30 Years Since Devils First Stanley Cup Title

The New Jersey Devils won their first-ever Stanley Cup 30 years ago today at the Meadowlands, completing a four-game sweep of the visiting Detroit Red Wings with a 5-2 victory. Former NCAA players on that NHL championship squad included (by last name): 

• Neal Broten (Minnesota)

• Danton Cole (Michigan State)

• Shawn Chambers (Alaska Fairbanks)

• Tom Chorske (Minnesota)

• Kevin Dean (New Hampshire)

• Jim Dowd (Lake Superior State)

• Bruce Driver (Wisconsin)

• Bill Guerin (Boston College)

• Randy McKay (Michigan Tech)

• Mike Peluso (Alaska Anchorage)

• Brian Rolston (Lake Superior State)

• Chris Terreri (Providence)

New Jersey also won the Stanley Cup again in 2000 and 2003, while also making the final in 2001 and 2012.

Ten Years Ago Today

It was 10 years ago today that I attended my final New Jersey Devils game ever at then-Continental Airlines Arena, a 3-2 double OT playoff win over Ottawa. It was also the last sell-out and the last win the Devils ever recorded in East Rutherford before moving to Newark that fall. It never hosted a college hockey game, but all this time later, I still miss the Meadowlands.

Brodeur Caps Career as No. 30 is Retired

Martin Brodeur was not the starting goaltender for the New Jersey Devils when the franchise moved east from Colorado in 1982. He had just been there so long it seemed that way.

Tuesday night, his No. 30 Devils jersey was raised to the rafters and retired for all time at the Prudential Center in Newark, a place Brodeur helped build after bringing three NHL championships to the Devils’ former home in the Meadowlands. On Monday, an 11-foot-high bronze statue of him saluting the crowd in full goaltending regalia was unveiled at The Rock, and was briefly positioned near the ice surface as he gave Devils fans one final salute to close the book on his storied professional playing career

That career actually began with a one-game stint out of junior hockey in Quebec when he bested Boston, 4-2, in East Rutherford during the 1991-92 campaign. He took over the Devils’ crease full-time in 1993-94, winning the Calder Trophy that year as the NHL’s top rookie while also backstopping New Jersey to within one goal of the Stanley Cup Final, and made that blue rectangle his personal province for the next two decades.

Although he wasn’t a former NCAA netminder, Brodeur was undoubtedly one of the greatest players to ever put on goalie pads, and retired last year as the NHL’s all-time leader with 691 career regular-season victories and 125 shutouts, to go with 113 playoff triumphs and 24 shutouts. He spent his first 21 NHL seasons with the Devils, winning three Stanley Cups, four Vezina Trophies, and five Jennings Trophies, before closing out his career last season with a seven-game stint with the St. Louis Blues, with whom he now serves as assistant general manager.

One of the game's best stickhandling netminders, Brodeur also scored posted three goals and added 58 assists in NHL play. A two-time Olympic gold medalist with Canada (2002, 2010), Brodeur also guided his native country to a World Cup crown in 2004. 

On a personal note, I was fortunate to watch him play live many times, especially over the last 14 years of his career in New Jersey. That included the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs when he registered seven shutouts, including three in the final against Anaheim, in leading New Jersey's only true professional sports franchise to its third league title. It’s hard to believe he won’t be guarding a Garden State crease anymore.

Thanks, Marty. Congratulations and good luck.

Former Home of NHL's Devils May Close

Back from a bout with the flu, and just it time to see that the state wants to shut down the venerable Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey by the end of the month, ostensibly to save money.

The former Brendan Byrne Arena/Meadowlands Arena/Continental Airlines Arena, and the former home of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, it never saw a college hockey contest and hasn't hosted any hockey at all since the Devils left for Newark in 2007, although the dasher boards are still in place minus the glass. The Devils won two of their three Stanley Cups there, in 1995 and 2003, and haven't experienced that same kind of success in Essex County, albeit for the anomaly of 2012 when they lost to Los Angeles in six games in the final.

I saw close to 100 Devils games at the Meadowlands over the years, from 1982 to 2007. I still prefer the game experience there to Newark, even if the Prudential Center is a bit easier for me to get to. The seats in Bergen County were bigger, too, plus cheaper.

This is basically political grandstanding by the Christie administration, more than anything else, to funnel more business towards the Devils' current digs. Although the Izod Center doesn't entertain as many events as it once did, it does still host some three dozen high school and college graduations on an annual basis. Now those schools may all have to scramble to obtain new commencement venues on very short notice thanks to some short-sighted politicians.

The Meadowlands was a great place to watch an NHL game, even if it feels now like a house with all the children gone. It would probably would have been a neat place to host an NCAA Frozen Four as well. Hopefully the building will be saved, or at least re-purposed.

Lamoriello Inducted into U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Former Providence College hockey coach and athletic director Lou Lamoriello, who has guided the New Jersey Devils organization for the last quarter-century, was inducted this week into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame along with former NHL players Mike Modano and Ed Olczyk. Lamoriello had previously been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders category in 2009.

The Devils President/CEO/General Manager, Lamoriello has shepherded the once-woeful franchise to five Stanley Cup finals (1995, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2012), with New Jersey winning three championships (1995, 2000, 2003).  Under his watch, the Devils have gone 1,007-695-226 (.581) in 1,928 regular-season games, and 134-116 (.536) in 250 playoff outings. In two separate head coaching stints behind the New Jersey bench, in 2005-06 and 2006-07, the Devils went 34-14-5 in regular-season play (.689) and 10-10 in the postseason, in their final two seasons playing at the Meadowlands.

A former Providence skater, Lamoriello tallied 58 goals and 60 assists for 118 points for the Friars in 64 games from 1960 to 1962. He became Providence's head coach in 1968-69, and by the time he was finished after the 1982-83 campaign, when he served as both coach and AD, the Friars had gone 248-179-13 in 440 games (.578), winning the 1981 ECAC Championship and making an appearance in the 1983 NCAA Frozen Four.

One of the founding members of the Hockey East Association in 1984-85, he also served as commissioner of the league before joining the Devils, and the Hockey East playoff tournament trophy has borne Lamoriello's name since 1989. Among his many other honors, he was presented with the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1992 for service to hockey in the United States, and is also a member of several other halls of fame in both New England and New Jersey.