EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suggested, perhaps not all that seriously, that the league might talk about making the net bigger as a way to create more scoring.
Bettman's tongue may have been firmly planted in cheek when he made the remark, but it didn't meet with a positive response from Stanley Cup goalies Martin Brodeur and Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Their reaction? Just as lowering the basket in basketball or making the NFL play on an Arena Football-sized field, that dramatic a change would transform hockey into an entirely different sport.
"I think that's silly," Giguere, the Mighty Ducks' goalie, said Wednesday. "You change the whole game around if you do that. You change the whole record book. I think the game is fine right now. You don't want to see games that finish 8-7, 6-5."
Well, at least the goaltenders don't.
"The standards of records and the history of the game will change," said Brodeur, the Devils' goalie. "They're going to open a door for a different league if they do that. How can you justify a guy that had a great career like Wayne Gretzky and scored so many goals into a net that's a certain size, and the next thing you know somebody comes in and shatters all the records?"
League officials have merely discussed tinkering with the net size, Bettman said, but haven't had any serious discussions about doing so.
"It has been a whimsical musing," he said.
The goalies didn't find it amusing.
"I think it's ridiculous what people are saying: more scoring, more scoring, more scoring," Giguere said.
Giguere certainly did his part to keep down scoring, allowing only 19 goals in the first three rounds of the playoffs.
ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOK: New Jersey's Scott Stevens can break former Devils coach Larry Robinson's record for most playoff games by a defenseman by playing in his 228th game Thursday night.
Stevens, 39, has wondered occasionally if it might be time to step away from a game he has played professionally for two decades. Every time he does so, the answer is the same: No.
"I think about it because 21 years is a long time," he said. "But I'm competitive and still effective, and that makes the decision to keep playing easier."
Stevens has missed only one playoff game, with the Capitals in 1988. Stevens is 20 games from tying the just-retired Patrick Roy's record for most playoff games by any player (247).
HE'S THE REAL BOSS: Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello is unique among pro sports executives in that he oversees not one, but two teams currently competing for league championships. Lamoriello also runs the NBA's Eastern Conference champion Nets.
Yankees-Nets-Devils owner George Steinbrenner said one of his conditions in buying the Nets a few years ago was that Lamoriello would also run their operations, even though his roots are in hockey.
"The performances of those two teams have been phenomenal and I think the Nets and Devils, where they are right now — a lot of credit has to go to him," Devils coach Pat Burns said.
Some of Lamoriello's rules — players must be clean shaven and wear ties and jackets on road trips — could be viewed as old-fashioned, but Burns said they instill a sense of professionalism.
"You look at the Nets . . . you look at us and you look at the Yankees, they act like professionals," Burns said.
Devils goalie Martin Brodeur said Lamoriello "is a fun guy to be around," even though the public perception might be different.
"I think when you're with him for a long time . . . you realize it's all about discipline and it's all about respect," Brodeur said. "You look at teams with guys having long hair and facial hair and, in the same picture, you see our team getting out of a bus with everybody clean-cut, and it makes you feel like you're part of something."
The Nets are playing for the NBA title for a second consecutive season, while the Devils are appearing in their third Stanley Cup finals in four years.
The Devils won the Cup in 1995 and 2000.
AT LEAST HE DIDN'T LOSE SLEEP: Ducks coach Mike Babcock lost his first Stanley Cup finals game Tuesday night. He didn't lose a night's sleep, too.
Some coaches find it difficult to sleep after a tough loss, but Babcock didn't. He also didn't feel tempted to get up in the middle of the night and start analyzing the video tape of the Mighty Ducks' 3-0 loss to New Jersey.
"I slept, and got up this morning and went through it," he said. "We saw the same things we saw in the game and, in fact, we probably saw it more clearly. We weren't very good."
Asked for possible changes he might make in Game 2, he said, "I could change a whole bunch of stuff. I'm not a big change guy that way."
NOTES: Giguere gave up half as many goals (2) in this Game 1 as he did in the openers of the first three rounds of the playoffs (4). The Devils' final goal was into an empty net. . . . Babcock is being asked almost daily about a word he often uses to describe his team: greasy. The word is meant to reflect that his players work hard and aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. But he said they didn't get very dirty in Game 1: "We never got any grease on us."