New Jersey is on the verge of a Stanley Cup championship and a raucous celebration that is likely to involve champagne. Somebody better hire a bouncer to card Scott Gomez at the dressing-room door.
He’s only 20.
That he plays like anything but a rookie shouldn’t be a surprise on this Devils team, given that they have four first-year players who are making a significant impact on this playoff run. At least Colin White, John Madden and Brian Rafalski are of legal drinking age.
Gomez has been held scoreless this series but has four goals and 10 points in 21 postseason games. White, 22, has proved a hulking, physical presence on defense and is a team-best plus-10 in the playoffs. Madden, 27, won Game 4 with a short-handed goal and has been a penalty-killing demon. And the 26-year-old Rafalski added an insurance goal in Game 4 after making several, sparkling defensive plays.
Gomez is a sure bet to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year and thus has garnered the majority of the headlines. But the Devils’ other three rookies are making big plays at big times. They are making geniuses of General Manager Lou Lamoriello and his scouting staff, which took chances on these players.
“I don’t know how they do it sometimes. I really don’t,” New Jersey captain Scott Stevens said. “Maybe when you’re a rookie, it makes sense that you don’t look at things in the big picture like you do later on, when you wonder if you’ll ever get back here. Maybe you just play.”
Madden and Rafalski are playing in the NHL when both wondered if they ever would get the opportunity. Gomez and White are first- and second-round picks, respectively, and thus were expected to contribute. Perhaps not this quickly and effectively, but their success isn’t a total surprise.
Both Madden and Rafalski went undrafted out of Michigan and Wisconsin, respectively, and the former was told by his college coach to prepare his resume for the real world.
Madden was discovered only because New Jersey was scouting Michigan teammate Brendan Morrison and signed with the Devils as a free agent on June 26, 1997. He spent two seasons in the minors with Albany, refusing to sit out games with injuries because he knew the words “undrafted prospect” spelled out long shot clearly enough.
Rafalski spent four seasons plying his trade in Europe, reaching the finals in the Finnish Elite League twice. But he never believed he belonged until he signed a free-agent contract with New Jersey on June 18, 1999.
“Rafalski doesn’t even have any hair, so he can’t be a rookie,” said Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock, jokingly. “What is he? 27? 28? I mean he has played at a league competition better than the [International Hockey League or the American Hockey League], so we can’t count him.
“Madden is a perfect example of a mobile defender. When you can put pressure on the puck like he does, and then you also can make people pay for the mistakes, because he can score a little bit, those are always really valuable players.”
In college, Madden set an NCAA record for short-handed goals. He tied the NHL record for rookies in the same department with six. That he is a mean, penalty-killing machine doesn’t surprise anyone who knows his upbringing.
Madden grew up in a Toronto housing project, surrounded by drugs and crime, but he never lost his focus or desire to reach his ultimate goal.
“I can honestly say that I can’t remember any time in my entire life I didn’t want to play in the NHL,” Madden said. “Every day, day in and day out, I would get up thinking about playing in the NHL. It was a driving force to get out of the project. I remember being 4 or 5 years old, begging my mom to let me stay up and watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play.”
Now he and the Devils are the focus of the hockey world.
“He’s a confident, cocky little kid,” Stevens said.
Replied Madden: “That is pretty much it.”
The four rookies are close. Madden and Gomez roomed together on the road during the regular season. Gomez and White participated in a torturous club training program last summer that signaled the players of the rigors and demands in their immediate future.
“Sometimes, we all just kind of laugh, thinking about where we were last summer,” Gomez said. “Now look at where we are. It’s a dream come true.”
Where the Devils and their four rookies are is on the verge of winning a Stanley Cup. Maybe Gomez can try sparkling grape juice.
