`C' is for champion

Sporting News, The, June 19, 2000 by Larry Wigge

Not many players on defense have the impact to make that happen. Stevens does.

"It was so important to me because you don't know how many chances you're going to get to win the Stanley Cup," he says. "At 36, I wanted to make sure I got at least one more chance to win."

A little more than 2 1/2 years ago, Stevens didn't think much about offering an extra room over his garage to a mixed-up, disappointed young man whose hockey career had just come to an end in Edmonton.

Jason Arnott needed a place to stay after being traded to the Devils for wingers Bill Guerin and Valeri Zelepukin. Stevens gave Amott more than just a home for two months.

It turned out to be a learning experience for the then 23-year-old Arnott, who was disillusioned about life, not just hockey.

"I remember late at night staying up and talking with Scott and Donna about life," Arnott says. "I couldn't look anyone straight in the eyes then. I had a chance to talk to them about personal stuff, feelings. It was like sitting in the kitchen talking to my mom back home."

Devils G.M. Lou Lamoriello likes to look at the development of his team in stages, like he did when coaching at Providence College.

"There are freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors," Lamoriello says. "You have to have them all contribute, not just one class. And that means the core of your club has to be leaders taking the younger guys under their wing and teaching them to be ready for whatever comes along the way."

Stevens believes wholeheartedly in that philosophy because new blood helps keep the system working and brings in new life--even if some of the kids have a problem or two to solve.

"I remember coming home from the market several times and looking into the living room and seeing Jason on the floor with one of my kids playing a video game," Stevens says. "He was just 2 3, but he was not a hockey player all grown up. He was just a kid, with the problems any kid his age would have. Maybe more.

"I saw a person who wasn't enjoying hockey at all after what he went through in Edmonton. We talked a lot He even asked me, `How do you get up for games?' This is a guy asking me that I thought, `That's not right.' But that's how tough it was for him, coming from that environment He had to find his game again."

Luckily for Arnott, Stevens is the kind of leader he is. Some guys who wear the `C' wouldn't want any part of someone else's problems.

And now, Arnott no longer is disillusioned or unproductive. In fact, he used his skill and Stevens-taught leadership to combine with Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias, enormous talents on their own, to form one of the NHL's brightest young scoring units around.

MVP? There was no other choice. Stevens is the heart and soul of this team. It's his steel of purpose that guided the Devils through this post-season marathon to 16 wins and their second Stanley Cup in six years.

"If you ask your players to play every night, to work hard in every practice, what better example can they have than Scott Stevens?" Robinson says. "I have never seen Scott take a practice off, let alone a game. He's as dedicated as anyone I have ever been around. As far as that goes, he's the best captain in the league."