Messier | Francis | MacInnis
Scott Stevens was 39 years old when he played his final NHL game, and even at that advanced hockey age, his departure seemed somewhat premature.
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| Despite his knack for big hits, Scott Stevens also was an offensive-minded defenseman. (Getty Images) |
As he is about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, at a moment when the NHL is taking pains to crack down on the kind of violent hits that tend to cause concussions, he is even more convinced he got out at the right time. "You know it's funny, sometimes I don't see the contact in games and sometimes I see real good, hard clean hits that are called penalties," said Stevens, whose powerful shoulders caused more than a few of the league's top stars to see them. "I just hope we're not making a great game too pretty.
"One reason we love this game is there's physical contact. That's why I was proud to play. It's the most physical sport and the most dangerous sport, and that's what our game is about."
Certainly, heavy and often devastating hitting was what Stevens' game was about, at least through the second half of a 22-year career than began after he was drafted fifth overall in 1982 by the Washington Capitals.
Stevens, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound native of Kitchener, Ontario, played his first eight seasons in Washington, where he helped revive a franchise that had not made the playoffs since joining the league in 1974, and then one in St. Louis before moving to the Devils.
Throughout the time, he was actually one of the league's top offensive forces from the back end. Stevens compiled at least 40 points for 11 consecutives seasons, including 60 or more five times, and he went over 70 twice.
But after reluctantly joining New Jersey as compensation for the Blues signing away Brendan Shanahan the year before, Stevens began to slowly evolve into a prototypical stay-at-home type along the blue line. The transition was complete two seasons later when Jacques Lemaire became the Devils coach and started putting players in specific roles.
Stevens was designated as the primary shutdown guy and assigned to go up against other teams' top forwards. He became the primary building block for a stifling defensive system that would bring three Stanley Cups to the Devils over the next decade.
"He never won a Norris Trophy, which I always thought he deserved, so I'd say he didn't really get the recognition he should have," said former teammate Bobby Holik, who is now with Atlanta. "But our team was always about playing defense, and he was so critical to our success because he was a really excellent defenseman."
Stevens was acknowledged once when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2000, but his biggest claim to fame remained being one of the most punishing forces to ever put on skates.
"You always had to be alert when you played and have a sense of where he was on the ice against him because he could definitely hurt you," said retired center Joe Nieuwendyk, who spent a couple of his 20 NHL seasons as a teammate in New Jersey. "He was a heavy hitter, and he could hurt you."
Several prominent players like Ron Francis, who will be inducted as well Monday, Eric Lindros and Paul Kariya will attest to that. Stevens delivered crushing blows that knocked all of them out of playoff games and earned much of his reputation as a result. But even when he was thinking offense in his younger days, he had a knack for lining up people.
"Most remember the later ones, but earlier in my career, I had some great hits," he said. "That was my game from when I was very small. I was a physical player, and everybody knew that."
That makes it all the more surprising that Stevens lasted as long as he did. Stevens ended up playing 1,635 games, more than any other defenseman, but all of the others who were close to him in longevity, such as Larry Murphy, Ray Bourque, Phil Housley and Paul Coffey, built their game around finesse instead of pure force. No one subjected themselves to the kind of physical pounding that became Stevens' signature.
He never regretted it, though, even if there were times when he felt sympathy for those on the receiving end of his deliveries.
"I guess, to an extent, I don't want to see anybody hurt," he said. "But that's the game and that's the beauty."
And that's Scott Stevens.
