[Devils-list] And yet again...from the Denver Post

[MikeNJ1109@aol.com]

Another news article, from the Denver media, for amusement.



No toying with Devils

New Jersey's talented 'A-line' is quite the scoring machine

By Adam Schefter 
Denver Post Sports Writer

Thursday, May 24, 2001 - EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - During a regular season in which it won the Presidents' Trophy, the Colorado Avalanche toyed with just about everybody in the NHL. 
  
Everybody except the New Jersey Devils. 

In the teams' two meetings, the Devils won 6-1 and 6-3. Now, with the Stanley Cup Finals opening Saturday night in Denver, Devils winger Petr Sykora said the postseason results will be the same as those in the regular season. 

"It's not going to be different in the Finals," Sykora said Wednesday when asked if it is encouraging to the Devils that they fared well against the Avalanche during the regular season. 

If his line plays the way it did during the Eastern Conference finals, Sykora might be right. Entering the Devils' series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which lasted five games, the focus primarily was on Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Alexei Kovalev. By the time the series wrapped up, the focus still was on Lemieux and Jagr - for failing to score a single goal for the Penguins. 

Meanwhile, the spotlight shined on Sykora, winger Patrik Elias and center Jason Arnott - dubbed New Jersey's "A-line." 

Through these playoffs, New Jersey's No. 1 line has 22 goals and 27 assists. Ten goals and nine assists came during the Eastern Conference finals. 

If the Devils' top line played across the river, at Madison Square Garden in New York instead of at the Meadowlands, it would be the toast of the town. 

Instead, it must settle for toasting the opponent's goaltender, which it repeatedly has done on a playoff road that has taken the Devils through the Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh and all the way to Denver. 

"When all three of us are going, we can be the best line in the NHL," Arnott said after scoring two goals during the Devils' series-clinching, 4-2 victory over the Penguins in Game 5. "But it takes three of us." 

Against the Penguins, the Devils had all three. The hulking Arnott powered shot after shot from the blue line. Elias demonstrated some of the most nimble skating and soft passing in hockey. And Sykora was right there with them. He perhaps is the Devils' most dangerous sniper. 

"Once the Arnott line started to pick it up, they dominated the series," Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko said. "They were just too much for Pittsburgh." 

It will be up to the Avalanche to do something this postseason no other team has done. Early in the playoffs, opponents were able to slow the A-line. But since Arnott called an A-line-only meeting before Game 5 of the Devils' second-round series against Toronto, the line has responded. It has become unstoppable. 

Coach Larry Robinson even said after the Devils eliminated the Penguins that the line has a chance to go down in hockey history. 

"If they continue at this pace," Robinson said, referring to the Sykora-Elias-Arnott line, "they certainly have to be right up there with all of the great lines." 

Penguins defenseman Ian Moran thinks he knows the one way to slow the line. 

"You have to be physical on them," Moran said. "The tendency when you're playing against a line that has that much speed and skill is to back off, but you almost have to do the opposite. You want to play in their face and keep the gap closed so they don't get (room to create)." 

Whether the line gets that room starting Saturday is one of the biggest story lines of the Stanley Cup Finals. But for now, there is no question. New Jersey's A-line has become the NHL's A-No. 1 line. 

Not to mention the Avs' biggest challenge.