Marty Got Screwed

[00:00:02] Hey Everyone, Mr. Devil here Kenny Danico, 3 times Stanley Cup Champion of NJ Devils and you're listening to the Uncle Puckers NJ Devils Podcast with Chris, Dan, Bobby and Tony, The Uncle Puckers. Let's go Devils! And away we go! What's up Bob? How are you today?

[00:00:28] I'm doing good man, how are you? I'm alright, we had like the full crew back for a day and then they all split on us again. It's hard, it's hard to get the full crew.

[00:00:37] Yeah, but we do have a fun show tonight, we have a couple of things that we're going to talk about even though it's still on August 7th here, there is nothing going on.

[00:00:46] I mean, I can't even find content to listen to on like XM and stuff, it's all like repeat stuff or horrible prospect radio that 31 other teams don't interest me in and it's like, yeah so...

[00:01:00] Yeah, I was listening yesterday and they were going over the teams and they were just still on Anaheim and I'm like wow, got a long way to go before it starts getting interesting for me, you know, not going to listen for a few days.

[00:01:10] And I've heard it all, I've heard like every team, they've been replaying this since like the middle of July so yeah there's nothing going on. That's why we're here, to provide a different type of entertainment.

[00:01:21] You know Bob, we don't talk politics on this show, we don't talk politics on this show for a reason. Unfortunately, politics is a very divisive issue in this country and people are, you know, have their sides and they have their reasons and I respect both sides.

[00:01:37] I will say this though, the vice presidential candidate Tim Walz who is the governor of Minnesota that Kamau Harris picked, I usually don't say things that really upset me, but he said something today that I'm not sure if I could ever place my allegiance behind this ticket.

[00:02:03] So he was doing a rally in Michigan today and he said to these people, which I'm sure are hard working, you know, union loving people, and he said that even though he's from Minnesota, people of Minnesota, Viking fans are happy for Detroit Lion fans. Shots fired.

[00:02:23] I want to go up, smack them in the mouth and say, keep my football team's name out your fucking mouth. Why would you say such a thing? I am in no way shape or form, maybe because I'm a New Jersey Viking fan,

[00:02:35] but I'm not happy for the Detroit Lions. I have no, my feelings for Detroit have always been I laughed at them, I looked at the schedule, I say, okay, there's two extra wins. Well, I can't do that anymore.

[00:02:50] They're an extremely good team and I now have to live with this in the back of my head that it is possible and very possible that the Detroit Lions, the lapping stock of the NFL since I was old enough to crawl, have a

[00:03:04] better chance of making it and winning a Super Bowl than my Vikings do. And I don't know if I can handle that and regardless of what Tim Walz says, I will not be happy for them if they win the Super Bowl.

[00:03:15] I feel like the dig was directed specifically at you just to rise you up before this podcast. You know, he had my vote till then. You know, that's it. That's it. I need to know what JD Vance thinks about the Vikings and the Lions

[00:03:30] rivalry, you know, maybe, maybe he'll. It's pretty important stuff. I mean, if you're going to, if you're going to judge politics, this is probably the best way to do it. I'm just excited that the Detroit Lions and I've mentioned this before who had the Thanksgiving games forever.

[00:03:44] I believe you thought it was kind of cool. Tradition wise, I kind of suck because they're always bad are going to be good. So now at least I know there's going to be at least one good team

[00:03:53] on because if I recall, it's also always also the Dallas Stars, which I can't stand the Dallas Stars play hockey, but the Cowboys, they play football. I'm in a hockey mood. It is a hockey podcast. So I get it.

[00:04:05] I would love to see the Dallas Stars play football against the Cowboys. Yeah, no, I, I like it. I also like that they added that third game for the late night of two teams that don't normally play on Thanksgiving. I think that that's kind of cool.

[00:04:20] I love holiday games. This year with, um, I, you know, cause the NFL has to absolutely just corner the market on every everything. Like they cannot be out of a news cycle longer than a week and a half. Like they're worse than Trump.

[00:04:36] Um, but like they now are doing football games on Christmas, which this year falls on Wednesday. Like, yeah, but we've never had football on a Wednesday. I think the only day of the week this year that there's no football is Tuesdays. They actually, we have games now.

[00:04:53] I think the Eagles open up against the Eagles open up in on Friday in green bed against schedule, dude. They got like so many late night games, like the later games. I hate the later games for me. Football is like one o'clock sweet spot. Yeah.

[00:05:09] I'm a big one o'clock on Sunday fan or Monday night. Like having that only game on Monday night. I like that. I hate Thursday night games. Um, I don't know. I love the hype of Monday night because it is the only game in

[00:05:20] town and even though they've got their silly little, you know, pregame show going on, it does kind of amp you up a little bit. And then hopefully you're not disappointed by the end of the first quarter.

[00:05:29] And it's actually a good game, but I do like, you know, like I said, I like Monday nights, Thursday nights. And I don't know if Thursday nights are just at the last few years. Um, the games have been terrible or if it's that Kirk Herbstreet and

[00:05:41] Al Michaels in my opinion should not be calling NFL football. Uh, they're the broadcasting is terrible. Um, but hopefully we can get some better games this year. I heard that they were actually trying to make a more competitive schedule for Thursday nights.

[00:05:55] And it's not just going to be like, you know, the Colts and the fucking, you know, bad words every week. The devils usually play on Thursday nights. Like it's what it seems like a Tuesday, Thursday situation, or at least

[00:06:06] maybe last year of the year before I always seem like I don't watch other teams. Isn't that the big nights in hockey or like, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays? I think like those are like the big nights.

[00:06:17] And then I know like a lot of times Saturdays are kind of lean on the weekends. Like I remember a few Friday games even this year that we were maybe the only game or one of two games on those nights.

[00:06:29] I know that we're doing a couple of those frenzy games, you know, where every all 32 teams play in one night with those staggered starts. I think they're doing that again. I like it. I like that. You know, so yeah, before we transition to the devils, um, and

[00:06:45] I want to remind everybody, I will promise to try to never talk about football again, calling for the down stars. The Olympics, we talked about that. You were watching it, right? I've been very into it. It's probably the most I've been into it other than maybe the

[00:06:59] Michael Phelps year because that was just kind of iconic with all the medals and I was racking up for whatever reason, just really into it this year. But I had like a kind of a funny story.

[00:07:07] I'm at the gym and I'm looking up and on the TV and one of the big TVs on the wall is the Olympics. And I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, now here you go. This is, you know, this is the pinnacle of sports competition, right?

[00:07:18] This is every, every athlete strives to do that. Maybe you are a professional at the highest league you already play in, but you always want to be an Olympian too. And I'm looking at that just kind of in all of what's going

[00:07:27] on and then I peek over to the TV to the right and I take a double take and it's ESPN, the Ocho. And I'm like, this isn't real. Isn't the Ocho from dodgeball? Yeah. So then I'm watching it and sure enough, the album it's up there.

[00:07:45] It's ESPN, the Ocho. So I'm cracking up because pinnacle of sports and dodgeball the movie. And then I'm like, what the hell are they playing? Have you? No. Have you ever heard of a mega ball? Isn't that the final number on the mega millions ticket

[00:08:01] that you have to hit to win the jackpot? Isn't that the mega ball? Yeah. Apparently it's a circular soccer field with three nets, not four, like one inch, one area just like the entrance. I didn't pay enough attention to figure out like the scoring.

[00:08:18] I assume two teams can like gang up on one team for a while, like knock that out and then three teams playing at once. Three teams playing and I'm like this, this somebody's messing with me right now. ESPN, the Ocho, three soccer nets.

[00:08:29] I don't know what's going on. And then I turn my attention away. I look back and they're playing pop a shot like literally the arcade game, little basketball net. Yeah. And I'm like, this is somebody who's really playing a prank.

[00:08:41] I had to come home and look it up. So, inspired by the movie Dodgeball, ESPN, the Ocho is a thing. I've gotten two different reports. One, it comes out like once a year for like 52 straight hours and it's all rare sports.

[00:08:55] There's a couple I mentioned, then it gets kind of cool. They do have an air hockey competition. I'm like, all right, I can get behind that. You know what I mean? Who doesn't love that? But like the rarest of sports that you can think of.

[00:09:05] And then it also is apparently on streaming. Like so ESPN, the Ocho is a real thing. I'm going to go on the ESPN app when we get done and see if I can find it. If you go to ESPN site and say, you know, Google

[00:09:18] a list of ESPN channels, you will not see it. Now, if you Google further, it mentions that it is something that comes out once a year or annually at least. It just started in 2023 and it's all these wacky competitions.

[00:09:33] So like I'm on ESPN right now, the ESPN app and I'm just looking for anything that might have the Ocho. There's more sports. If you can dodge a ball. That's awesome. I want to watch this Mega Ball. Omega Ball. Oh, Omega Ball. Omega Ball.

[00:09:56] I thought you said that's the Mega Ball. No, Omega Ball. All right. This is yeah. I mean, the amount there's a channel now called the Gold Zone. Have you seen that? No, it's like NFL red zone. But with the all sports Olympic sports.

[00:10:12] Yeah, it's pretty cool because they bounce around from all these different weird sports and stuff like some of this shit I never even knew existed. Some of the sports are ridiculous that they yeah, we have five hundred and fifty five recordings right now of the Olympics because

[00:10:26] we just did record all. I don't know how we have enough space. I know it's virtual DVR, but they still told me I got like a thousand hours. I have no idea why they're letting us do this. But as we're just flying through it,

[00:10:37] like trying to find we just looking for volleyball, you know, and it's like you're just passing all these sports like synchronized swimming. I'm like, sorry, this is more like a circus show to me than an Olympic event. I'm not saying they're not talented, extremely talented.

[00:10:50] Just didn't see the, you know, the sport of it. You ever see that old Saturday Night Live skit Martin Short did? It was a synchronized swimming for men and he's in a life preserver. He's floating around and he's like has a mirror in front of him and he's

[00:11:05] looking at the mirror and he's pointing at himself and he's going, hey, you, I know you, I know you. And he's like doing it by himself with a mirror and synchronized swimming for men. Perfectly synchronized. It's a great idea. Yeah, it is a great bit.

[00:11:19] But yeah, some of these sports are awesome and makes you think like I could be in the Olympics, like I can do, like I watch curling and I'm like why have we all not started a fucking curling team? Like I feel like we are old enough,

[00:11:36] bald enough and we drink enough beer that we should be able to compete. That seems reasonable. I want to start and then we can go in the Olympics. It's cool. Let's do it. When I was little, I used to want to be a bobsledder so bad.

[00:11:52] I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. And then I saw luge and I thought that's even better. Then I saw double luge and I thought that's just excessive. I don't need another man laying on top of me or me laying on top

[00:12:05] of another person to slide down the ice. Why would you get double luge? It's pretty rocky. Yeah, a little bumpy. Like I just don't understand the double part of it. Like why are we throwing another person on top of it? Like it just doesn't make sense. You know?

[00:12:20] I always wanted to be a bobsledder. I always thought they would have that's just the coolest thing. I like the winter Olympics better than the summer Olympics. Yeah, for example, when I think of summer Olympics, I think of track and field and then I think of gymnastics.

[00:12:38] And gymnastics is in the winter as well. To me that is in the winter? Isn't it? No. Is it just summer? Yeah. I'm thinking about worlds then. I know there's other competitions. Yeah, it might be. It's not in the winter. Winners super cool. Winners super cool too.

[00:12:53] But you know, I do you know, playing volleyball my whole life and then watching that. It's too disappointing. Fifth place finishes for the USA though. But it just makes you like when I moved out here we would go every Tuesday. Sand volleyball two on two.

[00:13:06] No matter what the temperature for like the first four years. Man, I was loving it. You ever hear of a woman volleyball player? Logan Toms? I think so, yeah. She was in like tons of the Olympics. Like I think she was in like four or five Olympic games.

[00:13:21] She was like one of the her dad played for the Giants. Okay. And I sold her my Bronco. There was this huge volleyball tournament down the seaside. I was building a place right on Route 37 and I had my 98 Bronco out front with a for sale sign on it.

[00:13:39] And I was just dicking around the building on a Sunday and she popped in and she was here for the volleyball tournament. She's told me like we talk for a while and she said she was kind of going through some shit. Not sure if she wanted to

[00:13:52] continue playing volleyball anymore and she lives out in California. So her and her team are all flying back and she wanted to just drive back home and get her mind off of shit. And she bought my Bronco right then and there. And she drove back to California. Yeah.

[00:14:07] So I thought that was kind of cool. That's my Olympic story. She was in the Olympics afterwards so yeah she made it and I guess she decided to stick around. Good. I'm glad that I was part of that decision. Yeah. So let's talk some hockey. All right.

[00:14:22] I have an article here. Again I haven't read it because we don't do any kind of really organizing anything during the offseason. So this is from the hockey news. It was written by Christy Flannery and it's Brett Pesci talks Devils roster Sheldon Keefe and more.

[00:14:43] She writes New Jersey Devils defenseman Brett Pesci spoke about his excitement about the upcoming season during an appearance on Morning Cup of Hockey. Send a message to the Carolina Hurricanes group chat before exiting it. Check. Secure a residence in New Jersey for the upcoming season. Check.

[00:14:59] After taking off some necessary items on his to-do list, New Jersey Devils defenseman Brett Pesci is enjoying the remaining weeks of his summer in his hometown of Tarrytown, New York before he drives down to Hoboken for the start of the 24-25 season. He blew before I had

[00:15:12] a chance to ask. I was going to say what do you think? Is he mad? Is he Hoboken? I was thinking Hoboken. Well, he's probably not married. Hoboken or Jersey City, right? That's where the single guys live. Yep. Oh, the single ladies. They all live in Jersey City.

[00:15:28] After nine years of playing for the Hurricanes, the team that drafted him, the 29-year-old signed a massive six-year contract worth $33 million with the New Jersey Devils. He says, I loved my time in Carolina. They were my first choice, obviously, if everything worked out from a financial

[00:15:45] standpoint, it did not work, which is fine. It's all good. It is the nature of the beast. I wanted to be home. I am a home body. My family is from here, grandparents, friends, you name it. I'm going to say yes, he's not married. Right.

[00:15:59] Then I went to the- Make sure I heard this right. He did say all things being considered. If it could have worked out in Carolina, that would have been his first choice. Yeah. So he's being honest. You don't get this much. He's saying financially and he wanted

[00:16:15] probably more. Probably the money would have been fairly close per year, but I'm sure it was the term. I mean, I don't know what the hell Carolina is doing. They don't like paying guys and they let him walk out the door. I just love that

[00:16:28] he even said it. Most people come out, they scare it over that and say, no, I just want to come home, that kind of thing. He's always wanted to play for a local team, all that bullshit. Then he says, then I looked at the Devils.

[00:16:42] I looked at their Markstrom and I was just like, wow, they're good. They are so young, so they are only going to get better. When they were calling, it was a no-brainer for me. So that was from Pesci. And we talked about this how Markstrom was probably

[00:16:59] a big part of getting some of these guys to decide to come here because he's finally solidified that the most important position in hockey with a top five, legit top five goalie. The domino effect is so real. When it comes to these things, you get one big

[00:17:15] signing, it makes one person say, hey, you know what? Maybe they're onto something here. I'll join and that might make the next guy. And you look at a guy like Dylan, whether you love or hate the contract length or whatever, you got to at least love the player

[00:17:30] and what he's going to bring for the first couple years. And maybe he wouldn't have even thought about it had Pesci not signed. Pesci didn't sign until Markstrom signed. So all good things that way. Pesci was previously a teammate of Dougie Hamilton, Eric Halla, and Stefan Nason.

[00:17:46] Regarding which of his new teammates he is excited to meet once training camp begins, he named another defenseman who signed with New Jersey as a free Asian on July 1st. I'm excited to meet Brendan Dillon, Pesci said. I'm really close with Brent Burns and he played

[00:18:01] with Dylan in San Jose for a while. He was just telling me what a good guy he is. Also my roommate in college, Trevor Vans Reemsteich from Jersey, I just jumped around. I played with him in Washington. I've heard nothing but great things and I've been texting

[00:18:16] him a little bit, but I'm definitely excited to meet him. So there you go. Pesci and Dylan may be joining a new team, but when training camp begins, every player will get a fresh start because of first year head coach Sheldon Keefe. Knowing that it will be

[00:18:29] an even playing field at camp for every person. These ads keep popping up and jumping my spot. It will be an easy game for everyone who wants to play and they're going to be able to It will be an even playing field for every player

[00:18:42] provided comfort to Pesci who will be learning a new routine. My agent, Jud Moldaver, is super close with Keefe and he has had nothing but good things to say. To be honest, that also influences your decisions too, Pesci said. If the coach has a good reputation,

[00:18:56] it makes your life a lot easier to play for him and you will want to play for him. Keefe and I have had some conversations about how we both kind of like doing things and we want to do it together with these new guys. The veteran defense

[00:19:07] The veteran defenseman shared that he received jerseys from the organization and when he opened them, he got goosebumps saying it's the coolest thing ever. Obviously, I was a New York Ranger fan growing up, but I would still go to games at the Rock, he said.

[00:19:22] It is such a cool place. It is definitely going to be surreal for those first few games at the Prudential Center. And it goes on a little bit about the schedule. We open up in Prague and that was pretty much it. It shows a little bit

[00:19:36] about how in denial, I think we could be about our age. When you're reading that last segment, he said he grew up a Ranger fan, but he always went to... I was totally expected like Brendan Byrne, confident. The Netherlands. This guy's only 29 years old. His first experience

[00:19:49] going to Devil's Games was the Rock. I was well into my adult life when the Rock opened up. I've only been to the Rock honestly like a frigging handful of times compared to Continental where what would you say? 15 to 20 games a year on average

[00:20:06] for a good stretch of time there? That's pretty much what it was because again with that situation, it was a lot of like, hey, it's Friday night. You want to go? I was working in Heitstown. I always had my jersey in the trunk for that very call.

[00:20:19] It was a $20 ticket. It was free parking if you got there before four. And if it wasn't, it was $5 until they won a cup and then it went to like 10. Then it went to another cup and it went to like 15. It kept going up.

[00:20:29] Every time they won a cup. I remember that because I didn't have much money back then. So I knew the parking prices. And it's close at that time. Maybe $10 worth of tolls if that. And I'm talking less. Yeah. So, you know, maybe maybe $10 in tolls there and back.

[00:20:44] Probably less. You stop and get a 15, $18, 30 pack of beer. So now you're in for $30. You bought your ticket. There's $20. Now you're in for 50. And you maybe spend, you know, 10 bucks or, you know, 15 bucks inside. If you buy a beer or two at that time, whatever.

[00:21:05] But and then you're splitting, you know, the tolls and you're splitting because you're always driving up with somebody. You're splitting that 30 pack. So really for 50 bucks, you're going to a game and you're getting there early. You're partying in the parking lot. You're having fun. Yeah.

[00:21:19] You're throwing the football frisbee around, drinking beers, going in, watching your game, hanging out outside, finishing all your beers and then, you know, getting in the car and driving home. You missed one stop. What's that? You missed one stop. I missed one stop. Cheesequake. Cheesequake.

[00:21:34] Oh yeah, cheesequake rest area. It's not called the cheesequake rest area anymore. Is it not? No, it is now the John Bon Jovi rest area. Get out of here. No, it's true. You're kidding. No. I'm going to call it cheesequake.

[00:21:47] All of our rest areas along the Parkway now all have names of famous New Jersey born people. But not the turnpike. No, not the turnpike. Because I don't have to get on the, I don't have to get on the Garden State Parkway anymore

[00:21:58] when I go straight turnpike to turnpike. I haven't noticed this trend of New Jersey famous people. There's like the John Bon Jovi rest area. I think there's a Judy Blume rest area, which up until seeing the Judy Blume rest area,

[00:22:11] I did not know Judy Blume was even from New Jersey. Then it took me a minute to remember who Judy Blume was. That's where I'm at. She wrote like a couple of bad children, well, I guess not bad, but famous children's books.

[00:22:23] Like she wrote Tales of a Fourth Grade, Nothing. She wrote Super Fudge. Those are probably her two most famous books. I think you had to read them in like second or third grade. Judy Blume was, that's what she did. So there's a rest area after her.

[00:22:39] I think there's a Frank Sinatra rest area. Yeah, so they named them all after famous New Jersey people. But Cheesequake is now the John Bon Jovi rest area. The John Bon Jovi Cheesequake rest area. Cheesequake is gone, dude. It's just a John Bon Jovi.

[00:22:54] I can call it whatever I want. You can. I think it's like he's not the only one from the band that is from Jersey. That's true. Just maybe the Bon Jovi rest area. Why are you just like Richie Sambore is like,

[00:23:07] yeah this is actually the Richie Sambore toilet. This is just my toilet. That's my name. That's my stall. I do feel for the bands. Tico Torres has the garbage in the back of the John Bon Jovi rest area. It's just rough, dude.

[00:23:20] Like these bands with the name of like the title carer, like Bon Jovi and Dave Matthews, you do kind of feel bad for the rest of the guys. Sure. It's kind of like that's a little messed up. Yeah, it's very messed up.

[00:23:30] The Dave Matthews I heard that that was kind of by accident. They were playing a club somewhere and they hadn't come up with a name. They were just like a local house band. Yeah, somebody was like the Dave Matthews band

[00:23:44] because he's the only guy that I knew and it kind of just stuck. But Bon Jovi, that was like, yeah. That was definitely just him being like, I'm the front man. We're not going to call this band Sambora or Torres. There's two, right?

[00:24:01] There were two, yeah, Eddie and Alex. And everybody else can just go fuck themselves because it was all about Eddie and Alex. But yeah, so that's the rest area. Let's do a little shout out here to our sponsors on the Hockey Podcast Network.

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[00:26:43] to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, h-e-l-p dot com slash thpn. Thank you, BetterHelp. So we have the... We're going to do our little recap for the 1995 finals game two I have. This is... I have a few notes, a little programming note.

[00:27:06] We will be doing game three later on in the week, probably on our next show. And then of course we all know that that was a sweep, this series. So game four, which was the big one, we do have a special guest joining us.

[00:27:20] So hopefully you guys will check that out when he comes on. I'm not going to give away who it is, but I will say that he played on that team and has a Stanley Cup. So he will be joining us.

[00:27:34] And he's from New Jersey, and he's been on the show before. Oh, game, who could it be? So this game... Before you go, I remember before you started game one, you obviously went through the longer recap of how we got there. We're not going to do that again.

[00:27:48] But you also asked us, or maybe it was just me actually, if you recall anything specific about the series. Yeah. And I told you that other than a few key moments that obviously stand out, I couldn't tell you everything that happened if it was like, you know,

[00:28:04] game three or game four or what, but I did remember like a lot of key things. Before you go into some things, I just want to point out that this game, what I remember now without researching is that it was after this game

[00:28:19] that I really felt like this is totally in control. I don't see any way. It doesn't mean I wasn't still watching every game like, oh my God, we lose, they're back in the series. But this was the game that really turned the tide for me.

[00:28:32] And if I recall, I'm sure you'll get to it. There's three very specific elements of this game that make it stand out above the other four, at least to me. Well, what are they? I mean, do you want to just say what they are to you?

[00:28:48] Or do you want me to go through it? There was a big hit. There was an incredible offensive play by a defenseman. And there was a game winning goal by an aforementioned local hero, if I recall. That's definitely true. Now the defenseman that you're talking about, Niedermeyer's play?

[00:29:06] Mm-hmm. Is that the one you're talking about? Oh, yes. There were a couple of big hits in this game. Did you talk about the Kozlov hit? Yes, I am. Okay. So yes, all those things that happened. Now this game, Devils Are Up, won nothing.

[00:29:19] This is also at Joe Lewis Arena, June 20th, 1995 in Michigan, in Detroit. It was not the original crew calling it the first game, which I believe was Doc Emmerich, who was doing the play-by-play. This was Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, who they were tough to listen to.

[00:29:38] No, I liked Gary Thorne. You weren't into Gary Thorne? No. Even when he was with us, no, I wasn't a big fan of him. Okay. I didn't mind his calls. I thought he was pretty good at what he did. Yeah, I guess he was all right.

[00:29:50] And compared to some of the guys now, he was all right. Listen, I still want Doc every day. I want to watch games today and just have him dub over. Oh, I would love that. Yeah. I mean, he was just the best.

[00:30:01] And I wish he would come back just to do like a Stanley Cup final game, of course, which wouldn't be fair to the guys that are doing it all year long and then they get bounced out of the most important series.

[00:30:10] I understand that, but I still do it on different... Like if I owned like a XM or something, I would have him do the call just for XM. I would, who cares, just have Doc because he's the best. Doc on the channel. Yes.

[00:30:26] Now there were a couple of things that they talked about, about game one that was early in this, and there was a couple of things. So Jacques Lemaire, this is another thing that I forgot about Jacques Lemaire. And you don't see coaches do it nearly as much,

[00:30:42] but he was so big on matching lines. That was one of his biggest things. He knew who he wanted to play against the other team's players, and he did everything he could. Like you would see a guy, a line take a face off,

[00:30:56] and all three guys change out right after that face off if they weren't at home, if they didn't have the last change. He was so big on matchups. And you saw that through every cup too, like all of our coaches,

[00:31:08] even though Lemaire was only there for the 95 one. Like you remember, like John Madden, always against him and Pandolfo, were always against the team's best offensive players, and they were third line guys. Stevens for game one was on the ice for 15 of Sergei Fedorov's 19 shifts.

[00:31:26] So it was, that was the matchup Lemaire wanted. He was able to get it with the last, with the first change, 15 out of 19 times. That's pretty good. Yes. So four shifts. And Fedorov was hurt in this game.

[00:31:39] He did, had back problems. They weren't sure if he was going to play. It's like real famous after, like the game after game one lost, Steve Iserman saying that Mike Vernon was the only red wing to play a good game

[00:31:51] that the rest of them should be embarrassed and this and that. And then they were talking about number 22, Claude Lemieux. And they anointed Claude Lemieux, Mr. Devil. They were showing a big highlight reel, and it was Claude Lemieux,

[00:32:12] and they said Mr. Devil, and I was like, hmm, he was the original Mr. Devil. I think Danico had to beat him up for that one or just have him leave and spend 18 years playing for the same team.

[00:32:23] But Ken Danico is not the original Mr. Devil. It was Claude Lemieux. I think he got the nickname for a different reason. Sure, he got that for longevity. I get it. How about this one? In the playoffs in 1995, the Devils allowed 7.8 shots per period. Is that right?

[00:32:43] Period. Less than eight shots a period all playoff long. Quite impressive. That's how good this team was. Now you mentioned the Scott Stephens hit on Kozlov. That was, or was that the Fedorov? Was it Fetisov or Kozlov? I'm trying to remember.

[00:33:01] That hit was the Fetisov hit, right? Behind the net. That was when he laid out Fetisov. Yeah. And Stephens had a... I mean this is the game that Detroit probably should have won. This is the best chance that they had to get a game in this series.

[00:33:22] Did they open the scoring? Yes. They did open the scoring. So first period comes and goes, right? There's some penalties. Stephens takes a penalty 37 seconds in. And Detroit in the playoffs, they were third on the power play.

[00:33:36] The Devils were fifth on the penalty kill going into that game in the playoffs. The other thing I noticed watching these series, Dino Ciccarelli, he was so fucking annoying. Like that dude was the claw of the meal with the Red Wings. Him and Darren McCarty.

[00:33:53] This wasn't like a big physical Devils team playing a speedy fast Red Wing team. Like that Red Wing team had a lot of size and they had dudes that can hit. It was a chippy, chippy first period. Quite a few penalties. And it was Kozlov by the way.

[00:34:13] It was Kozlov, okay. So that was the Stephens hit on Kozlov. And I think he took out Fetisov in game four, I think it was. But yeah, he was just a hit master. A couple of changes in the lineup. Jimmy Dowd, New Jersey native is in.

[00:34:26] Brian Ralston was in this game. I was even questioning if he was on that team because I get my ears mixed up. So again, there were some penalties and that was basically it for the first period. So end of one, we have no score.

[00:34:41] We get into the second period and 6.56 in, Verdor takes a delay of game penalty. The Red Wing score on that power play was a Slava Kozlov goal from Dino Cicerelli and Federov. It was Kozlov's ninth goal. The playoffs at 7.17 in the first period won not the Red Wings.

[00:35:00] The place is going nuts. Sure. All the momentum is in Detroit side. At this point, all those fans are thinking we're still by far the superior team. We lost one game two to one. Who are these Devils? Where is New Jersey? And they're up one nothing.

[00:35:16] Why does New Jersey have a hockey team and why are they beating us? Even though we played 94s, consider a rookie, right? Oh yeah, but there was a lot of talk from Clement and Gary Dorn about the Con Smythe trophy winner.

[00:35:29] They were both saying it could be the youngster Marty Brodor and then Bill Clement said, I'm leaning a little bit more towards Claude Lemieux. He just has been doing everything in that series. But there was buzz in 95. 21, I believe Brodor was in 95.

[00:35:48] Second year, how awesome would that have been if he got it? And remember too, that award is decided before the Stanley Cup is finalized. It's decided somewhere between the third and fourth round at some point. Like it's not like, okay they actually won. Everybody get together and vote.

[00:36:04] It is done before and take nothing away from Claude Lemieux. Love everything he did. The finals was not where he made his name. I think he had one goal in the finals. Again, doesn't mean he wasn't doing the rest of his job perfectly well.

[00:36:17] What Brodor did was less than two goals, no more than two goals per game in all four, continuing his complete dominance of that entire year. So I can see the argument. Yeah and maybe when you stop and look at it, maybe Brodor should have gotten it.

[00:36:33] And it is the one trophy that has eluded this guy his entire career. He's never going to get it. Yeah, you can make that argument twice. You could make that argument twice. We already argued, we already talked about 2003.

[00:36:44] We all think that's absolute bullshit that he didn't get it. Three shutouts in the finals alone, seven for the year. But that's another situation where if that was decided say by finals game two or three

[00:36:55] and then Brodor goes off and gets two more shutouts to steal the Stanley Cup. Can you imagine what the vote would have been after the fact? I know what Jiggy did for that team but there's no denying what Brodor did for that team.

[00:37:07] So if they actually delayed the voting until the Stanley Cup was over, it might have changed that vote. How do you not vote for a guy who gets three shutouts out of four wins in the Stanley Cup final? It's mind-boggling. It really is.

[00:37:18] Everybody was just so enamored with this John Sebastian Jigair bit. It was all just a bit. This fucking song came out. Everybody was playing it when he got in the net. Everyone in California loved this guy. He's a new French Canadian coming in.

[00:37:39] But he got beat by the legend. He did. I mean, he won his Cup. I mean, he's a good goalie. I'm not going to take anything away from Jigair but he didn't deserve it. They did not win the Cup in 2003. He shouldn't have gotten it.

[00:37:54] I'm not a big fan on giving the consmite to the losing team. Even this year. Connor McDavid is fantastic. We get it. But did he really deserve the consmite trophy? I don't know. I mean, I would maybe have gone with Bobrovsky on that or even Barkov.

[00:38:12] You know, he went off. McDavid went off for a couple of games. But the games that he was quiet in, he was nonexistent. The last two. They took him out completely. And look at what Barkov did for every series before that and who he shut down.

[00:38:32] He shut down Pasternak, he shut down Panera and he shut down the guy on Tampa. I always forget his fucking name. But yeah, I mean, he shut down everybody. He was a very effective guy. You can make the argument he got it. Oh, here's the other thing.

[00:38:48] They won the fucking Cup. Right. Like they won. I hear you. I'm with you on that. So second period now where one-nothing Detroit, Billy Garren and Darren McCarty both take slashing calls at 8.58 a second. We go four on four at 9.40. Number 15, John McClane.

[00:39:08] Not to be confused with the fat free burger that McDonald's used to sell called the McLean. This is John McClane. This was his fifth of the playoffs from...

[00:39:17] Not to be confused with the Die Hard character in one of the best Christmas movies ever for those of you who celebrate. Yeah, it's... John McClane's character in Die Hard was modeled after John McClane, the hockey player. You know that, right? That's what I heard.

[00:39:33] I'm glad you can confirm it. Yeah. Well, the reason that Lou Lamarello even wanted him on this team was because of what he did at Nakatomi Plaza. So that was impressive. Kind of makes sense now when you think about it. So this was McClane's fifth...

[00:39:44] 88 was a big year for John McClane. It was. It was huge. And he had... And he had... I don't remember how many goals, but he had, I think, eight or nine European terrorist kills. So that was big.

[00:39:55] He saved the people and he got us into the playoffs all in the same year. That's a pretty busy schedule. And he did it barefoot. Crazy. I know people who can't even walk across hot pavement barefoot. How do you ice skate barefoot? That's fucking dangerous too.

[00:40:09] You can lose a toe for sure. He did it. On my toe. Is that what you said? Holy shit. Nope, you'll never hear me say that. John McClane's fifth of the year from Scott Niedermeyer and Aaron... Neil Broughton, not Aaron Broughton.

[00:40:22] So that tied the game up at one. And then to end the second, Bob Eerie and Jimmy Dowd had some coincidental minors at the end of the second. Anyway, it's 1-1 going into the third. Right off the bat, a minute 36.

[00:40:35] Sergey Federov, his fifth of the playoffs from Dougie Brown and Slava Fetisov. Now it's 2-1 Detroit. Now at this point, you have to admit you're feeling it now because although the Devils were really good at holding leads, maybe the best, coming back, I mean, they weren't

[00:40:53] known as being the greatest offensive team because you weren't even noticing the playoffs as they were standing. What was unfolding in front of us was a team very capable of offense throughout the playoffs.

[00:41:03] But in your mind, you're still thinking this is a team that wins and loses 2-1 games. And now it's 2-1 Detroit. It's the third period. They're in their building. They have to win.

[00:41:11] And the only good thing on the Devils, two things was he scored early in the first. So they have basically been in the third. So they had the whole third period to try and tie this thing up. And Brodor was playing Brodor hockey. So they had opportunities.

[00:41:27] They had some penalties. They couldn't. Haleek took a boarding call a couple of minutes after. Devils kill it. And then about halfway through the period, 9.47, the play that you talked about, Scott Niedermeyer, his fourth of the playoffs from, want to guess? Let me guess. From Stevens. Jimmy Dowd.

[00:41:47] Jimmy Dowd. Jimmy Dowd scores it, ties it up 2-2, half of the period left. And now we go late into the game. Wait a minute. Let's give this play a little more credit. This was the coast to coast behind the net from Brodor, slides through about

[00:42:03] four Detroit guys along the way. Fires a slightly wide short side, but it bounces completely off the boards right back out to him. And he weaved through the last defender to be the first to the puck, throws it past Vernon, 3-2 Devils, right? Or 2-2. 2-2. 2-2.

[00:42:24] 2-2 Devils. And that's a great explanation of that goal. It was the display of Niedermeyer's primary skill. For as good as his other skills were, his skating was always the top, probably the best skater in the NHL at the time.

[00:42:37] And it absolutely showed in the eight seconds it took for that to unfold. And the series really felt a change right then and there. And Devil fans knew, holy shit, we have this guy, we have Ken Danica, we have Scott Stevens, like we have a core of defensemen,

[00:42:54] not totally unlike what's going on now in New Jersey, that are gonna be around for a long time and are gonna be anchors on this team, and Scott Niedermeyer was all flash. But listen, the one thing about these offensive guys,

[00:43:08] especially on defense, is that a lot of times they don't play defense. Right. A guy like Scott Niedermeyer, like playing for Jacques Lemaire, if he wasn't responsibly defensive, if he wasn't responsible defensively, it doesn't even matter how good offensively he was. He wouldn't have been in that lineup.

[00:43:26] But he was so good defensively. Multiple awards for best defensemen. Did he not get it a couple times? I think he won the Veznas twice. Vezna would be Martin Brodeur. I mean, not Vezna. I think he won the Norris twice.

[00:43:38] Yeah, I think once with us and once with Anaheim. I believe that's correct. I'm pretty sure he got one towards the end of his career with the Devils. Yeah, he definitely got one with the Devils. I always felt like he deserved more recognition. Brodeur had what, four Veznas.

[00:43:49] Four Veznas. Four Veznas. Like, four fucking Veznas. We have, I think... Don't forget the Jennings too. Didn't he have like, five Jennings? Yeah, a couple of those. We have two goalies in the league right now that have multiple two. Only two Veznas.

[00:44:07] And I believe that it's Bobrovsky and Vasileski. I think they're the only two goalies that have two Veznas. Martin Brodeur was playing and he had four. I don't want to get into the semantics and complete stats of it all

[00:44:22] because I do not follow it as tightly as I did when I was fanatical. But there were plenty of years where he definitely lost kind of on the card and not on the stats. Now that being said, because he was going up against a guy like Hasek

[00:44:36] who was just penciled into it. Hacheb Wah. And he had better numbers on at least one occasion specifically that I recall, probably two, that warranted him getting it. But as I look back now, 30 years of watching hockey, you do see this happen to other goaltenders too.

[00:44:54] So I'm not saying he would have ran away with the titles because if he would have got to five or six, then maybe another guy is getting to three or four. I'm just saying as a diehard fan at the time,

[00:45:05] there was definitely years where he outpaced Hacheb and lost to him. You're 100% right. And it really started becoming a thing, right? He didn't win for a long time actually. Right. Before he won his first one, it was like he's never going to win it.

[00:45:18] He was actually a veteran by the time he started winning his Veznas. Yes. I'm pretty sure if I'm right that there's only two goalies that have the two, maybe it's not Bobrovsky. Because I think it's Andrzej Vasilewski and Connor Hollebuck. So maybe Bobrovsky doesn't have two.

[00:45:37] I think he only has one. But let's do a quick run through of some Vezna winners, right? So this year was Connor Hollebuck. Last year was Linus Olmark. Then Shosturkin, Mark Andrzej Flury. Connor Hollebuck gets it in 2020. Vasilewski wins one in 2019. Then we got Pecorini.

[00:45:58] Sergei Bobrovsky wins it in 2017. Braden Holtby won it in 2016. It went Carrie Price 15, Tukorask 14. So Tukorask won two? Or no, Pecorini won the other one. Sergei Bobrovsky, 2013. Lundquist, 2012. Tim Thomas, 11. Ryan Miller, 10. Tim Thomas, 09. Brodor, 08. Brodor, 07. Mika Kipersov, 6. Brodor, 04. Brodor, 03. So 03, 04.

[00:46:32] So he was the only player, the only one so far that has had back-to-back. And he's had it twice. And if it wasn't for Mika Kipersov in 2006, he maybe would have won five in a row. Right.

[00:46:42] So now we'll kind of roll it back to the 95 and we'll go up a little bit and we'll see where we're at. So in 93, or let's start with 1990 was, oh here we go. Patrick Wa won it in 89 and in 90. Then Belfort got it in 91.

[00:46:59] Wa got it again in 92. This is why these guys are just constantly compared to each other, right? Absolutely. Belfort again in 93. So there's a stretch here. One, two, three, four, five years that it was Patrick Wa or Eddie Belfort winning the Vezna.

[00:47:15] You know, the only thing that separates Belfort from the Brodor-Wa conversation is the one Stanley Cup. You're right. Belfort had at least two. More people would recognize how good the eagle was. Yeah, but he was insane too. That's another problem. He was totally insane. Yes.

[00:47:32] So I think that Eddie Belfort's reputation, especially post-hockey has kind of preceded him. He's just left hockey and everything you hear about him is just like negative stories of him acting crazy in hotel rooms and crazy shit like that.

[00:47:43] But when they were on TV, he was just as much must watch TV as Hachik and Brodor-Wa. You wanted to turn on that Chicago game. And then come 94, the emergence of Dominic Hachik, he wins it in 94 and 95. We have our pop up Jim Carrey year of 96, right?

[00:48:01] Then we saw him the next year in Providence. And then he was in the minors after that and never made his way back. What a weird pop up, have an amazing year, win the Vezna,

[00:48:14] and then the next year spend maybe 12 or 15 games in the NHL before you've never saw an NHL rink again. This is just the callback for anybody who's laughing at me from the last show

[00:48:23] when I say you can get in a zone in anything and just fly your way through it. This dude did it for a whole season. You're right. And then he was nothing. We probably have a lot of New York giant listeners that listen to us.

[00:48:40] And you just look at Eli Manning, right? A mediocre quarterback, could be good, could be great. But for the most part, if you look at his career numbers, he's pretty middle of the road. But two years until the playoff.

[00:48:55] He decided at playoff time that he was going to play out of his head, get into his own and wins two Super Bowls. Both against Brady, right? Yeah, both against Brady. I mean, come on. Brady has whatever, 30 rings, something crazy like that. Yeah, I think he's like 65. Seven.

[00:49:12] Yeah, something like that. Round it up, 70 championships. But Dominik Hasek wins it in 94-95. Jim Carrey pops up in 96. And then Hasek wins the next three, 97, 98 and 99. He's got five. Oh, I'm not done. Oh, Jesus, that's right. Maybe he's got more. Oli Degoli gets his in 2000.

[00:49:32] Dominik Hasek wins it again in 2001. Six. So he's at six Veznas. Then Josey Theodore in 2002. And that's when we get into the Marty Brodor 03-04. So here's what I'll give you. At the very least, one of those Veznas late 90s goes to Brodor.

[00:49:53] And then both him and Hasek are at five and five, which is poetic to me. Going all the way back to their tie shutout game where they split the puck. That would make everything right in the universe to me. Well, I mean, you could probably make an argument.

[00:50:05] If I had more time, I'd get the numbers. But 2000, the Devils won the Stanley Cup, right? Brodor is one of the greatest goalies playing, one of the best goalies. And Oli won the Vezna. Like maybe 2000 should have been Brodor's first.

[00:50:18] Now, I don't have their numbers side by side, but I would guarantee that there's no way Kolzig is ahead of him in games played. There's no way he's ahead of him in wins. There's no way he's ahead of them in save percentage.

[00:50:28] Well, maybe in save percentage, not goals against. It's probably goals against. It might be Brodor's one year where he was like 2.03. I want to check that, 2000. So yeah, then Brodor got his four back-to-back. And then Mika Kiprsov jumps in. And then Brodor again, 2007, 2008.

[00:50:47] So his first one was what year? 2003. Brodor's first was 2003. That was his, we should have given you the Kahn Smythe. We're going to give you the Vezna instead. So he's 30 years old when he got his first one. Right. And Dominik Hasek already had six. Right. That's crazy.

[00:51:04] Isn't it? I want to just see real quick what Oli's numbers were. What did we say? It was 2000? Yes. Just give me one sec. I got to go back a couple years here. Do, do, do, do, do. And then we'll do Brodor's. Yes. So that one, fuck.

[00:51:28] That's the 99-2000 season, right? So we'll go Oli Kolzig was his numbers. Let's make sure I'm on the right year. Yep. All right. So Oli played 73 games that year. Oh, wow. He might not have had Brodor on wins. He played 73 games. He had 41 wins, 20 losses, 11 ties. All right.

[00:51:59] So he had a one, his save percentage was a .917. Are you writing this down? .917 save. His goals against was 224. 224. And he had five shutouts. How many wins again? 41 on 73 starts. That's actually really good. Really good numbers. So let's see what the man had. All right.

[00:52:26] So in 19 or 99-2000, right? Yep. Brodor played 43 games, I mean 72 games. He had 43 wins. Okay. 20 losses, 8 ties. He had more than 5 shutouts. 6. Okay. Goals against of 224. Even. 2.24 and a .910 save percent. So his overall numbers beat Kozlov. Kozlov? Kozlov. Kozlov. Kozlov. In everything.

[00:53:03] So okay, and Kozlov got the Vezma. Any one of the cups. So yeah, it's interesting. Any one of the cups, yep. Let's make a gripe on that. So let's take that one back. And one of the ones from Hasek. I'm getting greedy now.

[00:53:14] No, I want to take the Mika Kipersov one out so we can give Brodor five in a row. That would be awesome. But even with that one, well it would be what? 6 and 7 years. 5 of them in a row. Well that's about how dominant he was in the league.

[00:53:28] Yeah, let's do that. All right, so 10 minutes left in the game, Bob. 10 minutes. It's tight. Brodor is playing good. Devils are doing what they're doing, but the Red Wings are playing great. Now you described it beautifully. That Scott Nienermeyer goal was amazing.

[00:53:43] But then at 18.36, right, there's a minute 20 whatever seconds left. Local boy Jimmy Dowd scores a goal. His second of the playoffs from Sean Chambers and Tommy Albelin to make it 3-2 New Jersey. So this is a big Abilene over to Chambers. Big shot by Chambers from the point.

[00:54:08] Big fat juicy rebound and Jimmy Dowd is perfectly placed in the slot to backhand it in to the cage. I think Vernon was totally leaning to the other side if I recall. That was it. And that was it. It was a beauty.

[00:54:20] And you know, Sean Chambers, here comes up big this whole playoff series against the Red Wings. Another unsung hero. Yeah. You've been listening to this podcast long enough. We've mentioned that for about 10 guys. Let alone the guys everybody knows about and that's how you win a championship. Right.

[00:54:39] And wait until we start getting into the 2000-2003s and we have our, you know, the Colin Whites and the Brian Rafalskis and you know, the Jeff Friesens and these dudes that came in that just played fucking great.

[00:54:52] Most casual hockey fans that know enough, like in our demographic, would probably be able to mention to you some of the key elements of not and take Brodoran Stevens and Nienemeier out because everybody knows the three of them and Danica Lieven.

[00:55:05] Rieland, they probably don't know to be honest. No offense for you. But that's the truth. But if you take those guys out and talk to your average hockey fan, they're going to know some of the key guys in 95 and some of the key guys in 2000.

[00:55:15] They're not going to remember shit about 2003 because that like you said, that was just a collective of guys doing their job. Pascal Riom and like just everybody. In 2003, we had one of the greatest hockey players ever on this team in Joe Neuendijk.

[00:55:33] Who didn't even play in the finals, not because he was a healthy scratch. He wasn't injured. But still, this team lost Joe Neuendijk and didn't miss a beat. We brought him in for that very reason. Let's make sure we get over the hump this year.

[00:55:47] And when it came down to it, we had to do it without him. Incredible. Phil Housley. I don't think he was on 2003. He was on 2000. I'm not sure. Maybe he was on 2003. No, I think he was gone by 99. I don't think he won a cup. Oh, he didn't?

[00:56:00] No, I don't think so. OK. You might be right. I liked Phil Housley when he was with us. It was exciting to get him. That was a pretty big move. Yeah. I mean, well, I remember being like really excited about Dougie Gilmore.

[00:56:10] And I think he did he even play a full year for us or did he come at the trade deadline and walk after we lost in the first round of the playoffs?

[00:56:17] I feel like it was half a year and then a full year, but not a productive year. But you know what? That would have been Thomas. We got Thomas from the Islanders. Yeah, yeah. Maybe he wasn't from the Islanders at that point.

[00:56:30] Maybe he had gone to Toronto or something. I don't know. But I'm so curious how many games Gilmore played for New Jersey.

[00:56:37] Most of the time when we finally did start bringing in like kind of a big name import, it didn't really have the effect that it was supposed to. No, never. McGill was a good exception McGill had a great year with us and a great Stanley Cup run in 2000.

[00:56:51] And Jeff Rees and I would say, well, Jeff, yeah, that was he wasn't a big name. That was Lou Lemerello making a hockey move, breaking up the A-line, getting rid of Sakura and Arnade in like, you know, getting freezing in here. So it was a little different.

[00:57:06] It wasn't just simply like we're getting a Joe Neuendijk or Gilmore. Yeah, so most of the time it didn't really work. How's it? Yeah, it didn't really it didn't really work out.

[00:57:15] Dougie Gilmore did play well, he played 20 games for us when we traded for him at the deadline and then the following year, which was 97, 98, he played 63 games for us. So I don't know if we traded him at the deadline or if it was. I don't know.

[00:57:32] It seems like a little far of 63 games would be after the deadline. Listen, I'm not going to sugarcoat between 95 and 2000. There were some very aggravating years. Oh, yeah. Obviously, we know we missed the playoffs in 96. The expectations in 97, 98, 99 were through the charts.

[00:57:50] We were supposed to be a contender and it was first round, second round, first round. It was a rough time. Now when you look at the whole collective, right?

[00:57:58] When you look back at the whole success, you go, OK, winning the division, making a playoff round or two, three Stanley Cups all mixed in there. It's a glorious time.

[00:58:05] But when you're in it and you're literally supposed to be one of the top six and you're losing in the first round, which we see teams do it today. It hurts, right? Because no matter where you place in the standings, somebody is going to lose.

[00:58:16] Especially when the one cup you won, people will still throw in your face that wasn't a real cup because it was a shortened season and you didn't play a full 82 games. And then to go and lose the way we did in 97, 98, 99, that was what was frustrating.

[00:58:33] And then finally in 2000, you realized, OK, we can do this and we know this team is really good. And 2001, 2003. We still heard it though. We still heard it. 2003 kind of quieted it because everyone was like, OK, the Devils actually are legitimately good consistently.

[00:58:50] Good. But even back then, even as fresh as 2002, 3, 4, you would run into a ton of fans who would just call us a boring trapping team. Leading the league in scoring, they would say that. Well, that's just people that didn't follow the team.

[00:59:06] I mean, you know, I still hear people say the Devils are boring. Like I still like older guys like, oh, that's insane. I'm like, bro, it's not too bad. 1998 anymore. You dumbass. Like this is a completely different team. So, yeah, it is a minute left in the game.

[00:59:20] Empty net. Empty net. 1939, we got a few seconds left the game to Stefan Richet, a sixth of the year, throws it into the empty net from Scott Niedermeyer. And that's it.

[00:59:34] It's a 2-1 series lead for the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals with a 4-2 victory sweeping both games in Detroit now for big game three coming back home to Jersey at the old Continental Airlines Arena. We'll go over that game next show.

[00:59:51] So now I really am starting to think as we've been through games one and two, and there's been a couple people that I've brought up that didn't make their mark in the finals yet. We swept Detroit and we kind of escalated our scoring from here.

[01:00:07] We started with 2-1 victory. We got a 4-2 and I'm not going to spoil it. But spoiler, two five goal games, I believe. And Richet, who led the team in scoring, I think that might be his only point.

[01:00:20] I think that might be his only point in the finals. Lemieux, who led the league in goals and got the consmite, that is his only goal, I believe. All I'm trying to say is I'm illustrating like winning by committee here. That's how they always did it.

[01:00:35] That's exactly what happened. Which lends more credence to our bro Dorr should have been the consmite trophy winner in 95. That's true. So all right, so that's our second recap for 94. Bob, what do you got before we wrap this thing up? I have a little something also from 95.

[01:00:52] It plays more to what we discussed before the first game and kind of touching on the crash line, which again, offensively speaking was not the same in the finals as we saw the first three rounds. Not that they didn't do their job in other facets of the game,

[01:01:08] but they were like a huge element of surprise throughout the first couple rounds. I want to read a little bit of this from a recent, it's a fairly recent book. Some fans may have it. It's Tales from the New Jersey Devil's Locker Room,

[01:01:24] a collection of the greatest stories ever told. Glenn Chico Resch with Mike Kerwick. Nice. And there's a quick paragraph here titled The Crash Line. It says, Randy McKay didn't take too many beatings, but he was with when he was with the Devils.

[01:01:42] One of the few losses he remembers came against Florida when Paul Louse punched out three of his teeth. No loss, no matter how many of his teeth were involved, stopped Randy from dropping the gloves and going after someone else.

[01:01:54] One year, McKay said we, as in him and Mike Peluso had 28 majors. In McKay and Peluso, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire saw something he could exploit. The year before the Devils won their first Stanley Cup, Lemaire put the duo on a line with a young centerman named Bobby Holic.

[01:02:14] The trio formed the unforgettable Crash Line, a line that can go from beating up some poor opponent one moment to injecting offensive momentum the next. They became fan favorites at the Metal Lands. Mike and I both knew our roles, McKay said.

[01:02:29] We were the enforcers. A lot of nights we both had one or two fights each, but we were pretty smart about it. McKay averaged 232 penalty minutes a season during his first three campaigns with New Jersey. Peluso logged 236 penalty minutes the first year Lemaire put the trio together.

[01:02:48] What impressed McKay the most was what he noticed several years later, after the three members of the line had gone their separate ways. Around the NHL, he saw other teams mimicking what the Devils had done.

[01:03:02] As far as size goes and production goes, McKay said, we were a model for what teams tried to copy and do. It's absolutely true. And listen, New Jersey has had some amazing line combinations throughout all their years.

[01:03:19] There is no line that none that I love more than the Crash Line. That line was so full of personality. And like they said, they'll go from whooping your ass to scoring three goals. Crash and not doing it, which is what was cool. It was in-your-face hockey.

[01:03:36] I would love to talk to Mike Peluso at some point just to kind of get what was going through your head at the end of that game four. The man could not come out for his shift because he was so overdrawn with the motion.

[01:03:53] He just couldn't even go out there to take the ice for his final shift is how much it meant to him. You know, a guy who was just considered a fucking goon, you know, had to fight and claw for everything he had.

[01:04:06] Now he's on this awesome line where he's like I said, being exploited for what he does best and just being so filled with emotion that you can't even go out there for your last shift because you had just won the pinnacle of your fucking sport.

[01:04:19] It's just an amazing story. It sure is, but I have to actually go pick up my kid. So the one that doesn't drive. So we're going to wrap this thing up.

[01:04:29] We will be back hopefully with some of the boys and yes, Jimmy Dowd as far as right now will be joining us for the game four recap so we can actually get some behind the scenes kind of in-depth, you know,

[01:04:42] stories about what was going on on that bench and in that locker room after game four where this team won their first cup, which is pretty freaking awesome. So look forward to that wherever you're listening to us a like a five star review, a positive comment,

[01:04:55] subscription to download helps a little podcast that could we are the Uncle Puckers and we'll see you when we see it. Right. Bye bye. It's over, Johnny. It's over.