{"id":558389,"date":"2026-04-23T14:57:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558389\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:57:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:57:39","slug":"devils-gm-sunny-mehta-says-martin-brodeur-got-hosed-for-2003-conn-smythe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558389\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils GM Sunny Mehta says Martin Brodeur \u2018got hosed\u2019 for 2003 Conn Smythe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Sunny Mehta, the newly hired general manager of the <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/teams\/new-jersey-devils\/line-combinations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Jersey Devils<\/a>, held his introductory press conference on Tuesday, and he took the opportunity to get some takes about legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur off his chest, while simultaneously proving his Devils fan bona fides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cI actually went to Game 7 in 2003. Marty got completely hosed on the Conn Smythe,\u201d Mehta opined. \u201cIt should not have been (J-S Gigu\u00e8re). But anyway, in case it\u2019s not obvious, this is my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Mehta, who grew up a Devils fan in Wyckoff, New Jersey, continued to endear himself to New Jersey\u2019s fanbase, invoking the franchise\u2019s glory days as he described his Devils fandom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cI remember I think it was the 1987-88 run when we made it to the conference finals for the first time. It was incredible,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI was devastated in 1994 by the Matteau goal, and I was elated in 1995, 2000, 2003.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">Mehta made it clear that to him, this is more than just a job, but in fact a life-long dream come true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cThis is where I\u2019ve always wanted to be,\u201d Mehta explained. \u201cThis is where I want to be. This is where I grew up. I was seven years old, and my mom used to take me to the old rink to watch this team practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">The 48-year-old Mehta, who was previously the assistant GM of the <a class=\"text-secondary underline underline-offset-2\" hreflang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyfaceoff.com\/teams\/florida-panthers\/line-combinations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida Panthers<\/a> and started the NHL\u2019s first full-time analytics department as the Devils\u2019 director of hockey analytics in 2014, did more than just walk down memory lane on Tuesday. He also shared the beliefs, goals, and expectations he has for a Devils team that has made the playoffs just three times in the past 14 years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cI\u2019m extremely optimistic about this team, we have a lot of talented players, and I really truly believe that these talented players are about to hit an inflection point and get over that hurdle,\u201d Mehta said. \u201cI want to put a winning team on the ice with smart and educated decisions to be a championship team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg\">He is now tasked with building New Jersey\u2019s next dynasty around a core led by star forward Jack Hughes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunny Mehta, the newly hired general manager of the New Jersey Devils, held his introductory press conference on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,5,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-558389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-jersey","11":"tag-new-jersey-devils","12":"tag-newjersey","13":"tag-newjerseydevils","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116454610989563034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}