaking fashion. They had a chance to collect on that debt, 18 years later, against the best Rangers team since 1994. And man they did make good.
The first five games were all close and well played. The teams were so even, with the Devils having more top-flight talent (Parise, Kovalchuk, Elias), the Rangers more depth, and equal talent and performance in net, with the reborn Marty Brodeur scorpion-saving his way to a draw with Henrik Lundvist. The Devils entered Game 6 in a familiar position, a chance to clinch the East over their rivals at home, with the specter of a Game 7 in New York staring them in the face. This time, they came through.
The game started auspiciously in the 1st period. The Devils dominated the opening, and scored the opening goal from a quick rush by their great 4th line that dominated the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The line was created right before the playoffs started, with Ryan Carter centering Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier. None were big, none looked like the old 'crash' line that dominated the playoffs in teh Devils 1995 run, but they had the same energy and frenetic pace of play.
The second goal was more exacting, a perfectly executed power play possession, with four quick-fire passes. It was Peter Harrold to Adam Henrique to David Clarkson to Dainus Zubrus, and finally across goal to Ilya Kovalchuk, who one-timed it right by Lundqvist. It was tic-tac-toe passing, a type of play the Devils could have never made back when I loved watching them from 2000-2007. It was such a surreal moment to see the Devils to score that type of goal. The rout was on... so I hoped.
Instead the Rangers showed their resilience, showed why they were the top team in the East that regular season. They carried long stretches of the 2nd period, tying the game, setting the stage for an epic, harrowing ending. Playoff hockey is like no other experience on earth. Even worse when it is your team involved, even more worse when it is against their biggest rival, a team you have to pay back for previous ills.
The third period was breathtaking, end to end, with an openness that was unnerving and unnatural. Only once before had the Devils played a similar third period in a key playoff game. It was one of my favorite games ever - one I may detail in this series as well. It was the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 against Ottawa. If anything, this time it was a Game 6. But no Devils fan wanted any part of Game 7 at MSG. They needed that game, but they couldn't beat Hank, and the Rangers couldn't beat Marty.
Devils games against the Rangers have historically been infiltrated by hordes of Rangers fans. Playoff games were generally no different. Their fanbase is that much larger, on the whole more wealthy, and while no New Yorker would admit it, Newark is fairly easy to get to. This game was different. There were relatively few Rangers fans. The Devils chants drowned the Rangers out easily. There was an energy running through that building, even in a nerve-wracking 3rd period of an elimination game. But to get the 1994 allegory perfectly accurate, the game couldn't end in the 3rd period. It needed overtime.
As a Devils fan, I have always feared overtime. I would think any hockey fan would fear overtime. Any play could spell the end. Any flip into the zone could end in disaster. Any blue line slap towards the net could get deflected ten times and find its way to the twine. Hockey is the fastest game, and within a blink of an eye, a game could end. For most of my memory, I've seen the Devils lose OT playoff games. During the last two rounds of that 2003 Cup run, the Devils went 0-4 in OT, losing twice each to Ottawa and Anaheim. They lost key OT games to Carolina in 2006 and 2009. That all seemed to change in 2012. The Devils entered that game 3-1 in OT games, including back-to-back wins to finish off Florida in the 1st round. The stage was well set.
Luckily for my heart and sanity, the Devils ended it quickly. It was an innoucuous rush, but a mad one. Lexi Ponikarovsky flipped it on goal, players mauled Lundqvist, including Kovalchuk. The puck slipped through Hank's legs, and Adam Henrique smacked it into an open net. The OT lasted all of 1:15, and the Devils broke 18 years of demons in one moment. In that moment, the way that series ended, with the Rangers hopes dashed in OT when they had their best team since their Cup, and having my Devils do it to them, I honestly did not care if they won the Cup or not.
Being a fan of a clearly inferior team, from a fanbase and support level, is an interesting position to be in. Putting aside the Yankees, the Devils were clearly the best franchise in New York sports from 1995-2012. They won 3 Cups, made the Finals two more times, and made the playoffs all but one season. They were, in many senses, a dynasty. But they still had to play second fiddle to the Rangers. That will never change, but at least now they had one back on them. 1994 will never die. It was a seminal moment in the league's history, allowing Mark Messier to make and make good on his guarantee, and have his shaking, gleaming face holding the Cup be a moment splashed across all Cup montages from then until forever. But now we could answer 1994 with 2012, and that was all I could ask for.
