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Sporting News, The, Feb 12, 2001 by Larry Wigge

The defending Stanley Cup champs, with their combination of talent, discipline and unselfishness, are looking like league-beaters again

The words were short and to the point, yet profoundly eloquent, spoken in a loud and snarly voice spiced with a few adjectives not appropriate for the ears of young stick-handlers.

The speech wasn't a Knute Rockne pep talk. It was a scolding by Devils captain Scott Stevens, a passionate and effective reminder for his teammates to be more alert. It was so effective that one opponent remembered it clearly.

"I'm standing there looking at Stevens screaming at his teammates, pleading with them, imploring them to be better," Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis says. "I couldn't believe it. We're being embarrassed 9-0, in a late October game, with less then two minutes left, and he's all over his teammates about giving up one scoring chance."

According to Kasparaitis, this is what Stevens said: "If you can't finish off this game, what makes you think we'll be able to do it the next time, or the time after that? You DON'T remain champions by letting ANYONE off the hook, in ANY situation. Let's shut these guys down and show we're the defending Stanley Cup champions."

The Devils went on to preserve the shutout and finish the game strong. Stevens' speech, and the team's response, says a lot about the club's character. And that speech is just one example of what it takes to be a super team.

"We didn't have a chance at all," Penguins goaltender Garth Snow says. "They taught us a lesson. Seeing Stevens yell at his teammates in that situation should be a wakeup call for all of us to show us that you don't get to be champions without a discipline, a passion, an unselfishness that goes above and beyond the call of duty."

The Devils are the top team in the East, if not the league. And despite some ragged games and contract holdouts at the beginning of the season, it will take some mighty tough play to dethrone the defending champions.

"We can learn from the Baltimore Ravens that you don't have to have all the skills on offense and defense to be a super team to win in the NFL," Maple Leafs general manager/coach Pat Quinn says. "But if you look back at our last six Stanley Cup champions (New Jersey and Detroit twice each, Colorado and Dallas once each), you can see that it takes more balance than just a great defense to win in the NHL.

"We may not have a real super team in the NHL right now, but the Devils are the closest thing to it, with their speed and size and discipline to detail, plus the great goaltending they get every night."

The Devils don't play defense with the cockiness or swagger of the Ravens. This isn't a stifling, neutral-zone trapping defense incapable of putting excitement into the game. It's the NHL's most disciplined defense and best offense to boot.

But don't call the team boring.

"Boring?" says Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph. "Not from where I stand. The Devils buzz around you like a pack of bionic bees. They've got guys like Petr Sykora, Patrik Elias, Jason Arnott, Alexander Mogilny and Randy McKay, who you have to watch all the time. They come at you like dive bombers."

There are no shortcuts in becoming an NHL champion. You have to build a team with good drafting, a great development program, teamwork and all the intangibles.

"I like to say the perfect formula for a winning program is a lot like an orchestra," Devils G.M. Lou Lamoriello says. "You start with a great conductor, or coach. Then you blend in the rest to provide the sound and harmony.

"When the violinist decides he wants to play the horn or vice versa, you're in trouble. You lose that sound, that harmony that it takes to play great music together."

And when you see the Devils check their egos at the door every night, you get the idea Lamoriello may be the best G.M. in the league.

The value of buying into this team-first belief has always been an important part of NHL success.

"Look at Detroit," Mighty Ducks G.M. Pierre Gauthier says. "They had some of the most skilled and best regular-season teams in the NHL in the mid-1990s, yet they couldn't win a Stanley Cup because they didn't have the team character it takes to win it all.

"That's when (coach) Scotty Bowman took over. He got his team to buy into his system, to learn what it really means to be unselfish."

It started in Detroit with captain Steve Yzerman sacrificing goals and points for the good of the team, giving up ice time so the Red Wings could roll over four lines and get more skilled players involved in the offense and defense.

It continued when the team acquired power forward Brendan Shanahan. After he shared his knowledge of the position with Darren McCarty, Martin Lapointe, Kirk Maltby and even Joey Kocur, the team was ready for Carnegie Hall.

In New Jersey, Arnott has been a Shanahan-type player, making great music with big finesse wingers Sykora and Elias.

"The year we won in Dallas, we had a great defense, great goaltending and a team approach to everything," says Roman Turek, now a goalie for the Blues. "Most of all, we learned that play in front of our goal and their net was the most important part of file game.