In a playoff series where one of the story lines is that St. Louis Blues coach Mike Yeo and assistant Rick Wilson are going against their former team in the Wild, another is that two of the most identifiable New Jersey Devils in history are coaching against each other for different franchises.
Hall of Fame defenseman Scott Stevens is Bruce Boudreau's chief lieutenant and Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur, one of St. Louis' assistant GMs, is the Blues' interim goalie coach.
Brodeur is the Devils' all-time leader with 1,259 games, 688 wins, a 2.24 goals-against average and 124 shutouts. Stevens ranks fourth in Devils' lore with 956 games, fifth with 337 assists, ninth with 430 points, fourth with 1,007 penalty minutes and first with a plus-282.
"The funniest thing, we're at the draft in Buffalo last year, me and Scotty — you know, Scotty had just got the job here — are having breakfast and [longtime Devils GM and now Toronto Maple Leafs GM Lou [Lamoriello] walks by, so of course he comes and sits down," Brodeur said, laughing. "We're sitting there, and it dawns on me, Lou's in Toronto, Scotty's in Minnesota, I'm in St. Louis.
"It's like, 'You think years ago we would have thought this was going to really happen?' Crazy things happen sometimes. Everybody's kind of gone their own way, but we always have the Devils at heart because of what we accomplished there."
Stevens said it is odd going head-to-head against Brodeur in a playoff series for two different organizations.
"You spend so many years playing with him and won [three Stanley Cup] championships and had a lot of special years, so it is a bit awkward," Stevens said. "But he's doing something he loves staying in the game — and trust me, me too."
Playing the game
Before addressing the media Friday morning, Boudreau grabbed NHL series manager Kay Whitmore to address a couple of minor concerns about the officiating in Game 1.