New Jersey Devils Tickets : The Devils Are Known For Their Defensive Oriented Style Of Play

The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club was founded in Kansas City, Missouri as the Kansas City Scouts in 1974, moved to Denver, Colorado as the Colorado Rockies after only two seasons, and then settled in New Jersey in 1982.

The franchise was poor to mediocre for most of its first 13 seasons, only making the playoffs once. However, under current president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, the Devils have made the playoffs in 20 out of the last 22 seasons, including each of the last 13. They have had 18 straight seasons over .500; currently the longest such streak of any team in America's four major sports.They have qualified for four Stanley Cup Finals winning three Stanley Cups in their history. They won the Stanley Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2003.

Among American NHL expansion franchises only the New York Islanders boast more Stanley Cups. For their first 24 seasons in New Jersey, the Devils were based in East Rutherford and played their home games at Brendan Byrne Arena/Continental Airlines Arena. Prior to the 2007/08 season, the Devils relocated to Newark to play their home games at the newly constructed Prudential Center.

The Devils are known for their defensive-oriented style of play, but have recently excelled in their offense as well. The Devils have a rivalry with their cross-Hudson River neighbor, the New York Rangers, as well as a rivalry with the Philadelphia Flyers. Since the division's creation in 1993, the Devils have won the Atlantic Division season title nine times, most recently in the 2009/10 season.

The current team colors are red, black and white, and they can be seen on both the home and road jerseys. The home jersey, which was the team's road jersey until the NHL swapped home and road colors in 2003,is dominantly red in color. There are three black and white stripes, one across each arm and one across the waist.

The road jersey (the team's former home jersey) is white in color with a similar design, except that the three stripes are black and red. The shoulders are draped with black on both uniforms. Before the 1992/93 season, the uniforms were green and red with slightly different striping leading some fans to affectionately refer to them as "Christmas colors".

The Devils have yet to introduce a third jersey and are one of only two NHL teams (Detroit is the other) never to have worn one. GM Lou Lamoriello has stated that he does not ever intend to introduce a third jersey for the Devils, saying, "I don't believe in it," Lamoriello said. "I strongly believe that you have to have one identity as a team. We want to create a feeling that our home and away jerseys are special and that it means something special to wear one."Unlike most teams, the team kept the same uniform design when the NHL switched to the Rbk EDGE jerseys for the 2007/08 NHL season.

On August 25, 2009, Lamoriello announced that the Devils would wear their classic red, white, and green jerseys on their Saint Patrick's Day 2010 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lamoriello stated, "The original red, green, and white jerseys are a part of our history here in New Jersey. We have always been an organization that takes great pride in its tradition.

This is something we believe our fans will enjoy for that one special night." The Devils defeated the Penguins, 5-2. Martin Brodeur wore a special replica helmet of the one from his first NHL game.The current mascot is "NJ Devil", a 7-foot (2.1 m) tall devil who plays into the myth of the Jersey Devil. NJ Devil keeps the crowd excited, signs autographs, participates in entertainment during the intermissions, skates across the ice, and runs throughout the aisles of the arena to high five fans.

Prior to 1993, the mascot was "Slapshot", a large Devils hockey puck that interacted with the fans. However, the man inside the costume resigned after he was accused of touching three women inappropriately while in costume. The lawsuit and all charges were dropped as nothing could be proven. However, to remove the stigma of the lawsuit, Slapshot was retired and has not returned since.

The Devils have been known as a defense-first team since Jacques Lemaire's first tenure, although the Devils have twice led the Eastern Conference in goals scored, once leading the NHL in goals scored (295 GF in 2000/2001). Lemaire gave the Devils their defensive mantra when he implemented a system commonly called the neutral zone trap.

This system is designed to force teams to turn over the puck in the neutral zone leading to a counterattack.This style of play led the team to be chastised by the media and hockey purists for "making the NHL boring" . Nevertheless, the Devils were successful using this style of play, and Devils coach Larry Robinson asserted that the Montreal Canadiens (who also won the Cup many times) he played on in the 1970s used a form of the trap, though it did not have a name.

Under Brent Sutter, the team adopted less of a trap and more of a transitional, aggressive forechecking style of play which also emphasized puck possession and instilled the cycle to start the 2007/2008 season. This led to many high scoring games early in the 07/08 season for New Jersey.

New Jersey went on to score 244 goals in the '08/09 season, the most the team had scored in eight seasons. However, with the return of Jacques Lemaire as head coach, the Devils have resumed a more defense oriented playing style, scoring just 222 goals and allowing only 191, an NHL best in the 2009/10 season, earning Martin Brodeur his fifth William M. Jennings Trophy.