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Associated Press 18y

Stevens set to become first Devils player to have jersey retired

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Through 22 seasons and more than
1,800 NHL games, Scott Stevens stuck to the same simple recipe for
success.

"Every year, I always felt that I had to make the team," the
former New Jersey Devils defenseman said Thursday, a day before he
was to become the first player in franchise history to have his
number retired.

"I felt every training camp I had to prove myself. I never took
anything for granted."

That blue collar approach and a penchant for bone-crunching hits
made Stevens a favorite of Devils fans, and it spurred general
manager Lou Lamoriello to make him the team's captain in 1992.

"All you had to do was watch him in practice day in and day out
and watch him compete, and that was what you wanted to be the
foundation for the other players to follow by example," Lamoriello
said Thursday.

Stevens wound up hoisting three Stanley Cup trophies with the
Devils, in 1995, 2000 and 2003, and won the Conn Smythe Trophy in
2000 as the most valuable player in the playoffs.

"All of them were very special," he said. "The first one in
1995, I had already been in the league about 14 years, so when it
takes that long you start to wonder if it's ever going to happen."

Stevens played in 1,635 regular season games for Washington, St.
Louis and New Jersey, more than any other NHL defenseman and fifth
all-time behind Gordie Howe, Mark Messier, Ron Francis and Dave
Andreychuk. He also holds the NHL record for most career playoff
games by a defenseman at 233, and was named to 13 All-Star teams.

He retired before training camp last September, saying he had
lost his desire to submit to the physical rigors necessary to play
at hockey's highest level. He had missed the final 44 games of the
2003-2004 NHL season after sustaining a head injury in a game
against Pittsburgh, then found during the NHL lockout that he
didn't miss the grind.

On Thursday, Stevens said he has enjoyed helping out with his
young daughter's hockey team and occasionally dropping by Devils
practices to offer instruction on a nonofficial basis.

"Obviously, during the lockout year I had time to think about
things," Stevens said. "I felt I really didn't have anything to
prove. I'd won three Stanley Cups. Life's too short, and I felt it
was time to do some of the things I really want to do."

As he reminisced about his career, Stevens recalled a humorous
incident from his first training camp with the Capitals. They were
playing the Philadelphia Flyers and the 18-year-old Stevens skated
over and sat down on the Flyers bench by mistake to start the
second period.

"I hear a voice from behind me say, `You just wish you were
over here," he said. "I looked back and there was Bob McCammon,
coach of the Flyers. You never saw a guy get off a bench so
quickly."

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