200 replies to this topic

[El Diablo]

shhhhhhhhhh...... its subliminal...

[policegopher]

The devils are practically "America's Team". Well at least it's hockey team. Not too mention all the Minnesotan's on the team. Martin, Langenbrunner, Rasmussen, Parise, Tallackson, and maybe DeMarchi some day as well.

But I think it's the fact that New Jersey gave Neal Broten the oppurtunity to get his hands on the cup.

[Succubus]

Growing up I never watched hockey except for occasional clips of Bruins games on NESN. Then in 2000 I had a friend who never stopped talking about hockey (he's a Red Wings fan) and so I watched a playoff game between the Penguins and the Flyers. It was so exciting, I had never realized I liked hockey. But I instinctively hated the Flyers, so when they beat the Penguins I watched their series against the Devils, and I found my favorite team.

I completely understood the Devils' style of play. When Scott Stevens would kneel down in front of Brodeur to help block the shots.... The Flyers were a team, but the Devils were a TEAM. They played like they believed the feeling of losing is worse than the feeling of winning is good.

Anyway, I followed them all the way to the championships and they won! Then came the devastating Colorado loss in 2001. I was so upset. My memere had been rooting for the Avs since she lived in Colorado for years (it didn't matter to her that the Devils were in Colorado before the Avs!). Then they won again in 2003. So even though I live on the west coast the Devils are my favorite team. I watch too much Devils and HNIC, but it's fun.

[Devil Fan]

Simple, far too many people cheering for the leafs during the 2000 playoffs and keeping saying Arnott is just another Yashin.....just keep saying the Devils suck, I don't agree with them and start a debate and which I become a Devil fan.

[jursylegnd]

My best friend was a Devils fan and he got me into watching hockey when we were in high school back in '93. After watching the 93-94 season I was hooked.

They are the exact defenition of the word TEAM. No individual is above the main objective which is total victory. Individual accolades come later. It's a platoon really.

[TheDevilHimself]

I think I was about 9 years old and I had just started playing hockey and my neighbor who had been an avid Devs fan for a long time turned me onto this team who was in the Stanley Cup playoffs at the time... Now I had just started playing hockey and had no idea what the Stanley Cup even was but I saw Claude Lemieux fly down the ice and I was hooked... My family was visiting family in tennessee and I watched game 4 in the hotel room. I threw my devils hat in the air in celebration! I didn't really know what they won but I knew it was good! Of course I spent 5 years after that watching disappointing season after season until 99/00. I remember my dad and I couldn't watch the game in the same room because it was so intense we were yelling at eachother so I was across the hall watching the 2nd OT and when that goal was scored we ran out of our rooms and started screamin and yellin it was nuts! And now in present day my gf of three years (not a devils or a hockey fan before she met me) was complaining that she couldn't watch the game tonight because she is at school in connecticut and its an away game. I love it. I love the Devils always have always will. DEVILS RULE!

[njdevils2003champs]

Its easy to say, addicted since 1993.

[Motor City Devil]

I remember the exact moment I started "pulling" for the Devils. 93-94 Rangers series when they got hosed with a no call by the refs... Marty gets tackled by Jeff BeukaBUM (I think), and Matteau scores a tap in (I think)... Anyway, who couldn't love the heart both teams showed in that series. Rangers won it, but I knew from watching the Devils that they were going to be worth following.

From then on, there were a lot of parallels in my life and NJ's team. A guy on my team was drafted in later rounds by NJ, Dan Dorian went to WMU, in '95 I was in "heaven" - pun intended, following the Devils all year long only to be treated to a cup series beating my favorite team and the hometown idiots (I live in Detroit).

Besides that, I was always intrigued by their green pants - WTF was that all about?

[Masked Fan]

...Besides that, I was always intrigued by their green pants - WTF was that all about?

Old school!

[El Diablo]

Lots of new members .. just *bump*

[gogonjdevil]

There was this kid in junior high school I hated and he was the biggest Rags fan. Man, must have 90 or 91. So naturally, I got drawn into the Devs. I just started getting into sports so it was cool following the team. Of course, it really sucked in '94 but that was of course short lived!

I must say not many people have gotten to see their team win a championship in their lifetime and I got to see my team do it 3 times. It really is something special.

Of course, I had to make sure I married a Devils fan too...so you can find out from Missparker herself, how she became a fan.

[Iowadevsfan]

I'm probably the only devils fan within 200 Miles living i Sioux City Iowa it is tough to get games on the TV and even tougher to get merch or memoriblia.

I statrted likeing the Devils when Burke took them deep into the playoffs in 88 I think it was the uni's I liked the colors. I'm a diehard though I order the center Ice package every year and record every game I can't watch live. I've made it to at least one game each of the last four years usaully in Chicago or Minnesota. I still cry when I hear Mattue! Mattue!Mattue! on ESPN classic. I cried when I lost my 95 stanley Cup hat in Lake Ontario. I even purchased a larger house so I could have a bigger Devils room. My wife thinks I'm crazy.

I have some unique ties to this years team though. I went to high school and drank beer with David Hale when he played Juniors in sioux City. SO if any of you see him tell him he still owes Jeff from Sioux City some tickets..........haha. I also scored my first varsity hockey goal against Scott Clemensen when he was playing in Des Moines.........it was a weak one....it hit like 4 skates and somehow found the net.

But none of that stuff matters most of all I'm all I'm a die hard fan AND I HATE THE RAGS AND THE FLYERS GO DEVILS GO DEVILS GO DEVILS.

[missparker]

I never liked hockey until I liked the Devils. I did get into the 1980 Miracle Olympic team but then wavered again. When NJ got a team, I thought it was cool and watched them on and off but wasn't crazy die hard until the year they made the playoffs for the first time. 87-88 season. Day I knew I'd never turn back? "Eat another Doughnut, you fat pig!"

Why I really stay. It's always about team. It's always about great D. I'd hate to be a fan of another team. I'd hang my head in shame. There's something special about the Devs for me, obviously.

[Deke]

I've been following the devils since day one.

The year was 1982 and me, a young hockey fan who was disenfrancished with the Islanders after my favorite player (Chico!) was traded, I saw this new team, they had pretty cool uniforms and guess whos in the cage? None other then Mr Resch. "Hey screw the isles" my young self thought.

I grew up watching the team, While everyone I knew was a Rags or Islanders fan I was rooting for this upstart team out of jersey, I watched Johnny Mac put the goal past the blackhawk goalie in 88, I watched every game of that amazing playoff run, I was sitting in my sweaty Long Island Apartment on a sticky june evening watching the seconds tick down to 0 and Doc proclaiming "The championship to New Jersey..." I jumped in the air and pumped my fist in joy when Arnott burried the puck in 2000 to end the series with Dallas, I was in a rocking meadowlands as the last seconds of the third ticked away in 2003 and Dano held up the cup for the last time. Out of all the teams I've followed over the years, the Devils have provided the best memories of them all. Even if somehow there is no longer a Devils franchise I will allways have the memories of watching the team go from a "Mickey mouse operation" to a 3 cup winning juggernaut, from the days of Johnny Mac, Driver and Verbeek to Gionta, Gomez and Patty, from the days of Chico to Marty...

Anyway this is getting way to sappy.

Allways rooting for the Red and White.

-Deke

[NJDevil1530]

I'd have to say I became a fan of the Devils right when the Devils won the Cup in 1995.

[Dadds]

I have always been a hockey fan. when i was little (im 16) my dad would get tickets through his company. the tickets would be for rangers games. my dad loves the sport of hockey so much that he would go to rangers games just because it was hockey. the first time i was introduced to the devils was at a devils rangers game. i loved to watch the devils. i was drawn into the devils mainly by Scott Stevens and brodeur. since then when ever my dad was watching a devils game on i would watch with him. he explained to me the rules of the game. when i was 8 i started to play hockey. i started as a defence man (becouse i wanted to hit like Scott Stevens. when i was ten i moved out of D and into G. when i turned 12 i was in the local sports store buying new pads, wich are ridiculisly (pardon my spelling, i know it sucks) expensive, when i found a Brodeur pratice jersey. i have worn that jersey at ever hockey pratice i have ever attended since then. last year i joined a local hockey team and they handed out diffrent colored pratice jerseys, i was suposed to where this but ugly green colored pratice jersey. to make a long story short i went with the Brodeur jersey. they were pissed but they let it fly. i have always looked at brodeur and the devils as something i wanted to become. when the lockout happended i was pissed. before the lockout i was a devils fan, but being away from hockey for a year turned me into a such a huge devils fan that i cant describe it in words. now i watch almost every hockey game i can. im at bording school now and some days they wont let me watch hockey when i am suposed to be dueing work. some how though i convinced my dad to get XM for my room witch means i will never have to miss another devils game again.

GO DEVILS

[DevilFisch]

I remember when I was very young hearing/seeing Wayne Gretzky a highlight on TV. I mean something like 3 or 4, in terms of young; it was the first ever memory of hockey and it stuck with me.

So why the Devils? Well, I really started paying more attention to hockey in 1992, 1993 when nearly all my childhood friends in the neighborhood started getting into hockey. I've read about the two teams prior to them: The Boston Bruins and the New Jersey Devils. I felt more into the Devils despite the Bruins' then-more successful history. It didn't hurt that the Devils were the local team and I really, REALLY liked seeing Scott Stevens play after seeing him for the first time. Plus how can you argue those sweet jerseys with that great logo? Who wanted to be a Ranger fan of all teams? Well, most of these friends were from NYC or their families were from NYC, so I was usually the lone Devils fan. The rise of the Devils in 1993-1994, with Martin Brodeur coming up, Neidermayer and Stevens holding it down, John MacLean getting it done (sometimes), got me hooked for good. As stupid as it sounds, I was rather upset - actual tears, mind you- the Devils lost in the ECF to those damn Rangers and especially upset at Stephane Matteau. But I stuck through and was incredibly happy that NJ won the Stanley Cup in 1995. "IT WAS THE TRAP" "HALF A SEASON, HALF A CUP" "THEY DIDN'T PLAY NEW YORK" "THEY'RE GOING TO NASHVILLE" was all I heard, but I still smiled inside knowing it was all New Jersey and things were looking bright and said as such. Excepting 1996, I turned out to be right.

So that's my little story on how I'm a Devils fan. I can't wait for Newark to open up; I'll hopefully be done with school and have real job by then, so I can go to many more games while taking the train (oh, how I hate driving on the Turnpike at rush hour).

[elias2600]

my mother got a pair of box tickets through work for free, and my dad and I attended a game back in 1994. before that I had been to a few flyers games, and loved playing street hockey, but nothing about the flyers seemed to appeal to me. I remember going to my first devils game with those box seat tickets with my dad, and it was a Scott Stevens poster night. I thought stevens was awesome, and hung the poster up in my room later that night. The poster was up in my room until my parents sold the house a year ago. The poster may be down, but i am still a devils fan.

[bxdevilsom]

I grew up in nyc, but never became a rangers fan and some of my firends who are fans bother me about it. i'm 36, but got into hockey later unfortunately. just didn't catch on right away. then in 95 when they won the first cup and i saw how brilliant brodeur was, i knew that i had a team finally. when 2000 and then 2002 came it was soooo sweet. devils fan for life.

[DevilMan]

I know some of you might hate me for this, but I'm going to be honest here and say that I didn't become a Devils fan until 1999/2000 when I moved to New Jersey. Before that I had no idea what hockey was about, I had grown up loving everything about baseball. Sure, I had heard about it, but didn't think much about it. I started watching casually and didn't go to my first game until my junior year in high school sometime about 02/03. I believe it was one of the playoff games and the excitement was amazing. I started loving hockey after that and have followed the team since. I believe I had seen the likes of Stevens and his wonderful hits. I also loved how great Marty was and just couldn't stand watching any other sport. Baseball became just the casual sport while I would follow the Devils religiously.

This is the season where I haven't missed one Devils game. I've never felt like this about a team that I love before. I'm glad I became a Devils fan and will remain a Devils fan till the end!