It used to be my favorite time of year, but over the past half-decade, all it did was serve as a reminder of my failed plans. This year, though, I didn’t sink into my annual melancholy. I was excited for my Devils to kick some ass. I was glad they were coming back to the ice as champs. My rookie year was like that. We’d taken The Cup that summer; I started playing with them in the fall. There was a certain arrogance the players displayed, which would have been off-putting if it hadn’t been so rightly earned. You’d think that coming off a championship season would only keep the winning streak going. But what normally happened is that players from a winning team were suddenly in high demand, and it made more financial sense for a franchise to bring in some new blood at a cheaper price rather than try and match the offers for their top performers… making a defense of a previous championship a near impossibility. Some of the same players stuck around, most of the same coaches.
