I'm going to have to come back and read this thread end to end - but I'm the same age as Jim, so my recollections are about the same being an 18 year old in '88.
The thing that stood out to me is that you really never got much of a feeling of progress early on - certainly '88 was a quantum leap forward and we became a middling team instead of a doormat, but the coach juggling, the contract issues and uncertainty around Burke and Muller and Shanny, and also the general feeling that we had lots of odd bits and pieces that didn't necessarily fit nor wanted to be there in particular made it tough as a fan.
It wasn't clear that Lou was a genius, because he was an unknown quantity to the general populace, and it just seemed he was excessively tight-fisted and/or unreasonable.
We added good players - Fetisov/Kasatanov - but those guys were trying to play the 5-man game that you see from today's defensemen, and the fact that they did things differently certainly didn't mesh with the rest of the team. There seemed to be multiple 'teams' and lots of mismatched pieces.
You had guys like Bernie Nichols, Phil Housley - who were supposed to be 'great' players but were never really adopted by the fans because they didn't seem to want to be there, and their performance didn't measure up to who they thought they were.
There was a distinct buzz about certain players from time to time - fan favorites: Crowder and his fights, Ysebaert, Cigar, Kevin Todd -etc - who would have good seasons and then disappear or get dealt.
You had a group of old-guard guys playing their hearts out - MacLean (although he got big for his britches), Dano, Driver, Brown - that was the core -
and you started phasing out the old guard - Verbeek, Conacher, Stastny, Boschman etc... that you knew weren't 'the future'.
You started adding guys like Weinrich, Semak, Albelin, Terreri, Billington, - role players that you thought would be a nice secondary base on a good team - guys that could hold down a spot and not hurt you.
Then, it all changed with trades. I'd say getting Lemieux and Richer suddenly made us dangerous when we really didn't have the feeling of a very dangerous team. The feeling there was the same as when Kovalchuk (grrr) made us dangerous at any time. But you knew you were getting 'characters' as well.
Then Holik was a big add - suddenly you had a REALLY good 4th liner who would win faceoffs, hit people and score - and character.
Randy McKay was a big add as well - another underrated heart guy.
Lou's draft picks started filtering in - Nieder (who was terribly scary Zidlicky style early on) Guerin, Zelepukin, Dowd... proved we could draft effectively and that there was help coming to fill out the lineup.
It still didn't seem like we were going anywhere in particular - we seemed to be doomed to be a 'bubble' team going forward - good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to make any noise.
Getting awarded Stevens changed everything, as his nickname 'Dad' really said it all. It seemed like the team was forced to become a team under him. Suddenly things got real for everyone up and down the lineup - even Richer would get his lights put out coming over the middle in practice, so his game needed to go up a level.
That said - Stevens still hadn't completely bought in that we could win. I think Marty showing up gave him real hope for the first time.
Everything went up a level with Jacques and his system. We could now play a system and win a game and it was like bringing order to chaos.
Clearly, the 94 playoffs was the spot we turned the corner. Much like earlier in this year, we were a team that really didn't get any respect whatsoever, and it seemed like the refs were against us - particularly when facing the Rangers. EVERY call seemed to go against us and the ice was lopsided. That playoff run taught us
What is more (MOST) important was our reaction to those calls - and how our team matured. Guys like Dano who never held back when getting a whack on the calf was now being strategic about not getting penalties. Stevens who could always be counted on Owen Nolan style to be taken out of his game by reacting to any over-the-line play, was now the initiator and was no longer taking bad penalties. That Rangers series might have gone differently had we had poise - but what was really important is that the entire team learned poise after being goaded by Messier, Graves et al - guys who had won in Edmonton. That 93-94 series broke my heart, and 'til this day I cannot get across the hatred that revolved around every water-cooler that spring. Being outnumbered in our own building - Fights in the cattle chute, fights in the parking lot, fights in stairwells. It was truly unbelievable and I'll never see that level of fan rivalry again because you had a whole young fanbase in their early 20s on the Devils side against a bunch of ***hats that always took over our building.
We were ready that next year to take the next step and always initiate play and control play.
Adding Carpenter stepped us up another level, more character, more potential scoring, more defense...
and then it seemed like Broten (the next year) was the last piece of the puzzle - along with help from Brylin and Rolston.
And I'll end by just saying that the '95 team was a machine. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that if we got up by a goal we were going to win. We were so tough at counter-attacking and so solid from top to bottom. Haven't felt that before nor since - even in 2000 or 2003 or 2004 and certainly not in 2012.