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Memorable moments
Lasting images from 2000 Stanley Cup final
Posted: Monday June 12, 2000 09:41 AM
By Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated
DALLAS -- The 2000 Stanley Cup final is history and the long overtimes and
tight games have been well chronicled. Yet many of the series' most enduring images
will never make it to the record books or to the video libraries. Here are
10 behind-the-scenes snapshots worth remembering:
Brett Hull is standing outside the Dallas dressing room in New Jersey
before Game 1 when Commissioner Gary Bettman walks by. "What, they don't let
you in the room?" Bettman jokes.
"Oh, there's bad vibes in there, bad vibes," Hull responds.
Hull is only kidding, but then the Stars go out and lose 7-3. Was he onto
something?
Martin Brodeur's three little boys playing ball hockey in the corridors
before Devils' home games. They are blonde and ebullient and adorable and
all of them want to be the one who gets to guard the empty cardboard carton
that serves as the goal.
Someone has scrawled "Welcome to New Jersey" above the sign in the
visitor's locker room that reads: Secure Valuables at All Times.
After Game 2, the Stars' Blake Sloan follows that advice and hovers
protectively over a collection of CDs on an open table. Think this is an
old-school club? Neil Young's "Silver and Gold" is at the top of the pile of
discs.
Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello pausing about 90 minutes before Game
3 to talk to Stars forward Kirk Muller, who is riding an exercise bicycle
outside the Dallas dressing room. "How's the family?" Lamoriello asks.
Moments like these remind us what a small and close-knit fraternity the NHL
still is.
The saxophonist who played the National Anthem before Game 3 in Dallas.
Where did the Stars land a guy who looks like forward Jon Sim and plays like
Lisa Simpson? The strains are a vast improvement over the organist
renditions in New Jersey.
Phoenix's newest NHL executive, Wayne Gretzky, looking tanned and neatly
coifed as he flashes peace signs to fans from behind the Zamboni entrance at
Reunion Arena.
Joe Nieuwendyk going down after a minor collision during overtime of Game
5, and then lingering on one knee in order to halt play for several minutes.
A wise veteran, Nieuwendyk is stalling for time to provide added rest for
Stars forwards Mike Modano, Brett Hull. Maybe it works: Hull later passes
to Modano for the game-winner.
Human beings painting their faces black-and-red in New Jersey,
green-and-silver in Dallas. What would aliens surmise if they were to land
and see this?
The perpetual flood watches that local television keep warning about in
Dallas. Did they think the notoriously abysmal Reunion Arena ice was so bad
it would melt and leak over the land?
Hours after the final game, the Stanley Cup sitting on a dolly outside the
arena in muggy Dallas. Devil defensemen Scott Niedermayer and Scott Stevens
stop to give the Cup another rub before it goes to visit teammate Petr
Sykora, who is still nursing a head injury in a local hospital.
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