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Last hurrah? Daneyko rewards Burns for gutsy call to play him in Game 7Posted: Tuesday June 10, 2003 10:20 AM
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (Ticker) -- They cheered the first time Ken Daneyko touched the puck Monday. They cheered the second and third time, too. But they cheered loudest when he hoisted the Stanley Cup for the third time in his career. No one has appeared in more games -- regular season or playoffs -- for the New Jersey Devils than Daneyko. But the 39-year-old defenseman had not played since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. A healthy scratch in the first six contests of the Stanley Cup finals, he admitted he was "flabbergasted" when coach Pat Burns told him late Sunday night he would play in the decisive seventh game. "I questioned his move on this one," Daneyko joked. "Like I said, I thought Pat might have been a little crazy, but, hey, it was a nice feeling to get back. "I wasn't going to say no, but I had not been in there in two weeks and I didn't [want to] screw up. I just wanted to do my little part, but it's pretty easy when you have teammates like this and guys like this controlling the game." Burns said he agonized over the decision to bench Oleg Tverdovsky but got some help from team captain Scott Stevens, New Jersey's other 39-year-old defenseman. "It was probably the toughest decision that I had to make in the last 24 hours," Burns admitted. "Oleg did well, but something was telling me ... and I talked to Scotty Stevens about it. Scotty said, 'You know what, I think it would be good.'"
And in another sentimental gesture by Burns, Daneyko was on the ice as the clock ticked down to the Devils' third Stanley Cup in nine years. "I was so [darned] nervous, I dropped my stick. I did everything," Daneyko said. "I didn't know what to do out there. I was trying to follow the puck, swim it up." It's that nervousness, in part, that endears Daneyko to his teammates, some of whom were infants when he broke into the NHL in 1982. "I don't know how old he is, 99 or whatever. He's like a 9-year-old kid out there, how nervous and excited he gets," defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. "It's unbelievable to see that. "He knows how to play. Maybe he doesn't play as swift or as strong as he used to, but he knows how to play a smart, smart game." That trait, that blue collar work ethic, is what has endeared Daneyko to New Jersey fans. "To see Kenny Daneyko carry that Cup around and the reception he got from the fans ... and for Pat Burns, too, to put him in the lineup tonight when he hadn't played all series. He did a great job for us," injured center Joe Nieuwendyk said. Tverdovsky, a former Duck who had a pair of assists in Game 2, learned just before Monday's contest that Daneyko would be taking his spot in the lineup. "It's tough, but I knew Dano could jump in," Tverdovsky said. "He's an experienced guy and he's the heart and soul of this team. I can't be happier for him." Daneyko is the last link to the New Jersey teams of the early 1980s that were so wretched that Wayne Gretzky dubbed it a "Mickey Mouse organization." Even now, as a member of one of only two teams to win three Stanley Cups since 1990, he knows respect is hard to come by. "For us, we didn't care about the Rodney Dangerfield mentality," he said. "This year was probably the most difficult of all. Going into the season, I didn't really know what to expect. ... This is as great of a feeling as you're ever going to get." After 18 seasons and 1,283 games -- he ranks fourth on the all-time NHL list for players who have spent their entire career with one team -- he and his teammates know he is much closer to the end than the beginning. "You never know, it could be his last game," defenseman Brian Rafalski said. Reporters wanted to know if it was. "I'm going to sit down with my family and decide that," Daneyko said. "I couldn't think of a sweeter way to go out." © 2003 SportsTicker Enterprises, LP
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