THIS was the morning of Game 3 in Pittsburgh, which can be measured either as six games ago or as the time when pictures of Alexander Mogilny and Scott Gomez first began appearing on milk cartons.

“I can understand now why Dallas ran out of juice against us last year,” Martin Brodeur was saying then. “There are just so many games you have to play when you’re trying to repeat, and now those extra games we played that we shouldn’t have in the first two rounds are really coming back on us.

“It’s not the physical part of it so much as the mental, that takes a toll. It’s a grind.”

When the Devils lace them up tonight for Game 4 against the Avalanche, it will mark their 22nd game of the playoffs, their 104th of the season, their 209th over the last two seasons, not counting exhibitions. They went from early September 1999 to June 10, 2000, took a few months to catch their breath, and have been going again since this September.

They have lost eight games in the tournament now, going 13-8 against the Hurricanes, Maple Leafs, Penguins and Avalanche. No team in history has ever won the Cup losing that many in the playoffs. The 1976-77 Canadiens won the Cup after losing eight games in the regular season.

The Devils are playing tired. They appear frustrated and impatient. They lack focus for 60 minutes at a time. They look, in fact, a lot like Dallas did against them in last year’s Finals, when the defending champion Stars were blown out on the road in Game 1, responded with a 2-1 victory in Game 2, then got one goal apiece in losing Games 3 and 4 at home before playing 194:41 of awe-inspiring hockey over the final two games, albeit winning only one of them, which was one too few.

And at the same time, the Avalanche look a lot like the Devils did a year ago. Where New Jersey played with enthusiastic abandon up and down the roster, now it’s Colorado setting the tone, with people like Dan Hinote, Ville Niemenen and Chris Dingman running all over the place.

Colorado’s approach to the Finals has been like a campaign slogan: “Our opponents are tired and we are fresh…Four more wins.”

“For the same reason we were hungrier last year, [Colorado] has more players who haven’t won and have been more willing to pay the price,” Brodeur said yesterday, on the eve of Game 4. “One of the things we talked about today is that we know we’re not going to get a real vacation again this summer whether we win or lose, so why not win? What’s the point of coming this far and losing, now, when something we wanted so badly all season is still right there for us?

“We don’t want to be like Dallas last year, getting this close, and then not winning. We don’t want to find out what that feels like.”

Colorado has been outstanding. It’s a fool’s errand to minimize the team’s performance, discipline and physical dominance. Still, you have to come back to the Devils’ inability to hit back. You have to wonder why, after all the times Brodeur has been knocked down, someone doesn’t take a run at Patrick Roy. You have to wonder why, after Niemenen splattered Scott Niedermayer, of all people, into the wall face-first from behind in the first period of Game 3, nobody the rest of the night looked so much as cross-eyed at Joe Sakic.

Paying the price means that, and more. It means getting in and finishing checks against Rob Blake, unpleasant a task as that may be. Turner Stevenson’s done it. Not enough others have. It means going to the front on Roy and against the wicked Adam Foote, who must be considered a Conn Smythe candidate. Bobby Holik has done it. Not enough others have. It means going into traffic to make a play, it means taking a hit to make a play.

Larry Robinson was right. Too few Devils have been willing to get their noses dirty. It’s not acceptable, not now, no matter how many games they’ve played.

The Devils have a game to play tonight, then a trip to Colorado for another. Only each individual Devil knows how badly he wants the season to continue beyond that, to a Game 6 back home on Thursday, and maybe to a Game 7 in Denver a week from tonight.

“After such a long season, we’re down to one more week,” Scott Stevens said. “One more week is not too much to ask.”

No, it isn’t.