He has looked at life, the NHL and the Battle of the Hudson from both sides now, and guess what? Patrik Elias, the last link on the roster to the glory days in New Jersey, liked the view from the top a whole lot better than he likes looking up at the Rangers, or anybody and everybody else in the league.
“It’s always fun for me to play the Rangers, but obviously it was a lot more fun when we were beating them,” the Hall of Fame-worthy 38-year-old winger told The Post before Tuesday’s match in which the Blueshirts clinched the Presidents’ Trophy with a 4-2 victory over Elias’ Devils. “There was a little different spice to it then.”
There was a little different spice to it when the Devils finished ahead of the Rangers for 13 straight seasons, from 1996-97 through 2009-10. There was a little bit different spice to it when the Devils went unbeaten in 23 straight (15-0-8) against the Rangers from mid ’97-98 — Elias’ first full season in New Jersey — through late 2000-01.
There was a different spice to it when Marty Brodeur and Bobby Holik gloried in beating the Rangers, when the Devils would beat up as well as beat the Rangers, when the Rangers substituted “A-hole” for “Holik” on the grease board in their room listing their opponents’ lineup.
The Devils were on top and the Rangers were on the bottom, out of the playoffs for seven straight years while New Jersey took the second and third of its three Cups within nine seasons, in 2000 and 2003.
As the crow flies, it was no more than six miles from the Garden to the Meadowlands. But the two organizations might well as not have shared the same planet, so disparate their success.
And now, with the Rangers about to finish ahead of the Devils for the fifth straight season for the first time since New Jersey’s first five years in the league — from ’82-83 through ’86-87, before Lou Lamoriello assumed command — and with the Blueshirts 32 points ahead of the cross-river rivals, well, the crow could fly forever trying to get from Newark to Broadway.
The Devils did knock the Rangers out of the playoffs in the Eastern finals in 2012, so there’s that, just as the Rangers KO’d the Devils as the lesser seed in 2008 and 1997.
But the Devils won’t have a chance to reverse their fortunes this spring. For the third straight season and fourth in the last five, they’re out of the playoffs.
Once that would have been as unthinkable as the Yankees missing three times in a row, let alone twice. Now it is not only not unthinkable, and it is not only reality, but as Elias acknowledged, the perception around the league of the Devils has changed.
“I think a little bit is has, sure it has,” said Elias, who scored a goal Tuesday night but has just 12 goals, 21 assists and 33 points, all career lows. “When the Scotty’s [Stevens and Niedermayer] and Marty’s [Brodeur] were here and we were winning Cups, we were what everyone wanted to be.
“Everybody knew how tough it was to play against us and how tough it was to play for us, with all the discipline and everything,” said No. 26. “And everyone wanted to be a part of it.”
Now, the Devils are far apart from the Rangers. Now, as the Rangers have established the standard of excellence in these parts, the Devils are just another team and not a particularly good one, at that.
“You go through different stages as an organization,” Elias said. “We’re trying to teach the young guys here what it means to be a part of our history. And I think the guys we have here do appreciate it.”
There was so much success so soon for Elias, the best forward the Devils have ever had.
Now, there’s this.
“It’s probably harder to accept after all of the winning,” Elias said. “When we had one bad year, it was kind of like, ‘OK, I guess this happens.’ But now three straight years? And with me getting closer to the end and not having many more opportunities, it sucks. It really does.”
Three more games and the Devils are done. Two more games and the Rangers begin.
“You know, I don’t resent the Rangers or their success,” said Elias, who nearly signed with the team during the summer of 2006. “Starting next week, it doesn’t matter who wins.
“I’m just envious of the teams that have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.”