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

He awakens from a late Sunday-morning sleep and hears his 4-year-old son, Anthony, and 3-year-old twins, William and Jeremy, cheering a video they had just put in the VCR.

"No," says Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, "it wasn't Barney or Sesame Street. It was heaven. No, not that heaven, just the video the Devils put together after we won the 1995 Stanley Cup."

It's two days before the Devils host the defending champion Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup finals, and Brodeur's kids are reminding Dad of his finest hour.

"We watched it two or three times," Brodeur says with a laugh. "The memories come rushing back. You're young and naive. You sometimes think you're going to get to play in the finals every year.

"And then reality sets in. Five long years pass and you can't get back there, no matter what you do. You almost have to remind yourself that, `Yeah, you did win the Cup.'"

For all the talk about tough defense, intense positional play and special teams, NHL championships are still so often decided by goaltending. And Brodeur was once again a centerpiece in the Devils' Cup run.

What if Brodeur doesn't make that brilliant glove save on Brett Hull in the second period of Game 1 with New Jersey leading 2-1? That save turned the momentum--the Devils going fight down the ice and scoring to open a lead they never relinquished.

No one thought New Jersey would open the finals with a 7-3 blowout. All of the games were expected to be one- or two-goal contests. And thanks to Brodeur, the Devils were on the right end of those tight finishes in Games 3, 4 and 6.

"We had a lot of disappointments in the past," says Brodeur. "We kind of turned the page this year. And just winning the first round wasn't enough."

When asked for some of the reasons, Brodeur looked like a psychologist refusing to disclose any privileged information. But then he said, "The past few years, we've been cheating on offense. You can't do that in our system. The forwards have to come back and help out the defensemen.

"When Larry Robinson came in as coach, he immediately starts a dialogue about discipline, that players who are in their position create offensive chances."

Brodeur winks when talking about defense. "Like a true goaltender, eh?" he says.

When he continues, he talks about pride and about the team's defensive system. He also mentions how G.M. Lop Lamoriello reacquired fight winger Claude Lemieux from Colorado, even though Lemieux hasn't always been one to conform to rules. Acquiring left winger Alexander Mogilny from Vancouver and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov from Montreal--two players who were considered individual stars, not always team players--is an example of the gambles the team took to try to get back to the finals.

"The system works," Brodeur says. "We knew it in 1995, and we know it now. We can take a player from another equation where he didn't work out and make him work out for us because everything revolves around the team here."

After allowing 11 goals in three games against Philadelphia in the conference finals, Brodeur quietly went to teammate Ken Daneyko and expressed concern that he didn't have it anymore. He was seriously distraught. He was fighting demons like a golfer fights the yips with his putter.

"I don't think a lot of people realize how much Marty was hurting at the time," Daneyko says. "He was more down than I've ever seen him.

"A lot of times, it's not his fault. It's usually our defensive breakdowns. I told him that--and I told him he was our backstop. He told me, `Maybe I just need one more chance.'"

Brodeur overcame those demons and helped the Devils rally from a 3-1 deficit in the conference finals. Then he was brilliant in the finals.

"Now they're gone for good," proclaims Brodeur. "All the ghosts are gone."

And after giving up only eight goals against Dallas, Brodeur once again proved heaven begins when he's in goal for the Devils.

New Jersey

FITTING FINISH: It was fitting Patrik Elias and Jason Arnott combined on the Stanley Cup-winning goal because it was their linemate they had to watch get carried off the ice on a stretcher. Word on Petr Sykora was that he was OK after taking a nasty elbow to the head from Dallas captain Derian Hatcher. It wasn't lost on the Devils that the hit could have been averted had NHL V.P. Colin Campbell suspended Hatcher for his hit to the mouth of Amott late in Game 4. The hit on Sykora didn't draw a penalty, either.... No one knows what winning the Cup does for the future of G.M. Lou Lamoriello or coach Larry Robinson. The inside word is that Lamoriello will stay on another year and see what life is like under the new corporate ownership of YankeeNets. If he returns, expect him to insist on some measure of control. The last thing he wants is have to call George Steinbrenner and his crack hockey committee every time he wants to make a move. Robinson has earned another year as coach, but his future might be tied to whatever Lamoriello does.... The Cup was a great going away present for John McMullen, the 82-year-old owner who sold the Devils to YankeeNets for $175 million--about $165 million more than he paid for the team in 1982. He also gets $1 million for the championship--a bonus clause he insisted on when the deal was signed.