NHL

Pride not enough for Devils to prevail

LOS ANGELES — The foundation of success has been re-established, the historical pedigree of the franchise honored.

And yet, even as the Devils dealt with the bitter-sweet sentiments that came rebuilding a winning environment even while coming up a couple of games shy of the ultimate goal following last night’s King-sized, 6-1 Game 6 defeat in the final after which the Kings celebrated their franchise’s first Stanley Cup, the face of the New Jersey franchise acknowledged that the future might be out of his control.

Martin Brodeur, who has reaffirmed his status as an elite goaltender at the age of 40, acknowledged that regardless of the fact that he wants to continue career his career and cannot envision doing it anywhere else but in the Devils’ uniform he has worn for 18 seasons, circumstances beyond his control might send him in a different direction.

Circumstances beyond president and general manager Lou Lamoriello’s control, as well, said the all-time goaltender who will go to July 1 unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career.

“The Devils are what I am, what I believe in and what I want to be, but circumstances might be out of Lou’s hands or my hands,” said a serene Brodeur, no doubt alluding to potential economic issues involving ownership. “I don’t see myself at all [playing for another team], and I don’t want to, but it could be out of my hands.

“I’m going to go to July 1 free agency. I’m going to take a little bit of time off and be back in New Jersey in late June and then see what happens.”

Lamoriello has built his organization in the image of the late Vince Lombardi, who has been immortalized for winning five championships in Green Bay and for having said on more than a few occasions: “Winning isn’t everything . . . it’s the only thing.”

Except winning everything wasn’t everything for the 2011-12 Devils, who rose from of the ashes of last season’s failure to make the playoffs for the first time since 1995-96 to within two victories of the franchise’s fourth Cup in five trips to the final in the last 17 playoffs.

Because this was the spring in which the victory in the conference finals over the Rangers became an exorcism of the demon of 1994 in twisting the Battle of the Hudson their way 18 years later.

New Jersey is the site of the team that gets to raise a “2011-12 Eastern Conference Champions” banner before next season’s home opener, not New York.

This is no mere footnote for this franchise that is the second-most famous hockey brand in its own backyard and this is no mere door prize for Devils fans who are often regarded as afterthoughts in their backyards that exist in the shadow of Manhattan.

Brodeur shared a warm and lingering embrace in the handshake line with LA’s 26-year-old goaltender Jonathan Quick, the kid from Connecticut who rooted as an 8-year-old for Mike Richter and the Rangers in 1994, and who earned this year’s Conn Smythe as playoff MVP.

“I congratulated him and told him I think he deserves the honor of winning the Stanley Cup,” Brodeur said. “It’s always nice for young players to relate to me.

“I told him it’s important for him to enjoy it, because you never know when you’re going to get back. I don’t know at 40 if I’m going to be able to.”

And when Brodeur was asked what Quick said to him, the New Jersey goaltender’s smile broadened.

“He wanted to make sure I don’t retire,” he said. “He likes me . . . he likes beating me.”

This is Quick’s time. Somehow it is also Brodeur’s time. And somehow, it could be time for Brodeur to leave if circumstances conspire to spin out of control.

Circumstances be damned. That simply cannot and must not be permitted to happen, for even if winning everything isn’t necessarily everything for this team, Brodeur wearing a Devils uniform for as long as he desires is the only thing acceptable for this franchise.