Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nhl Fans Ask: (Who) Devils? Flight Of Stanley Cup Champions New Topic For Discussion

Tim Cowlishaw Dallas Morning News

A bizarre NHL season that began three months later than scheduled ended three games sooner than anticipated Saturday and with a winner that never had home-ice advantage during the playoffs.

It took 13 years for the Stanley Cup to get to New Jersey, and no one seemed to mind that it didn’t arrive until summer. But now the question becomes: Where is the Devils’ home?

At a time when those who follow hockey should be marvelling at a 20-game display (16 wins, 10 of them on the road) by the most American Stanley Cup champion ever - 12 U.S. natives on the 25-man roster - instead the focus has been on whether moving vans bound for Nashville, Tenn., will be backing up to the Brendan Byrne Arena soon.

For a season that began with an ugly three-month lockout that cost this growing sport any momentum it might have seized off last year’s acclaimed final between the New York Rangers and Vancouver, it could serve as a fitting conclusion should the newest champions make like the Beverly Hillbillies:

So they loaded up the Cup, and they moved to Tennessee.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman prefers, naturally, to focus on improved TV ratings, a new contract with Fox, a new basic agreement - still unsigned - that should provide some stability and, well, at least guarantees no lockout for the next two seasons.

“I think we came back very strong from the labor dispute,” Bettman said. “Our fans were very forgiving, very resilient. Our TV ratings were up. Our licensing revenues were flat with the year before, and considering we were out during the Christmas season, which is our strongest time of year, I think the vital signs from the business side are strong. That all points to a positive future where we can grow… .

“I’ve always said that when people watch hockey, give it a chance, they get hooked.”

But Bettman is aware of the image problems his game is facing. Quebec, which had the best record in the Eastern Conference, already has moved to Denver. Winnipeg would have packed its bags for Minnesota if not for local intervention, although even Bettman acknowledged there are serious financial problems with the city’s attempt to rescue the Jets.

“Right now, they’re $17 million short, and they could run out of money before the new building can be built,” he said.

That pales in comparison with the notion of the Stanley Cup champions playing in a minor league rink in Nashville next year. The new 20,000-seat arena there, once completed, will have 120 luxury suites as opposed to the Byrne Arena’s 29 and also would provide the team with a much more favorable lease.

Bettman tried unsuccessfully to avoid the subject during the Cup finals, but did repeat his belief that three hockey teams in the New York area may be one too many.

“They may move, and they may not move, I don’t know,” he said. “If you put a gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you. (But) when you have nine professional teams in one market, three in one sport, that can present problems. That doesn’t mean you have to move a team.

“But it means if you ignore problems, you are then ordaining that a team has to move. If the outcome of their winning the Cup is that it helps get their problems resolved, then all this is a plus.”

Whether the Devils have to adapt to new surroundings or not next year, they almost are certain to have to adhere to rules changes that will restrict their defense-based strategy. Much has been made of their “neutral-zone trap” and the willingness of the forwards to approach the game from a defense-first mode.

Bettman believes criticism of the trap has been overstated, but anticipates approval of subtle rules changes that will make interference easier for officials to call and grant forwards more freedom of movement at center ice.

“Wayne Gretzky told me the other night that he was having to look out for the neutral-zone trap in the mid-80s,” Bettman said. “The bigger issue is interference, clutching and grabbing. The need here is for finetuning. It does not need a sledgehammer fix.

“The simple fact is the Devils, in what appears to be an amazing display of teamwork, are playing darned good hockey. For people to suggest it’s wrong because they consider it to be unaesthetic I think is unfair.”

Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko was quick to point out late Saturday that New Jersey had scored 10 goals in two home games against Detroit.

“That should put some of the ‘trap’ talk to rest. We showed people we have a little offense, too,” he said.

Regular-season scoring was at a 25-year-low, however - 5.97 goals per game. And while hockey purists may prefer to watch games in which goals do not come cheaply, the league is bent on attracting younger fans in U.S. cities that are something short of hockey hotbeds. More offense may be the way to go, but Bettman believes the game will prosper wherever it travels.

“To portray any place as hockey illiterate is unfair,” he said. “This sport has proven in south Florida, Tampa, Dallas, Anaheim and San Jose it will sell.”

However, it has not always sold in New Jersey, and that’s why many Devils fans must have found their team’s crowning achievement to be bittersweet.