Franchise Best: New Jersey Devils 1999-2000 Season

sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes
Aug 30, 2010
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Brewster, NY
What hurt us in '01:

1. Domi's hit on Niedermeyer in Round 2.
2. Taking too long to dispatch of the Hurricanes.
3. Marty's shaky play in the Final.

The 1993-1994 team was really good too. I remember during the season pretty much every time they were nursing a one goal lead they would score and coast on to the win. Unlike today when their one goal leads comes down to the final seconds.

In 93-94 we finished 2nd in the entire league in goals scored. Right when we were in the thick of playing the trap!! Using SRS to determine the best team in the league we were #1.

1993-94 NHL Summary | Hockey-Reference.com

The thing people ignore is that unlike all the other teams who used the trap the Devils used it to turn defense into offense. That's why their system was far more successful than anyone else.
 

Brodeur

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
25,864
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San Diego
I totally get your rationale here. The 99-00 team won the cup and the 00-01 team didn’t, despite being the better team than the 99-00 one. So I agree with placing that team above the 00-01 team.

@Brodeur also makes a great point though. The team we were icing in June 2001 wasn’t really as good as the we iced in June 2000. McKay was injured (that was his last good year) and we were icing Bob Corkum in his absence. Sean O’Donnell was worse than Ken Sutton, who was up in press box more often than not. And while he may not have been effective or any good by the Summer of 2001 had we retained him, not having Claude Lemieux that year really hurt us. He may not have helped much in 2001, but he was still pretty damn good in 2000.

Having (a motivated) Malakhov paired with White was such a luxury. I remember being taken aback when Niedermayer and Malakhov were on the 2nd PP unit and Niedermayer would give the puck to Malakhov to rush up the ice. O'Donnell was just a bad fit with White. That's around when I started to understand the lefty/righty mix on defense and how not to assume guys could play both sides since we had been so spoiled with Nieds doing it so effortlessly.
 

Bleedred

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May 1, 2011
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Having (a motivated) Malakhov paired with White was such a luxury. I remember being taken aback when Niedermayer and Malakhov were on the 2nd PP unit and Niedermayer would give the puck to Malakhov to rush up the ice. O'Donnell was just a bad fit with White. That's around when I started to understand the lefty/righty mix on defense and how not to assume guys could play both sides since we had been so spoiled with Nieds doing it so effortlessly.
O'Donnell was definitely a bust of a trade. It got Willie Mitchell outta here though, he was awful.
 

devsman84

Registered User
Jul 13, 2016
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O'Donnell was definitely a bust of a trade. It got Willie Mitchell outta here though, he was awful.

I don't remember Mitchell being awful. He was more of the odd man out. I remember Bombardir being a bit brutal though at times.

That O'Donnell trade was a typical Lou deadline trade move where we traded away youth for experience. Nothing wrong with it as we were in a win-now mentality, but it would affect us years later. Mitchell did eventually turn out to be a decent NHL D-man for over a decade after.

I also remember Lou making deadline trades for bottom 6 centers who were good at faceoffs. Rheaume and Corkum come to mind as the Devils had a serious problem with their centers winning faceoffs outside of Holik. Watch the 2000 SCF and see Arnott and Gomez losing faceoff after faceoff.
 

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