Their sights set much higher, the Devils must beware this one-way rivalry that threatens to blindside them.
It’s simple: The Devils mean far more to the Hurricanes than the Carolinians mean to New Jersey.
The Hurricanes last spring were merely the first bump in Jersey’s road that ended with the Devils in a ditch. The Devils, on the other hand, finished off this team whose zeroes on their chests indicate the number of playoff series they’ve won in the last 15 years.
“That’s what makes them dangerous to us. We know what we did to them, and they’ve been waiting all year for us,” Martin Brodeur said. “But then again, it’s the first series for us since we lost [the Stanley Cup].”
Brodeur stands as the major difference between these teams that finished four points apart this season and needed six games in last spring’s first round to decide matters in New Jersey’s favor. Arturs Irbe has been shaky of late, while no one told Brodeur that the Olympics are over, and that he gets to keep his gold medal. He believes goaltending is the primary issue of the playoffs, and he intends to give the Devils that triumphant edge.
“Yeah, I think your goalie is going to decide a lot in the way he plays the game,” Brodeur said. “He wants to make sure you don’t lose because of him and then you’ve be in every single game.
“If the goalie costs you a game, that makes it hard [to advance].”
The Devils view these playoffs as a chance to atone for their early-season failures that cost Larry Robinson his job and saw Jason Arnott and Randy McKay traded to Dallas.
On the other hand, Joe Nieuwendyk and Kevin Constantine can be excused if they wonder what people were talking about.
“It’s been nothing but good things. I know there were issues before, but there always are,” said Nieuwendyk, who helped the Devils go 11-3 after the trading deadline. “It all comes down to who can focus and get the ship going in the right direction at this time of year.”
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Stephane Richer will miss at least the first two games of this series with a recurring left foot injury that has kept him out four games. Petr Sykora is questionable tomorrow with an ankle injury suffered in the season finale.