They never really escaped the shadows last season, the long, imposing shadows cast when Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer were gone. Now, they have a chance to be their own version of the Devils, a team they hope doesn’t have to start and end with Martin Brodeur.

The Cup Class of ’95 is dwindling. Brodeur and Sergei Brylin are the remaining vital members, but as the Flyers visit the Meadowlands tonight, the team that was remaking itself last season is trying to pick up where it left off before Carolina.

Brodeur had a mediocre – for him – season last year, raising questions about their ability to base their game around him. When he let in five goals in the second period of the home opener Thursday, the questions returned.

He will, after all, be 35 in May, the age at which new contracts must be one-year deals, or face those same “skill deterioration” strictures that penalize teams that sign guys like Vladimir Malakhov or Alexander Mogilny longer.

By overcoming a three-goal deficit to beat the Leafs 7-6 in a shootout, it was the fledgling, current leaders of the Devils bailing out the Hall of Fame hero, the transition Lou Lamoriello preaches. It worked that night.