EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New Jersey Devils can walk the streets, dine in the restaurants and go relatively unnoticed. The defending Stanley Cup Champions are a model franchise on every level, but live in relative anonymity in the madness of the New York metropolitan market.

	Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur can walk down the street by himself in Jersey.

They needed Mario Lemieux and the New York Rangers skating into Continental Arena to sell out regular season games. On the wild improbable Cup push of a year, it was a common sight to see empty seats in the arena.

The organization doesn't sell it stars, refusing promotion and this is the result: The Eastern Conference champions are forever an afterthought close to home and far away.

"People here are not as star-struck as in other cities for a hockey player," Devils star goalie Martin Brodeur said. "People don't bother you. I go out of my house with my kids, I jump on the trampoline, play hockey with them. I don't get bothered. Do that in Montreal, or Toronto and people will be telling you, 'Hey, you could get hurt.' Here, they leave you alone, let you have your personal life. It's nice."

Brodeur stops for a moment, and finally says: "But on the other hand, as far as being a team, if we were in a different market, the recognition that we get would be tremendous. It would be a big difference."

Just try across the Hudson River, at Madison Square Garden and trade these Devils uniforms for those of the Rangers. It would be hysteria. Complete, utter chaos.

"It wouldn't even be funny," Brodeur said. "It would be hard to live. But for me, it's nice. I don't mind being on the back burner. Because I lived through it (as a kid) with the Canadiens, knowing how people reacted to it."

	“	Our main goal is to win. That's it. The guys have been bred in the organization are all about winning. It's not about fanfare. It's not about awards. It's about one award: The Stanley Cup. ”
		— Ken Daneyko

Everything starts with Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello. He wants this way, craves it this way. Sure, sure: He wishes the Devils had sellouts every night, but he sees his job as delivering magnificent talent and teamwork to the ice to breed a winning environment. This should be a reason for people to flood Continental Arena, and networks to want to televise the Devils games in the playoffs. It hasn't happened. They don't make backpages of the tabloids, seldom get local columnists venturing out to write on them.

"We're the Rodney Dangerfield of the NHL," Devils coach Larry Robinson said.

In a lot of ways, they have themselves to blame too. Nobody fights harder to keep salaries down in professional sports, while still producing a championship contender than Lamoriello. He drives home the idea of team over individual over and over, but in this sporting climate, teams don't sell. Stars do. Even so, Lamoriello has long been willing to live with it.

"Our main goal is to win. That's it," Devils veteran Ken Daneyko said. "The guys have been bred in the organization are all about winning. It's not about fanfare. It's not about awards. It's about one award: The Stanley Cup. I think every guy that gets traded here, or come through it, learns that pretty quickly. If you're a little on the outside, getting pulled the other way, you get pulled in quickly. By management or veterans, the way it's always been here."

"But don't get me wrong. I'd certainly love to see the building full. That's a great advantage. We want to see people packing the seats, especially for what this team has done over the last several years, the regular season and the championships. Yeah, we'd expect a full house and it's disappointing when we don't get it."

It's disappointing, but this is the deal with the Devils.