200 replies to this topic

[XxLancerHockeyPridexX]

Join the club, I was new to the whole hockey scene last year. :-)

[SoCal Devils Fan]

Team work, dedication, commitment and mostly the fact they fit my personality. Devils 4 life baby

[stevens@thenhlarena]

Team work, dedication, commitment and mostly the fact they fit my personality. Devils 4 life baby

The Devils are simply built American tough...the way it used to be. Often imitated, never duplicated. That is
the team in a nutshell.

[ogie ogilthorpe]

I grew up on long island and watched the islanders win 4 cups. While i was in high school the devils came to new jersey and were getting no respect. my best friend told me to watch them they were going to get better. so i started to watch. i felt the devils were like the mets a team that was due to break out and win a championship. plus at that time the islanders were starting to suck and the drive for 5 was stuck in traffic on hempstead turnpike. i could not for the life of me root for the rangers so i took my friends advice and started watching the devils. well and behold in 1988 they took the first step in making the great one eat his words about the devils being a mickey mouse team and showing the tri state area they were a contender for the cup. And from that day on i've stood by the boys from the swamp.

[Pepperkorn]

Welcome ogie.. nice to see someone older than i am here! I was a huge Islander fan in the 70s and early 80s I didn't even know the Devils existed until 1995! I vaguely recall them prior but dropped hockey en toto with the dawn of the oilers.. and puberty Then thanks to a friend my husband dragged me to a game in 1998. Marty's cuteness brought me back then I noticed the team and remembered why I loved hockey and then woe is me in 2001 I was smite by Stevens - if you stick around you'll notice it's a problem of mine. i just love the devils system. Hockey as it should be...

[BRUCE]

I have been a devils fan since '82 - i lived on long island but didn't care about the islanders or their cups, the rangers i could never root for - besides, how could you not like the devils away jerseys (it's like Christmas all year) - the early years were tough as a fan, but you knew the team would improve - Gretzky is still an a@# for call the club a mickey mouse organization. All in all, it's a great ride and I look forward to more Cups in the future

[MDPucks]

Grew up "down the shore" in Neptune. I remember in the spring of 1987 I caught a Devils-Flyers afternoon game on WOR Channel 9 and was interested in the sport and thought it was cool that New Jersey had a team (I was already Giants and Mets fan). Devils came close but missed the playoffs that year (a normal occurance back then) but got further hooked on the sport with the bizarro Islanders-Capitals Game 7 4OT game.

That September my parents bought me an old-school green & red Devils jersey for my birthday, Devils games started to be broadcast on Sports Channel (now FSNY), and I convinced my Dad to take me to see the Devils-Edmonton Oilers game on Halloween Night. The Devils of Muller, MacLean, Driver, Cirella, and Cheverier beat the Oilers of Gretzky, Messier, Anderson, Coffey, Kurri, and Fuhr 6-5 that night and I was completely hooked. That Devils team was the one that had the Cinderella run after Johnny Mac's OT goal in Chicago.

In the years since I moved outside of Hartford as a teenager, outside of Boston in college, and outside of DC after that. I've seen the Devils play at MSG, Hartford, Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, and Carolina but have always returned to the Meadowlands to catch one or two games a season. I've also caught NHL games in Tampa and Uniondale.

Went to college at UMass so I've seen many NHL'rs (including the Devils Pandolfo, both Gionta's, Clemmenson, Madden, both Parise's, Frank Doyle, and Zajac) play college hockey.

Edited by mdsieve, 14 April 2007 - 04:37 PM.

[Cal914]

i live near Utica and my mom met shannahan When he was a devil) and met dowd once.

Edited by Cal914, 09 May 2007 - 09:45 PM.

[Devilsdude530]

Join the club, I was new to the whole hockey scene last year. :-)

Do NOT call it a scene. It makes us sound emo.

[RowdyFan42]

Do NOT call it a scene. It makes us sound emo.

You mean we're not? You DO read the board, right?

[TravisZajac]

in 1997, when i was 6years old,. i saw Scott Stevens hit an other player and i was so impress by him..So i ask my Dad: Which team this guy plays for?He said:Oh, New Jersey Devils.

so.i started to follow my beloved Devils

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

in 1997, when i was 6years old,. i saw Scott Stevens hit an other player and i was so impress by him..So i ask my Dad: Which team this guy plays for?He said:Oh, New Jersey Devils.

so.i started to follow my beloved Devils

Ahh the Stevens hit factor.

Thats my reason for going for the devils.

First game i saw stevens laid someone clean out, and that was it i was hooked.

(i think i posted this before but there is nothing like remanising)

[Devilswede]

In 1993 the hockeycard era was huge in Sweden. I was a 9 year old kid and I loved the hockeycards and fell in in love with the hockeyplayers and hockey in general. One player caught my attention more than any other and his name was..Martin Brodeur.

At that time Marty was a young kid and an upcoming star. I know I did everything in my power to get a hold of every Martin Brodeur card there was. After that my love for him grew, and so did the love for the rest of the team. I've been a die-hard since the 94-95 season, a season they happened to win. So that made it even more clearer for me...

Next season I'm planning to travel to New Jersey and USA for the first time ever to watch the Devils play in their new arena. It's been a dream of mine for a very long time!

GO DEVILS!

[empulse27]

my dad's a devils fan so i followed his lead. he actually used to be a rangers fan growing up in the 50's and 60's until they traded away all of his favorite players. then when the rockies moved to jersey he became a devils fan.

i, on the other hand, have been a huge devils fan and hockey fan in general. i was at the game in '95 when they won the cup and used to have season tickets when i lived in north brunswick, nj years ago. i moved to the harrisburg, pa area when i was 10 and that's when i started to play hockey. since, i've been to a few games a year. now i'm 19 and a sophomore at temple university in philly so when the devils come to town it's always fun to be the only devils fan amongst my friends.

we plan on making trips up to the rock in newark this year. thank god for the train system from philly to newark!

[brodeurrocks]

Great thread! I started watching the Devils in 1985. We still had the Jets and I had met Chico Resch through a mutual friend. I have enjoyed watching the tradition and commitment that has become the Devils. I have taken a great deal of "trap-flack" from co-workers and friends over the years but they have quickly given up as they know I will defend the team regardless of what they say.

[DJ Skellington]

I became a Devils fan in a sort of weird way. Back in 1993-94, I was working as a temp with this other guy who was a big rangers fan. I wasn't really into hockey then, and his constant talking about hockey got me interested. He invited me to go with him and his friends to a rangers-Devils game at MSG one evening. Now, I'd watched a few games here and there, but I'd hadn't been to a live game in years.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing - and I'm not talking about the game. Several fights broke out in my section alone all instigated by obnoxious ranger fans starting with Devils fans. I remember the Devils scoring at one point, the Devil fans going crazy, and then three ranger fans jumping two Devils fans from behind. The people I was with were loving it and they were egging everything on.

I went to one more game hoping what I saw the last time wasn't going to be the norm - but it was. I wasn't turned off from hockey - just from ranger fans (and by extension, the rangers).
So I was thinking - I'm from and love NJ, I really should be watching the Devils. So I started watching Devils games on TV and became a huge fan of Daneyko especially. Also (as if it needs to be said) watching the god-like play of Brodeur and the hits Stevens was dishing out was what hooked me totally.

But I guess overall it was how the Devils functioned as a team - not just individually - and especially defensively. I loved the way they would just stifle every other team's attempt to even get near Brodeur. And when they did - forget it. But what the hell am I doing wasting time saying that here?!?

So yeah... that's how I became a Devils fan. Kinda long winded I know but that's it! And it sucks living out in southern CA not being able to see them play in person AGAIN for this upcoming season, but I want to get tickets for my wife and I to fly out for the opening game at the new arena (and yes, she's a Devils fan too!)

[Bulletproof]

Nice topic...my first Devils game was on my birthday in 1992 against the Hartford Whalers...I still have the 10th Anniversary wrist sweatbands to prove it! Remember that night like it was freaking yesterday...

It was my best friend since 3rd grade, his brother, his dad and yours truly. We piled into his dad's old ass Chevy conversion van...yes, the kind with the ladder in the back and curtains in the side windows...and schleped on down to the Brendan Byrne for some kick ass hockey. I didn't know jack about hockey, the Dev's, what the hell a puck was...nothing! After that night, however, I was hooked for life!

I believe the Devs won that night, but I'm not 100% sure...either way, me and my friend still talk about that game...good times...

[Martyisth3b3st]

1995, Devils vs. Rangers at CAA, my first hockey game... (Got brought by Rangers fans)... I liked the Devils logo so i went over and watched them walk out, when we went to slap hands with them walking out, and this is a true story, I reached out and Chris Terreri reached up with his glove hand, and my fingers got caught in his glove and it came completely off and we were there, now was completely embarrassed, and Chris, i guess, felt bad for me or something and waited for the glove and talked to me. So basically it was me (an 11 year old at the time), the Devils trainer, and Chris Terreri, working on my fingers in the netting of his glove. (Scotty Stevens skated by and joked with Chris but i didn't hear him and wouldn't remember what he said)... and basically for about 5 minutes my fingers were completely caught in the goalies glove, so i got a little 1 on 1 with Chris Terreri... So the trainor has to take scissors and cut off a tiny piece of netting from his glove, (which he gave to me) and repaired it, and i had a great time. After the game i went over to watch the players leave and Chris Terreri stopped, took off his glove (with a wink) and sook my bare hand. I thought he was the coolest player and nicest player in the entire world.

[South Jersey Devs Fan]

This is a cool thread. Living in very south Jersey (deep into Flygirls territory) it is nice to have a place to talk Devils and how we all became fans. I remember first coming to like hockey watching the US win the 1980 Olympics and then immediately becoming a Devils fan in '82 since they were the first Jersey only professional sports team that I can remember. From there it just got better and better..the acqusition of Brodeur, the Stevens years, the Cups...what a great ride. Nothing gives me more pleasure as a fan than making fun of all the Flyers fans I know (unfortunately I work in PA near Philly). Year after year we are better and it drives them NUTS. Can't wait to catch a game at the Rock--I can take public transportation Whoo Hoo!

[NJDevsFireOnIce]

When my aunt started dating my uncle back in 94-95 he would come over and watch the Devils games so i started watching the games with him and was hooked instantly.