Scott Niedermayer, dressed in a charcoal gray suit with matching shirt and tie, came storming into the Devils dressing room after his team's Game 7 win with a guilt-free smile bursting through his playoff scruff. He found his road trip roommate, Ken Daneyko, and hugged him fiercely. The two spoke no words.

But it was far different only hours before, as Niedermayer walked slowly -- woozily -- into his hotel room after lunch. He had just made the difficult decision not to play in Game 7, and he wanted to talk about it. "He's so quiet," Daneyko recalled from his locker after the Devils dismantled the Leafs, 5-1. "So I knew when he opened up that he wanted reassurance."

All Daneyko offered was "absolutely not," and "we'll get it without you." Niedermayer had already spoken to coaches and doctors and even his own brother, but that was all his conscience needed.

In the Maple Leafs' dressing room, there was no reassurance. "No killer instinct," said Darcy Tucker, his tie hung loosely around his neck. "If we had been more aggressive at the start of Game 6..." Tucker never finished the sentence. He just sighed.

I asked him how much the Leafs felt the absence of Tie Domi. "Well," Tucker spat, "how much did the Devils feel the absence of Niedermayer?"

Good question. It was Domi -- not Niedermayer -- who set the tone in Toronto's Game 1 shutout here at the Meadowlands. Having him on Mats Sundin's line gave Toronto a physical edge that kept the Devils on the boards and looking over their shoulders. Tonight, New Jersey's top line of Sykora, Arnott and Elias weaved and passed like it was practice. In Game 1, the plexiglass shuddered from crunched Devils. Game 7's biggest hit was delivered by -- of all people -- Alexander Mogilny. Seventh game goals are rarely pretty, but three of the Devils' four certainly were. And that's at least in part because Domi sat out. Arguably, the series turned when Domi hit Niedermayer at the end of Game 4. But not the way anyone expected.

A serious infraction was committed in Toronto last Thursday. Suspensions were handed out in New York on Friday. But retribution came in the Swamp Wednesday night.

Eric Adelson covers hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at eric.adelson@espnmag.com.