Quote (dej @ Oct 2 2013 11:00am)
stevens is one of the biggest reasons devils won anything
people didnt dare to look down at the puck
gomez was one of the best TWF:s in the league, getting the selkea round there
the difference is that devils played the trap while having very good players. thats what won them the cups
I'm not arguing that they weren't great players, but there were bigger stars during their primes. They weren't Crosby/Ovechkin star level. Jagr, Forsberg, Gretzky, Leclair, Palffy, Francis, Bure, Recchi, Kariya, Selanne, Modano, Sakic, Yzerman, Roenick, Sundin, Lindros, Naslund, Lidstrom, Leetch, Blake, MacInnis, Bourque, Pronger, Thornton, Demitra, Lemieux were all active during those years. Sure we're comparing apples to oranges in that most stars are forwards, but I think you understand my point?
If not, Lidstrom, Zubov, Blake, Leetch, Duchesne, Murphy, Ozolinsh, Numminen, MacInnis, Bourque, Pronger, Olausson, Housley, Karpovtsev, Shannon, Chelios, Bergevin, Gonchar, Chara, O'Donnell, Weinrich, Suchy, Aucoin, Hatcher, Desjardins, Foote, Boucher, Redden were active Dmen those years (I'm not saying all of them are better than Stevens and Niedermayer, but they were stars dmen those years in addition to those two Devils).
Again, I love Stevens, Niedermayer, Brodeur (three of my favorite players), but I don't think they were really league wide stars compared to some of the names I listed above (yes they were definitely top notch, but idk if they were best of the best). The team won using the trap yes, but they also won by having great depth which is my point here. Stealth said they need a star player like Kovalchuk, but my point is a well rounded team could be a lot better than a team with two strong lines/two weak lines like Pittsburgh. A few players could step into that star roll potentially anyway - like Zajac, and maybe Henrique (yes I know he's only had one full season under his belt but he's done pretty well since). I wouldn't say Elias is a star player, but he's defiinitely a good one although probably past his prime like Brodeur - both of which gave countless years of service to this team and definitely had amazing years with the team. I think Schneider has the potential to be a top 5 goalie with the Devils. Idealy, Zajac becomes a Toews type player, Henrique becomes a Kane, Schneider becomes a Crawford, Larsson a Keith, Elias a Hossa, etc.. Also Ryder/Clowe/Brunner have a ton of potential with this team - stars though? I doubt it. Who knows.