4. Game 6 Was Right There
This one was hard to rank. The pain was prolonged and felt more like a lost opportunity than massive heartbreak. The Devils took a 3-2 lead on the Colorado Avalanche in the 2001 Stanley Cup Final with the series going back to New Jersey. Everything was well at hand. Then, Game 6 happened.
The Devils just didn’t show up in Game 6. They let the Avalanche score four goals and they couldn’t figure out Patrick Roy even once. It was just absolute torture. For those who stuck around for the entire game, you deserve praise. This was a brutal one, especially since it happened at home.
Adam Foote scored at the end of the first period, and that ended up being the game-winning goal. Everything the Avs threw at the net seemed to go in. It was one of the worst performances of Brodeur’s postseason career. He played the entire game, and he finished it with a .778 save percentage. The Devils only allowed 18 shots, but four of them went in the net.
Meanwhile, the Devils only got 24 shots. It really was a defensive game even if the final score doesn’t show that. The Devils were unable to break the veteran defensive unit that was Colorado. The Avs were motivated to send this back to the Pepsi Center, and the Devils played without a certain urgency we’d expect to see in the Final.
The Avs won this game, and then they really controlled Game 7 as well. Devils fans were crying while the rest of the hockey world was cheering for Ray Bourque.