Day Twenty Nine: New Jersey

New Jersey Devils
Formerly: Kansas City Scouts (1974–76), Colorado Rockies (1976–82)
Founded in 1982
Stanley Cups: 3
Original Six Status: No

Conveniently, but not purposefully, place at the end of this challenge, the New Jersey Devils are quite possibly the hardest team there is to write about, for reasons that have nothing to do with the team themselves.

That probably made no sense to you, so moving on. The New Jersey Devils had possible the roughest season in franchise history, with the early failure (with an eventual rebound) of their newly acquired superstar, Ilya Kovalchuk, their beloved goalie, Martin Brodeur, missing a good chunk of time due to injury, their golden boy, Zach Parise out from October 30 until now with an knee injury, and a firing of their head coach, John MacLean. As the team moves back into their traditional neutral zone trap, a signature of Jacques Lemaire, a turn around in their record has occurred, unfortunately it is coming a little too late for this year’s playoffs.

FACT! The New Jersey Devils have had 18 straight seasons over .500.  They are tied with the Detroit Red Wings as the longest such streak of any team in America’s four major sports.

Notable Players:

Travis Zajac

Adam Mair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, Patrik Elias

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm well this post gets a lot of thank yous. Thank you to @NonAmericanHero, @MsiAtHome, and @Joonas6 for picking out players.  Special thanks to Dave (who can be found at his Tumblr) for the hours of really good conversation about the Devils and just hockey in general. I wouldn’t know this much without him.

Day Seven: Detroit

Detroit Red Wings
Formerly Detroit Cougars, Detroit Falcons
Founded in 1926
Stanley Cups: 11
Original Six Status: Yes

Part of the Original Six, the Detroit Red Wings have accomplished quite a lot in their 85 years.  The Red Wings have the honor of being the home team for Hockeytown, hold 11 Stanley Cups (the most of any franchise), being the home of the player with the longest captainship in the league (Steve Yzerman for 20 seasons) and have 50 players in the Hall of Fame (third in the league).

Part of the Red Wings tradition involves an octopus.  Two brothers, Pete and Jerry Cusimano threw the eight-legged creature on the ice. The tentacles on the octopus were symbolic of a win in the playoffs, eight wins were needed to win the Cup back then. The Wings swept the series that year, bit of a good luck charm.

Notable Players:

Luc Robitaille

Henrik Zetterberg