`C' is for champion

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

Stevens held Bure to one goal in the first round of the playoffs. He shut out Sundin and Philadelphia's John LeClair in the next two rounds. And though Hull scored two goals and Mike Modano one in the finals, Stevens' presence was never felt more.

And his compassion for Lindros--he couldn't even look out on the ice knowing that he had laid out the Flyers star center with a hard shoulder check in Game 7 of the Eastern finals-showed his human side at a time when all the pressure in the world was on this team.

There also was the speech Stevens gave before the finals began. It wasn't scripted. It was straight from the heart.

"You're led by your captain," Brodeur says. "And for me, Scott Stevens deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with great captains like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman.

"He deserves that."

Cup clippings

Five things this series will be remembered for:

1 Ed Belfour's cold medicine causing "misjudgments" and costing Dallas Game 1,7-3.

2 Martin Brodeur's glove save in Game 1, with New Jersey up 2-1.

3 Mike Modano showing dazzling speed and creating a tip-in that won Game 5 in triple overtime.

4 Jason Arnott roofing a shot in double overtime of Game 6 to show he has arrived as a star.

5 Devils coach Larry Robinson genuinely enjoying the championship--after being told he was too soft to coach.

--L.W.

Who says you need experience?

They came through Anchorage, Albany, Helsinki and Ann Arbor. They were taken in the first round of the NHL draft or passed over altogether. But the Devils' four rookies all fought a hard read to get to the Stanley Cup.

* Center Scott Gomez, 20, is the most talked about of the rookies. He is the first Alaskan-born player to play in the NHL and the league's first Hispanic player. He was a first-round draft choice and likely will win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

* Defenseman Colin White, 22, grew up in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and went the developmental route through New Jersey's AHL farm club in Albany, N.Y., for two years before he got his chance in the NHL.

* Defenseman Brian Rafalski is 26. He spent one year in Sweden and three in Finland after many thought he was too small to make it in the NHL after his days at the University of Wisconsin.

* John Madden, another center, went to the University of Michigan, where coach Red Berenson told him to get himself a degree because there was no job in hockey for him after college. He is 25. The foursome combined for 10 goals and 21 assists in the playoffs. Goals by Madden and Rafalski helped the Devils rally from a 1-0 deficit in the Game 4.

"They don't play like rookies," says Devils defenseman Scott Stevens. "They have speed. They have energy. They have been like an extra gas trunk--fuel in case of emergencies."

"They remind me and my Montreal teammates in 1986," says Devils right winger Claud Lemieux. "We had (a record) seven rookies on our team that year but I can't honestly says we did any more for that team than these kids did for us this season." --L.W.