Johnny doesn't have to mention game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Final to Devils fans. They live with that ache every game. Johnny doesn't have to mention it to Rangers fans because they never shut up about it. Tonight is a chance for the Devils franchise and fans to cut that pain in half.
As Johnny said going into this series this is not the Messier/Leetch vs Brodeur/Stevens series, it's a new generation of Callahan and Lundqvist vs. Parise and Kovalchuk. The torch has been passed. To the players tonight means so very very much, to Devils fans it matters more. They have lived with the guarantee for many moons. Players move on to play elsewhere or move away when they retire. Fans stay local or loyal to the Devils. Don't say there is no equivalence, oh there sure is. The mighty Rangers in the swamps of Jersey looking to stay alive and an entire blue fanbase ready to bang their heads into walls.
John Tortorella said after the Devils won game five he felt the Rangers finally found their game. They really knew what they were doing. They got it together. He felt they would carry the effort forward.
That's one way to look at it. Here's another. The Rangers, after they got behind 3-0 had to come up with a haymaker. The Rangers are a proud team. They responded. But how much effort did an already tired team expend to come back and tie but ultimately lose expend? Maybe that was the Rangers best shot.
In the history of people saying the first goal is important tonight underscores that by a hundred. If the Devils get out first, and start the effective game that has frustrated the Rangers all good things are possible. Don't give the Rangers a sniff. Keep dumping the puck into Del Zotto's corner and spin the wheel and see what creative play Del Zotto comes up with to turn the puck over. Go ahead by two goals tonight and Charon starts readying the boat, and Devils fans start up a collection of obolus' to pay Charon, for the Rangers crossing to watching the Final on television.
Call it what you will, reclaiming honor, getting a monkey off your backs, payback, it has been called many things, and the New Jersey Devils have a chance at it tonight in their building in front of mostly their fans on their terms. On national television they have a chance to defend their keep and strike at fatal blow to their greatest enemy.
As Tyrion Lannister says on this upcoming week's Game of Thrones; "There are brave men knocking at our door, let's go kill them!!" (and don't get bunged up about a quote using the word kill, free the metaphors!)
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