The void is intangible, yet real. Emotions are strangely deadened around the Devils, whose play betrays the empty feeling that has either accompanied their slump, or caused it.
There are several likely roots, but this malaise resembles what happens when families break up, which is what has happened.
For years, the Devils have promoted themselves as a family-like organization, headed by a benevolent patriarch in John McMullen and a tough-but-fair head of the household in Lou Lamoriello. That’s the image they liked. Being part of this family gave players some benefits, and required some sacrifices, particularly financially. But there was a tad more security for those who chose to tattoo that NJ on their sleeve, a saving hand when life went wrong and the comfort of having quarrels kept inside the family.
It all blew up in March, proving to be the cruelest month, and the Devils’ worst in two years. There were the trades that always affect a team, particularly the one that sent Lyle Odelein to Phoenix for Deron Quint, who was quickly kicked off the team. Vladimir Malakhov hasn’t helped, and Lou Lamoriello failed to get Mark Messier. Then Robbie Ftorek was fired, eliminating Odelein’s reason to be traded in the first place, and the Devils could only marvel that their GM had again diminished his reputation as a brilliant manager and planner. You either keep Odelein, one of the live personalities on the team, or you keep Ftorek. Lamoriello didn’t have to shed both and end up with nothing in return. They are still shaking their heads.
The dismissal of Ftorek, with eight games left in the regular season, was itself another signal that the family was breaking up. If he were fired in December, the image of stability might have been repaired by now, but in late March, it was just another sledgehammer to that dying ideal.
It was the right move at the wrong time, despite the anti-Ftorek that Larry Robinson represents. Good teams grumble and fume under coaches they don’t like during the regular season, but when the playoffs come, they tend to pull together for a higher cause, that of chasing the Cup. Ted [Darth] Sator took the Rangers, who disliked him, to the semis in 1986. Scotty Bowman won four straight Cups with the Canadiens, and more in Pittsburgh and Detroit, despite the enmity some players felt toward him. [Yike] Mike Keenan, too. It could have happened in New Jersey, never mind the Devils’ disdain for Ftorek.
But the most unsettling issue is that of McMullen’s sale of the team, the divorce that has affected this team profoundly. The stability that was the hallmark and ambition of the franchise under McMullen/Lamoriello was ripped away, leaving league-class players who had sacrificed millions for loyalty’s sake wondering how they could have been so naive, passing up so much money for an ownership philosophy that wouldn’t go the extra yard to get that one star they’d need, looking remarkably like the Bruins’ method of mediocrity.
Their foundation players all left millions on the table — in Scott Stevens’ case, probably $12 million — for the sake of family, only to see the owners do exactly what they talked those stars out of doing, dissolving the family when YankeeNets offered $40 million more than one evaluation of its worth. A couple of players are hoping that McMullen will make up some of what they left behind for him, but it doesn’t seem likely. The sale doesn’t close until after the playoffs, but to the Devils’ players, it has already closed the book on an era.
“That may be in the back of the minds of guys who signed deals they’re unhappy with,” one Devil said. “But most guys are really positive about the sale. The group coming in is well-known for building winners and not being afraid to spend money to do it.”
There is considerable belief inside the Devil locker room that this team is not good enough to win the Stanley Cup this year, and Lamoriello’s failure to bring in Messier — or another top center — has left some fatalistic about the playoffs, waiting instead for the YankeeNets regime to begin.
Lamoriello’s decisions, such as his firing of Quint at a time when his services were desperately needed, no longer get the Father Knows Best treatment, especially since he can’t even tell them if he’ll be around to play hardball with them this summer. The empire is collapsing and management has gone weirdly strict and stern to prevent order from breaking down.
They will play for themselves, and for each other, and that may be enough to rouse them from this collapse when they reach the playoffs. But much of their unity has vanished. They face the unknown in the new ownership, an unsettling feeling compounded by the realization that their family is breaking up, if it ever existed in the first place.
Devils play host to Sabres tomorrow and complete season vs. Panthers Saturday … New Jersey finished 17-19-5 on the road this year after setting an NHL record for road victories at 29-10-3 last season … Devils have only beaten one team .500 or better, in eight tries, since Feb. 15 … New Jersey stands 8-13-2 in its last 23 games.