Today’s the day Scott Stevens is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and we feel kind of bad for not having put up a post about him. The fact is, though, that we don’t really feel qualified to write about him. His HOF credentials had already been established by the time we came to the Devils, so we have no real perspective on what he was before he became the face and heart of our beloved organization. And as for the eight seasons we were lucky enough to see him play, what can we even say? He is, as far as we are concerned, simply the greatest player at anything ever of all time. Seriously. Some people might want to boil the essence of his career down to a few highlight-reel hits or points-and-PIM stats, and for those people we’ll mention this: Scott Stevens taught us, as fans, about the single most important objective in sports: winning. And he played in more wins than any other player in the history of the NHL. But that’s just a stat. The fact is that Scott Stevens was there when we came to the Devils, the unflappable, relentless, stalwart, awesome, steady, inspiring, fierce cornerstone of the franchise, and we don’t have the words to even begin to describe his greatness. He meant everything to the team that means everything to us. (For a more eloquent look at Scotty, hop on over to In Lou We Trust.)
So in the spirit of Scotty’s accomplishments, we’re trying something new this week at IPB: we’re going to be happy for a change. Or at least happier. We’re aiming to find no fewer than three positive things in every game we watch this week, starting with tonight’s Penguins-Devils matchup:
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