The 2024-2025 season marks the 30th anniversary of the 1994-1995 shortened campaign, which saw the New Jersey Devils (formerly the Colorado Rockies and Kansas City Scouts) become the first major league champion to represent the state of New Jersey. They still hold that title, as the NBA’s New Jersey Nets lost back-to-back finals appearances in 2002 and 2003 before moving to Brooklyn in 2014. Technically, teams have won in New Jersey (see New York Giants), but the Devils have been the only ones to represent Garden State and not the neighbouring New York City.

The 1994-1995 season can’t be mentioned without the lockout, which cut it almost in half. Before the NHL and team owners agreed to negotiate, the season nearly suffered the same fate as 2004-2005. With CBA agreements underway, the NHL’s owners approved a lockout, which took place until January.

This lockout slashed 468 total games and an all-star game that the Sharks were supposed to get. On January 6th, the league and the owners began negotiations, and on January 20th, the league implemented a 48-game schedule that saw teams play only inter-conference games.

Within those games, the Detroit Red Wings were the top team in the league with a 33-11-4 record, followed by the Quebec Nordiques in what would eventually be their farewell year. However, the eventual Stanley Cup Champions finished the season with a 22-18-8 record, finishing in second behind the Flyers.

The Roster 

The Devils had a solid overall roster, which played standard “neutral zone trap’ style gameplay that the team would use for most of their dominant stretches. Being led in terms of points by Stephane Richer, the forward core features the likes of John MacLean, Neal Broten, Bill Guerin, Bobby Holik, and Conn Smythe winner Claude Lemieux. The defensive core was led by Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Tommy Albelin, and Ken Daneyko. The goaltenders were Martin Brodeur (who played 40 games!!) and Chris Terreri, who only saw 15 games. Fun fact: this season would be the lowest amount of games Brodeur would play until the 2008-2009 season. Brodeur would post a 2.45 GAA, and a 0.902 SV%. Terreri was also solid, posting a 2.53 GAA and a 0.900 SV%.

Like most teams eyeing the league’s top prize, the Devils made several moves during the lockout-shortened season. They brought in previously mentioned Neal Broten from Dallas in exchange for Corey Millen and traded a third-round pick for Viacheslav Fetisov, who would help the Detroit Red Wings win back-to-back Stanley Cups in the following seasons. Interesting fact: the Devils acquired the draft pick that would end up being Sheldon Souray in the summer prior to the start of the season.

The Playoff Run

New Jersey took the Bruins on in the first round and immediately went up 2-0 in the series, not allowing Boston to score a goal until game three. That was also Boston’s only win of the series. The Devils delivered their third shutout of the series in game four by winning 1-0 in OT before delivering the final blow in game five to advance to the second round.

The Devils went to the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. This series was the toughest for the Devils defensively, taking on a roster with the likes of Ron Francis, Jaromir Jagr,  and Luc Robitaille. Despite this, Claude Lemieux and Neal Broten outscored the highest-scoring Pens with seven and six points, respectively. Two pens were a point per game in the series, as Ron Francis put up three goals and two assists while Larry Murphy’s five points were in the assists column.

Fun fact: the conference finals matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers is the closest matchup in the Devils’ entire Playoff run. Philadelphia took games three and four to tie the series at two but bottomed out in games five and six, losing 3-2 and 4-2.

The Cup Finals matchup was not even close, as game one would be the only one-goal finish in the entire series. The Devils would win by a score of 5-2 twice, and game two ended in a 4-2 win. Neal Broten would be the top scorer for New Jersey, notching six pts in four games. The Conn Smythe winner, Claude Lemieux, scored 13 (!!) goals throughout the playoffs, with the second-highest playoff goal scorer being Randy McKay with eight.