Lightning

Devils fans are rowdy in red

New Jersey Devils fans don't hold back as they support their team, dots of red sprinkled in a sea of blue and black.

TAMPA - Say what you will about "New Joisey." Accents. Attitudes. Rude drivers. Newark.

The stereotypes didn't apply Monday, when scores of dedicated New Jersey Devils fans turned out to cheer their team in a playoff game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Maybe the warm Florida weather relaxed those from the Garden State. Maybe the beer helped. In any case, many of them wore smiles and talked about the "clean, friendly" rivalry with Lighting fans.

Well, mostly.

"It's intimidating. I'm looking around, and people are growling at me," said 33-year-old James Myers, an Asbury Park, N.J., native who now lives in Orlando.

It's okay. He knows how to handle the abuse.

"Get rowdy, go nuts," he said, wearing a Devils jersey, Heineken in hand. "You talk back to the fans, argue with them, but still have a good time. It's a Northeastern thing. You wouldn't understand."

Plenty of his brethren at the St. Pete Times Forum did understand.

It was easy to spot Devils fans Monday, dots of red in a sea of blue and black Lightning jerseys. They strolled around the huge inflatable dragon, past the clown on stilts, the Chick-fil-A cows and the miniature hockey rink, high-fiving and nodding when they passed one another.

Ken Hynes III wasn't above hugging his fellow Devils fans. Then again, the 15-year-old from Princeton, N.J., came dressed in a red cape, his face painted black and red, shiny horns protruding from his head.

Many in the Hynes family made the trip - mom, dad, little brother - and everyone dressed up. Even grandma, Jean Hynes, who lives in Clearwater, came along. But she's a Lightning fan, so naturally, she stuck a blue bolt through her gray hair.

"I love them anyway," said the matriarch of the costumed family.

Ken Hynes Jr. said his family never misses a chance to watch the Devils play, and playoff time is no time to start - as long as the playoffs are in Florida.

"It's 85 degrees and sunny," he said. "I wouldn't be going to Minnesota."

On the other hand, Frank and Doreen Piserchia, of Freehold, N.J., go wherever their team takes them. They have been to Pittsburgh, Dallas, Detroit, Toronto.

They run their own business, and customers know when playoff time arrives, the doors close.

"We go to every game," said Frank, wearing a jersey with a Stanley Cup 2000 patch. "We have been abused in a lot of places. We have done a lot of suffering."

The Piserchias said they enjoy Tampa and like the fans. And despite Monday's 4-3 loss to the Lightning, they'll be back Wednesday, cheering for a series win, even if it means playing the Philadelphia Flyers in the next round.

"We won't go to Philly," said Doreen, the fan who usually goes anywhere. "They'll destroy your car in the parking lot. Those fans are disgusting."

There are some places even Devils won't go.

- Brady Dennis can be reached at 226-3386 or dennis@sptimes.com

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