EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Carol Niedermayer is sandwiched between Devils fans for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, but she's cheering for the wrong team. On this night, at least.
She is the mother of both Mighty Duck Rob and the Devils' Scott, but she has made it clear she is backing Anaheim. “Robby” deserves his crack at the Cup, she says, while “Scotty” has already won it twice.
Everyone in the Continental Airlines Arena is conscious of her allegiance. Fans sitting nearby are swinging stuffed ducks in nooses and shooting each other knowing glances every time Rob Niedermayer's name booms over the public address system.
Carol is not fazed. She calmly sips bottled water as her boys slam each other into the boards below her seat. At times, when she stands to cheer, she stands alone.
“I want both boys to do well, I want both teams to do well,” the soft-spoken matriarch, who is staying with Scott and his wife, Lisa, she said during Thursday's game. “But ultimately, I would like to see the Ducks win.”
Devils fans boldly disagree. At intermission, Scott's friend tells Carol exactly what's on his mind.
“I'm sorry, but I'm going to be pulling for Scott,” he says, shaking his head. “Robby can score all the goals for the other team, as long as Scott wins.”
The pressure will certainly be on Rob and the Mighty Ducks to score all the goals they can. New Jersey leads the final 3-2; Game 6 will end the series if the Ducks do not pull out a win on home ice tonight.
Niedermayer is surely the envy of hockey moms everywhere; it has been nearly 60 years since brothers last dueled for the Stanley Cup. Kenny Reardon tore the honor away from his brother Terry and the Boston Bruins in 1946, when the Montreal Canadiens won 4-3. The rivalry between the Niedermayers has become one of the best Canadian stories to come out of this year's final. Some fairweather fans are picking sides based solely on which brother they favour.
Both of the boys' parents are rooting for Rob.
“I never thought I'd see the day where I would be cheering for the Mighty Ducks in the NHL playoffs, but here I am,” joked Bob Niedermayer, their father, a family doctor in Cranbrook, B.C., where they grew up. He attended the playoff games in Anaheim last week — both of which the Ducks won during tense rounds of overtime.
The brothers are close, and Rob has helped Scott celebrate both of his previous Stanley Cup wins. Three years ago, they chartered two helicopters and flew the Cup up Mount Fisher — the highest summit of the southern Rocky Mountains, near Cranbrook – so Scott could have his photo taken with it at the peak.
But Rob Niedermayer is adamant he has never touched the coveted trophy, not even when he woke up one morning and found it sitting on the couch in their family home after his brother first won it with the Devils in 1995. The younger brother is determined to earn that honour himself.
“You can really see it right now,” his father said. “He can taste it that he's so close and you can see it on the ice, too. I think he's playing as good as I've ever seen him play, and he's certainly hungry for it.”
Each Niedermayer is on top of his game. Rob, 28, began his career as a scorer, but is now better known as a checker. Scott, sixteen months older and an all-star defenceman, is arguably one of the best skaters in the National Hockey League. His teammates are in awe of the way he can hit full speed with just two powerful strides.
Rob Niedermayer gives his mother much of the credit for his and Scott's skating talent.
“She took a lot of time,” he said. “She was always there for us. We went and skated on the ponds after school. She took us down to the ice rink at noon hour.”
Their mother, a former power skating coach, always stressed the importance of skating well. She and her former husband enrolled the boys in figure skating lessons when they were four and five years old. The couple tried to expose their children to as many different activities as they could: soccer, trout fishing, piano.
They hated piano.
“That was a disaster,” their father said. “We had more fights trying to get them to practice … We finally gave up.”
The boys picked up hockey when they were about five and six. Soon it became time to choose between the game and figure skating: The boys needed to learn twirls and that would require skates with toe picks.
They both chose hockey. Every winter, the family would get together with two others in the neighborhood and head out to the many frozen ponds in and around Cranbrook.
Carol also has a reputation for being a talented skater, a hockey mom who has taken up the game herself. In Cranbrook, where she works in a photo shop, she also plays with the Shooters, a women's team that competes in a non-checking recreational league.
By Mary Vallis- National Post