It was the early-morning hours of June 11, 2000, and Lou Lamoriello sat in the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, eating a late dinner with Devils trainer Bill Murray and exchanging congratulations.

Earlier in the night, Jason Arnott had won the Devils their second Stanley Cup with a double-overtime goal against the Stars, ending the series before a potential Game 7 in New Jersey. Lamoriello and head coach Larry Robinson had slipped quietly out of the celebrations to visit Petr Sykora, who was indisposed following a hit to the head, in the hospital. Now, Lamoriello was finally getting a moment to revel in the achievement.

“Now you see what we’ve been working towards,” he told Murray. “Now you know and you have this feeling, and it’s a feeling that you’re never going to want to let go. And it’s a feeling that anything less is a failure.

“Now you know, don’t you?”