Wrap it up

Devils captured Cup, but Ottawa is the 2004 favorite

Upon the 2002-03 NHL season's end, SI.com spoke to Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber about the seven-game Stanley Cup finals, the possibly fragile state of hockey, and why he likes the Senators to win the Cup in 2004.

SI.com: Where does the close of this season rank with some in recent memory?

Farber: People will look at a seven-game finals and assume that it was a pretty good one, but for four games there wasn't much going on. Game 5 snapped this series out of its doldrums. That was when a polite series turned nasty. It became fun and flawed and people were talking about it again. I thought Game 6 was excellent, too. Still, there were only two noteworthy games, and that doesn't make it a classic. These weren't two great teams. There were better teams in the 2001 Cup finals, when the Devils lost, but that was a curiously flat series, too. So there were two intriguing games this time around but it wasn’t a special finals series.

It was a good Devils team with lots of courage, but probably the worst of New Jersey's three Cup champions.

And the Ducks are a limited team. But they made the most of what they had. They found a goalie of the first rank, they protected him well, and proved to be a good team in transition. They need a little more toughening up on the back end, though, and you could see early in Game 7 that the Devils' forechecking, which they did far more aggressively in that game, was making the Anaheim defensemen very uncomfortable, and the Ducks were coughing up the puck. They need someone back there who can help out.

SI.com: Will we see the Ducks again go deep into the playoffs?

What we learned Very clearly the lesson that GMs should take away from this season is that the $10 million player is a luxury. Look at the budgets of the teams that did well. Minnesota's payroll was in the low $20 million range and we know what kind of run the Wild put together. Look at the scoring in the playoffs. It was the first time since 1969 that the leader had fewer than 20 points -- and back then the didn't go four rounds. The star system is dead, or should be. Jaromir Jagr? Gone. Pavel Bure? The Rangers didn't see the playoffs. Bobby Holik was not an impact player. John LeClair is basically a third-liner in Philadelphia. So if I'm a GM I'm looking at that. I look for goaltending and find a solid nucleus that can play the game together. Luxury items aren't going to help. It's not baseball. NHL Salaries relative to other sports aren't out of whack if you go number-to-number. There are no $25 million guys, but in terms of revenue, it doesn't seem to be sustainable. Everyone scoffs at the five-year, $600 million TV contract and compares it to the NFL's, but before Gary Bettman there wasn't much of a television presence in the U.S. But I'm not quite sure, given the low ratings this year, where that contract will go. Reluctantly, I am in favor of some kind of formula, such as the one the NBA initially went to, with revenue-sharing among clubs, guaranteeing players a percentage of gross incomes. In principle, I despise salary caps. In practice, they work. Now, I'm not saying hockey will take off the way the NBA did, but certainly it's worth exploring as long as players know they're getting X percent of gross revenues. But Gary Bettman can't be trumpeting the game on one hand and moaning about its finances on the other. Some of these are self-correcting issues, though, and if the NHL's GMs see which teams are making the playoffs, maybe some of that self-correction will occur. —M.F.

I would not fall off my couch if Anaheim missed the playoffs next year. I don't think it will happen, but the Ducks caught fire in the second half and into the playoffs. But their main issues are whether Adam Oates is coming back, whether Paul Kariya will be a truly impactful player, and how quickly guys such as Stanislav Chistov and Sami Pahlsson develop. And the Western Conference is still loaded. The only team set up for a fall is Colorado. But this remains a tough conference. So while I expect the Ducks to establish themselves as a middle-of-the-road playoff team, they won't fall off the earth like Carolina did. But it's not a cakewalk for them.

SI.com: Do you think the Cup finals came down simply to Game 7 or that the progression of the series skewed toward New Jersey's favor?

Farber: I think that New Jersey is a very confident team and it was able to play its game at home, replicating three 3-0 victories in which it looked to be a far more comfortable team. The Devils looked like different teams home and away.

Martin Brodeur never looked as comfortable in Anaheim, and he complained about the rink and the boards, and when so much of his game is based on puck movement, that's a problem. Normally players complain about the ice, but for a goaltender who plays Brodeur's style, the way the puck caroms is an issue.

SI.com: Do you agree with the choice of J.S. Giguere as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner?

Farber: I do. There are 15 voting members of the media -- four from each city represented in the Cup finals and seven at-large votes. I know five of the seven and was told that all five voted for Giguere. Brodeur's numbers were eye-catching, but only infrequently was he a difference-maker to the extent that Giguere was. This is MVP of the playoffs, not the finals, and Giguere started out with 63 saves against Detroit in Game 1. So, clearly, despite the occasional stumble, he made a bigger difference for his team.

The only two other candidates were Brodeur, of course, and a guy who seemed to attract virtually no attention, Scott Niedermayer. Niedermayer played elegantly and intelligently, and he propped up Colin White, which was not always an easy task. Niedermayer is a joy to watch, the best skating defenseman since Paul Coffey, although Niedermayer stands more upright. He’s one of a handful of players worth the price of admission just on aesthetics alone. Too bad his mom was rooting against him.

Had John Madden had a little more impact in the finals, he would have been a candidate. He didn't, but he's just a great penalty killer. In every game he had at least one shorthanded chance. That is exceptional. Certainly, the Anaheim power play isn't much to speak of, but Madden's was at times a remarkable performance.

SI.com: Madden's penalty killing aside, were there any other individual performances that were more impressive in person?

Farber: We saw flashes from Chistov, a ridiculously skilled winger with a huge upside. He showed his inexperience at times but he will be a player who can make an impact in the future.

SI.com: Was Kariya's contribution surprising for less-optimistic reasons?

Farber: The game has changed since he came into the league. Defensemen are more mobile. Kariya used to be able to blow by guys. In this series, whenever he tried to go by Brian Rafalski, Rafalski was right there with him and could ride Kariya out of the pay. Going forward, Kariya's going to have to find something else, maybe play more frequently in front of the net. Certainly his courage is not in question, but going to the net is not an easy thing to do. He's going to have to make adjustments to the way he attacks. Kariya still has speed and a fabulous shot, and he's remarkably dynamic. The problem is that people look at his paycheck and measure what he should be doing instead of what he does. Still, he's nearly a point-a-game player, which isn't bad in today's NHL, but he was down to 25 goals this season. So he has to find a way to pull that total up.

SI.com: Which team is better suited to riding momentum into next season and beyond?

Farber: New Jersey is metronomic in the way it goes about its business. Scott Stevens can play at a high level for another few seasons. And I think it's instructive that Mike Rupp could come in and play an important role on draws and score the Cup-winning goal. The Devils' drafts have slipped slightly in the past year or two, but the organization on balance still drafts and develops players in Albany better than any other. It's a marvelous organization. Lou Lamoriello, more than any other GM, is the spiritual successor to Sam Pollock. Lamoriello might have dithered with his coaches too much, but certainly this organization is solid, and it wins. It's not a cheap organization, but none of their players is among the top 20 in annual salary. Lamoriello doesn't make too many mistakes.

SI.com: And yet the Devils aren't financially successful. Does that speak to the state of hockey?

Farber: It speaks to the state of hockey, yes. It also speaks to the Devils' inability to draw fans. They didn't sell out a playoff game until the Eastern Conference finals and haven't ever successfully marketed the franchise. It's not that Lamoriello is oblivious to that, but his energies are directed toward winning the Cup. That's the magic formula. The rest doesn't matter. Lou's old-fashioned that way. It would be interesting to see what might happen if he managed a team that didn't need any marketing. But, again, the highest compliment I could pay him is that he's the spiritual successor to Pollock.

SI.com: Do all conversations about the best teams in the Eastern Conferece, then, begin and end with the Devils?

Farber: The up-and-coming team is the Ottawa Senators. If you believe in the theory of natural progression, Ottawa is due. Ottawa is the deepest team in the conference, the goaltending is good, albeit not as good as the Devils', the Senators are well-coached and well-disciplined. The Senators could run into a train, but Ottawa starts next season as the Cup favorite. The Senators can score and they have a solid core on defense. There's very little they don’t have, including a home-run hitter.

Ottawa was disappointed it didn’t finish off New Jersey at home, but the expectations for next season are enormous.

Sometimes teams fall back, of course, and things happen -- injuries and such -- you just don't know. Until Patrick Lalime wins a title, we will surmise that he can't.

SI.com: Before we get there, though, will a dark cloud hang over the offseason because of the impending labor issues, or will we have to wait for the regular season for that pall?

Farber: The trouble is that the dark cloud has been hanging there for a couple of years. It's a scab the NHL has been picking at. We know the date -- the current labor agreement expires Sept. 15, 2004 -- but we’ve been taking abut this for four years. It has become the white noise that colors every conversation, and really has distracted people from the game -- the labor issues are never far from anyone's thoughts, which is typical of hockey to wallow in these things.

The game can ill afford a work stoppage, but my sense is there's so much militancy, especially among owners.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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