[Devils-list] I think this is true (although Rutgers should remain Rutgers)

[David White]

For Good Team,
It's Sad State of Affairs 


ad the Rangers beaten the Devils 4-0 last night instead of vice versa, if
the Rangers were the hockey team that had won 12 games in a row instead of
the Devils, there would be some kind of hysteria going on this morning.

The stretch of 31st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues would be renamed Ron
Low Lane.

A statue of Brian Leetch would have been erected alongside George
M. Cohan's in Times Square.

Garden fans might have even started cheering Valeri Kamensky.

But this is only the Devils.

  
Devils celebrate another win over Rangers last night, this one extending
winning streak to 12 games.  
So instead of a buzz yesterday afternoon about the streak, the sports-talk
airwaves were dominated by the news from the state university of the
firing of a coach who, among other transgressions, held a nude
foul-shooting drill. While that might make for a neat promotion for the
Nets, it's not too clever a notion for college kids.

Rutgers, incidentally, is the only state university in the whole
U.S.A. that isn't named for the state it's in. New Jersey has that kind of
self-esteem problem going for it. The southern and northern parts of the
state are polarized by the Philadelphia and New York media, respectively,
and the two National Football League teams who play here don't want to
admit that they do.

Which makes New Jersey a perfect home for the Devils. This is a team whose
marketing attitude is, "You want to buy tickets? Oh, all RIGHT!"

After a rugged five-game road trip, the Devils returned home and won a
rugged and sometimes bloody battle against a Rangers team that has now
failed to beat them  in any sense of the word  in 23 games.

It was as thorough a defeat and as convincing an argument for the Devils'
ability to repeat as Cup champions as coach Larry Robinson could have
plotted beforehand.

"We definitely fought very hard to play well," said center Bobby
Holik. "It was a tough road trip. People say, 'They breezed through it,
they got five wins.' It's still hard. You still cover two-thirds of this
continent. This was a very important game for us, because these games are
the toughest to win."

In the myopic New York media, the Devils rank somewhere after figure
skating and the XFL. Really, the Devils should just change their uniform
colors from red and black to camouflage.

Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who won Game No. 9 of the streak after being
obtained from the Islanders and who will start in Game No. 13 tomorrow
night against Vancouver, started his career with the Rangers. Although he
only recently crossed the river to the Jersey side (in a March 12 trade),
he has quickly gloved the Devil philosophy.

"They just want to go about their business here," Vanbiesbrouck said. "Get
the job done, move on to the next town."

That's just the problem. Continuing anonymity could result in the Devils
moving to another town, and I don't mean Newark. Anywhere from 3,000 to
6,000 people fail to show up on a nightly basis for home games  there have
been only five sellouts in the first 36 games, counting last night's  and
it's not because of a shortage of luxury boxes.

Part of the reason is due to general manager Lou Lamoriello. Lamoriello's
theory is that everything should be geared to keeping his team in
protective bubble-wrap, and if he puts a successful product on the ice,
that is the only sales pitch the Devils need. It's a good start, but in
the battle for the entertainment dollar in an overcrowded market, the
Devils have to take the extra step.

With the notable exception of players like Holik, Martin Brodeur, Scott
Stevens, Randy McKay, and Ken Daneyko  all of whom "get it" and are
readily accessible to the media (and, by extension, the fans), Devils
players are allowed, if not encouraged, to elude, escape and otherwise
thwart any attempts to make them famous and fascinating subjects. In
addition to world-class athletes, there are some great stories  and some
wonderful personalities  on this team.

You might never know it. 

The Devils are on their way to a third Stanley Cup. Let's just keep that
to ourselves.