DANEYKO: KINKAID, COLEMAN, KEY IN PLAYOFFS
TROY, N.Y. » The New Jersey Devils are set to embark on their Stanley Cup playoff matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Many of their players once called the Capital Region home. Among them are former Union College Dutchmen and Albany Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid, ADevils Blake Coleman, Brian Gibbons, Miles Wood, Pavel Zacha, Damon Severson, Albany River Rat Travis Zajac and Adirondack Phantom Patrick Maroon.
In the lead up to Game 1 of their series, I had the pleasure of speaking with Devils’ MSG Network and NHL Network analyst Ken Daneyko, a three-time Stanley Cup champion defenseman with the Devils.
With the Devils snapping a five-year playoff drought, I asked Daneyko if there were any similarities between this team and his 1988 squad, which broke their own drought and went on a nice surprising run of their own.
“Well if you believe in some karma, some people kind of believe in that thing, some don’t. Yeah, sure, certainly there is some parallels as far as the ’88 team and very similar from the standpoint of nobody really gave us a chance back then. We were a bunch of young kids and had a mix of some veterans, so some similarities in that regard,” Daneyko said.
“Sean Burke was a little different, came from a Canadian Olympic team, kind of unheralded, didn’t know much about him, we knew he was a pretty good goaltender,” Daneyko said of his former teammate.
“A little different from the standpoint, Keith was the backup to Cory Schneider, he got hurt and Keith got his opportunity when Cory came back he just kept playing so well that
he kind of wrestled the job away and he’s done a real good job once he got his opportunity to his credit, nobody knew if he was capable of it or what he was capable of and he took advantage of it and then took his game to another level, so from some of those standpoints sure there’s some similarities.”
As with any playoff series, a hot goalie can be the difference maker. According to Daneyko, Kinkaid is no exception, facing a high powered Lightning club boasting the likes of Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point.
“It’s going to be everything. Obviously Tampa Bay may be the most prolific scoring team in the National Hockey League with their depth and their skill sets, so he’s going to have to be just as good if not better come playoff time,” Daneyko said.
“This is uncharted waters for him as well, playoffs are a little different obviously, everything is magnified even more and ramped up but hopefully down the stretch when everything was kind of playoff hockey for the Devils, I guess we didn’t know a month ago but that they would have to have this remarkable record, Keith this remarkable run, something along the lines 16-3-1 in his last 20. I believe if you would’ve told me that, I would’ve said it’s going to be impossible but certainly that’s what transpired and now the playoffs are a whole other animal, a little more of a pressure situation, so Keith hopefully just continues doing what he has of late and the Devils just in general as a team.”
Daneyko also noted how the Devils have rallied around each other, adopting a slogan of “New Jersey Devils vs. Everybody.”
“They believe in themselves, they came together all season long and kind of with a chip on their shoulder because nobody thought they’d be anything this year. In fact, most people thought they were going to be last place in the Metro and maybe 27th, 28th place team in the National Hockey League and that’s always a little extra motivation, you want to prove people wrong,” Daneyko said.
“They did it, they came together very quickly and it’s a good group. These guys believe in themselves and that’s what counts in the playoffs and anything can happen. We know in hockey, more so than any sport, that lower seeded teams upset top teams with regularity over the years,” Daneyko said of the propensity for crazy upsets in the playoffs.
While New Jersey had missed out on the postseason every year since 2012, many of the former A-Devils I mentioned at the outset have garnered Calder Cup playoff experience against St. John’s, Utica and Toronto. I asked Daneyko if he thought that winning experience could translate to the next level.
“I think playing together and winning at any level in the playoffs, it gives you some experience for sure, from a standpoint that everything does get more intensified and every play is crucial, every period, every shift where everything counts as far as the difference between winning and losing a game. Obviously the importance of any single game in the playoffs, compared to an 82 game schedule, it’s magnified. Any of that little experience helps but the National Hockey League playoffs is a whole other level,” Daneyko said.