= Listening to the game on the radio in the car ahead of a piano lesson (it was my sister's piano lesson) trying to hear if the Devils would clinch in Game 6 against Ottawa - learning the name Jason Spezza for the first time
= I was in 6th grade at the time. For our computer class we had to design a website using some website-design software, I did my website about the Devils playoff run, and my teacher thought my write-ups of the Devils run was so good it had to have been plaigarized
Anyway, 2003 was an interesting time. I do believe this is the earliest I've gone in this exercise, back to my truly formative years as a sports fan. I don't know when the curve of fandom started shooting significantly upwards, but 2003 was a true turning point. There were a couple of factors driving that, first being the Raiders ultimately unsuccessful run to the Super Bowl. The Devils were my team, but 2002-03 was the first year I really followed them. I knew they were great. A Stanley Cup I guess was therefore somewhat an expectation. Ti turn3ed into a reality - but man did I not realize how spoiled I was.
Today I watch these young fans get upset at the Dodgers or Red Sox or some other great team that has had peerless success. I now realize I was something like those fans, but with the Devils. I have no real memory of their shock win in 1995, other than the fact I now call it a win of mine. I have limited, but real, memory of their 2000 Stanley Cup win, distinctly remember me being in my parents bedroom, at the foot of the bed, deep into 2nd overtime when that brilliant pass from Elias to Arnott happened.
But I remember all of 2003, from their quietly great regular season with 108 points. I remember of course their offseason trades for Jeff Freisen and Jamie Langenbrunner, two guys whose names and games I had to learn. I knew everyone on that team. Every kid has "that tean" the one where they know all the players, know them all deeply. The 2003 Devils were that for me. The Devils were my team, my state's team, the one thing New Jersey could be proud of.
That run through the playoffs was magical in a way. They flexed their muscles big time in the first two rounds, beating Boston and Tampa 4-1 each time (that Tampa team would end up winning the Stanley Cup the next year). Both series I couldn't really watch because at the time the first couple playoff rounds were broadcast on local TV only (these were the halcyon pre-NBC days). Instead I followed on radio. On real radio, like a chump.
There is some nostalgic bliss remembering these radio days. One day I'm sure I'll do a Nostalgia Diaries on the magic that was WFAN. The Devils in the playoffs were part of that magic, to some degree you could just sense what was going on. I remember listening late into the night in their clincher against Tampa Bay, a 3OT win with the winning goal scored by Grant Marshall - one of the "new" guys.
That Devils team was like most Devils teams from 2001-02 on, a defensive mastery couipled with some timely offense by players whose offensive skill largely outpaced their production in the Devils system. This wasn't always the case - in 99-00 they led the Eastern Conference in goals, and in 00-01 they led the NHL in goals, but by 02-03 they were middling offensively, by far the best defensively, and it added up to a great 110 point season. In the conference finals, they would have to face a team that won more points, scored way more goals, and seemed to represent everything they weren't: the Ottawa Senators.
I don't know why 18 years later those Senators still resonate with me, but its amazing how open, how skilled, how fast that team played in a pre-lockout world. The names of Hossa, Alfredsson, Havlat, Bonk, White, Redden, Chara - they rang out. Of course, in this series, the names of Elias, Gomez, Langenbrunner, Friesen and of course Stevens, Niedermayer and Rafalski rang out equally well.
That series went seven, with the first six games alternating between dramatic (two OT wins for Ottawa, a 1-0 win for the Devils), and blowouts (5-2, 4-1 for New Jersey, 3-1 for Ottawa). Game 7 was played in front of a ridiculously raucous crowd in the Corel Center - the adage of Ottawa having shit fans not holding true that time.
This was pre-lockout, with clutching and grabbing and all the like. There are many reasons to prefer post-lockout hockey to the mess it was before, but that Game 7 showed just how good that version of the sport could be when played well. The Devils led 2-1 going into the 3rd period when maybe one of the best single periods of hockey was played.
Sure, that's an overstatement, but for me it wasn't. For me, it was pure bliss, with my team prevailing. It was open, it was messy. The Devils normally staunch defense made a series of pressured mistakes that Brodeur cleaned up - two memorable ones with Brodeur stoning Hossa (at the time a truly dynamic talent) on a breakaway, capped with the call of "It's only Game 7, why shouldn't we have goaltending like this!" from Gary Thorne. Then late in the period, the Devils gave the puck away stupidly five feet in front of the net, it once again found the stick of Hossa, where Brodeur made a sprawling save, with the line this time being "And a save by Brodeur!!!"
Marty was ruthless in that game, as was Ray Emery for nearly all of the third period, repeatedly stoning Scott Gomez - after the third stop Thorne's line was "And Gomez pleading to the skate, the stick, the post, the ice and the puck...." Gary Thorne was on one in that game, as he should for a hyper tense Game 7 between the conference's two best teams. It ultimately ended with Wade Redden making an awful defensive play, Grant Marshall threading a pass between his legs, and Jeff Friesen putting one past Lalime.
After the game, Pat Burns gave one of the most honest press conferences, telling Bryan Engblom when asked if he was nervous, "Yeah, why wouldn't we be, that's a tremendous hockey club. We were surprised to be up 3-1." That Devils series of Ottawa might have been the single most memorable playoff series of my life.
The next series also went seven against the Cinderella Mighty Ducks, riding JS Giguere's brilliance to that point. Yet in reality it wasn't anywhere as interesting. The Devils four wins were all by three goals (3x 3-0, and a 6-3 wild one). Brodeur set a new record for shutouts in the postseason with 7, and tied a Final record with three shutouts. Somehow this wasn't good enough for him to win the Conn Smythe, losing to Gigeure, the only modern person to win on a losing team.
I didn't really care (not true, I truly cared and felt wronged on behalf of Marty at the time), but seeing my team win was the real prize. I celebrated the third cup but for the first time. I was cognizant enough as a sports fan, and this was proof that being one was worth it.
Looking back, the 2003 Devils was my first evidence that one of "my" teams could infact win. I was a fairly sizable Devils fan back in 2001 when they blew a 3-2 Final lead to Colorado. I was of course a Raiders fan when they got blown out in the Super Bowl six months earlier. This was before I really had a tennis player to follow. I was a young, budding sports nut waiting for some payoff, and this Devils team was it, and it was glorious because it was my team, with players I loved.
In the end, my memories of this run returns to the win over Ottawa, the true Final in my mind. After the game, after the handshakes, Scott Stevens went over to the table that held the Prince of Wales Trophy. Gary Thorne at that moment said calmly "[Ducks' captain] Paul Kariya would not touch the trophy, it is likely Stevens...:" He then stopped mid sentence as Stevens went over and touched it. At that point he switched tacks to "He's not going to pick it up, I guarantee it" a microsecond before Stevens did pick it up. Right then Bill Clement jumped in "Scott Steven's isn't afraid of the superstition, he's touched it enough times, and the Stanley Cup." I honestly think my life as a sports fan in the truest sense of the word peaked at that very moment. My team was on top, proud to be so and ready for more. As a sports fan, that was nirvana, that was heaven, and all it took was a team named the Devils to get me there.
