NEW JERSEY VS. TORONTO BUFFALO VS. PITTSBURGH COLORADO VS. LOS ANGELES DALLAS VS. ST. LOUIS

Thursday, April 26 Stevens' hits are 'part of the game' By George Johnson Special to ESPN.com The Bee Gees in the '70s didn't have as many hits as this guy does in the playoffs. Big hits. Monster hits. Whether Scott Stevens should be given gold records or a criminal record for them is once again the issue of a highly-charged debate. "Where's the problem?" asks former Islander captain Denis Potvin, a bit mystified by the controversy. "Scott Stevens hits people with his shoulder. He hits them in open ice. No elbows. No sticks. No knees. A big hit, a clean hit. "No one has to worry about turning his back on Stevens because he's always there when he hits, right in front of you. He just steps up into the hole and ... delivers." And how. The withering shoulder check on Eric Lindros a springtime ago, a grey-matter scrambling, nerve-deadening, career-threatening jolt, entered hockey folklore and very nearly sent the Big E into premature retirement. In the first round of this year's playdowns, Stevens showed no favoritism, levelling 23-year-old rookie Shane Willis and then 37-year-old Hall-of-Fame-candidate Ron Francis in separate games with shuddering body checks. Poor Francis was left to scuttle about on all fours, out on his knees, waging a losing battle with his equilibrium. These images, the growing reputation of Scott Stevens as an compassionless instrument of destruction, dominate the 2001 Stanley Cup playoffs. As a storyline, it has managed to eclipse even the L.A. Kings astounding upset of the Detroit Red Wings and the ongoing Mario Lemieux comeback to a Cup campaign. He's an uncomfortable center of attention. Again. Next up for Stevens and the defending champion Devils, of course, are the Toronto Maple Leafs, starting Thursday night in Jersey. “ I can guarantee you in that Toronto room, they're being told 'Don't admire your pass. Don't admire you shot. And whatever you do, don't -- do NOT -- cut across the middle of the ice checking your skate laces.'... Scott Stevens has gotten into their heads even before they've dropped the puck. ” — Bob Plager, Blues scout and former St. Louis defenseman "And Scott Stevens is already having a profound impact on that series, even though it hasn't even started yet," says former St. Louis tough guy defenseman Bob Plager, now a scout for the Blues. "I can guarantee you in that Toronto room, they're being told 'Don't admire your pass. Don't admire you shot. And whatever you do, don't -- do NOT -- cut across the middle of the ice checking your skate laces.' " Scott Stevens has gotten into their heads even before they've dropped the puck." Depending on your point of view, Stevens is either a throwback to a better time in hockey's history or a wrecking machine which must be stopped. There is certainly a portion of the population that recoils at the physical damage being inflicted by the New Jersey Devils' captain. They believe he's allowed to get away with something just short of murder within the allowable confines of the laws of his sport; regard him as a cold-blooded, calculated inflictor of pain. They view what he does as dangerous (obviously), premeditated (well, sorta) and outright cruel. "Cruel?" stammers Al MacNeil, renowned as a body checker par excellence during his playing days in Montreal, Chicago and New York during the '50s and '60s. "Hey, these guys don't work in a bank. They're highly paid in their job and part of that job is running the gauntlet and learning to survive. This is professional sports. In any professional sport, there is an intimidation factor involved. "What Scott Stevens does is completely within the rules. You don't think players are leery cutting across the middle of the ice against the Devils? "You can call it barbaric if you want, but it's part of the game." The old-school defensemen, those nurtured in the less politically-correct NHL of the previous three decades, see in Stevens a kindred spirit, someone whose style of play is being singled out because the sport itself has in many respects gone soft. To them, he plays it straight up, hard and uncompromising, but fair. And they're right. This isn't Stars on Ice. These are the Stanley Cup playoffs. "The league has done a tremendous job of cleaning up a lot of the dirty stuff from the '50s, '60s and '70s," says Ranger assistant coach Ted Green, once nicknamed "Terrible Teddy," and one of the most physical players ever to don a pair of skates. "I just hope they don't go too far. "You'd hate to see them take body contact out entirely but in some ways that's where it seems to be heading. "Look, everybody agrees on the checking from behind -- that has no place in the game. But they've taken hip-checking out of the neutral ice. That took talent and timing. It was an art. I remember Bobby Baun and Leo Boivin collapsing guys like deck chairs with their hips. But that's gone. History. "Stevens does his best hitting when a guy's coming across the middle of the ice, from his left to right. It seems crazy, but guys are so lax these days a lot of them don't even realize when Stevens is on the ice. I think that's a product of less and less body checking in the game over the past years. Guys just don't expect it anymore. "And what bugs me more than anything is that when someone throws a good, clean check, a melee always ensues. In our day, you respected that as a part of the game. Today, no matter what, players react as if the hit was dirty." MacNeil complains that instead of hitting in the style of Stevens, most players today "automatically get their sticks up around a player's ears" when contact is about to be initiated. Last year's withering Lindros check, replayed endlessly, has done much to propagate the Stevens reputation. Yet the guy who got hit, in the minds of the old timers, was more to blame than the guy doing the hitting. "Cripes, here's a guy, Lindros, who hits people a ton," says MacNeil. "If anyone should be wary of skating into a hole where he's vulnerable, with his HEAD DOWN, it's Eric Lindros. He's hit, and hurt, people in that position often enough to know. And yet here he is, skating near the blue line surrounded by New Jersey Devils, thinking nothing could happen? Come on ... "There's a certain arrogance at work in not believing it could happen to you." “ Stevens doesn't check a guy's age, his salary, his scoring record or his Hall of Fame credentials when he lines him up. He just hits him. ” — Denis Potvin, Hall of Famer and former N.Y. Islanders defenseman Potvin, meanwhile, outright dismisses the contention of Carolina coach Paul Maurice that old pros such as Francis merit a measure of immunity from belters the savagery of Stevens. "Stevens doesn't check a guy's age, his salary, his scoring record or his Hall of Fame credentials when he lines him up," he snorts. "He just hits him. "I remember hitting Jean Ratelle once in Boston. I was just a kid. I caught him real clean, he kind of went 'Ugh!' and went down. One of our guys skated over. 'You just hit ... Jean Ratelle!' And I said: 'Yeah. SO?' "That was odd because usually it's only rookies get hit like that. Like Willis. He learned a lesson that night he'll never forget; one they don't teach you at hockey camp." A lesson, MacNeil notes, that is mandatory for anyone who wants to make a career of the National Hockey League. "Gordie Howe got hit his second year in the league and suffered a skull fracture," he reminds you. "You can bet as soon as he got out of the hospital, he made a pact with himself 'I will not allow anyone to hit me that way again.' Well, he lasted 30 years and no one hit him that way again." Doubtless the Stevens controversy won't go away anytime soon, because it doesn't appear the Devils will. Whatever you may think of him, Scott Stevens gives his team an edge any time he's on the ice. "He plays tough," says MacNeil in summation. "He plays with intensity. He commands respect. He plays to win. He plays, and hits, within the rules. "Does that make him an ogre?" MacNeil grunts. "I'd say he plays the game the way it was meant to be played." George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

ALSO SEE Wojnarowski: The Devils hit machine