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A blizzard blew through East Rutherford before the New Jersey Devils could play the Calgary Flames on January 22, 1987. With somewhere in the range of 16-18 inches accumulating, the players, officials, and spectators all had difficulty getting to Brendan Byrne Arena. After a two-hour delay, the game was played for a record low audience of 334, which later became known as the “334 Club.”

The snow began around 10:30, when the Flames began their pre-game skate. Still, when the Devils finished their turn at 11:35, they decided to follow their normal routines by heading home for the afternoon. Since the Flames’ hotel was a 20-minute ride from the rink, they assumed it would take at least an hour in the weather conditions. Although most of the team was informed around 3:30, the two who weren’t held up the departure until 4:50. To their surprise, they made the trip in the normal time span. Forward Jim Peplinski recalled, “It’s funny. Whenever I think of New Jersey, I always remember that our bus driver would get lost going to the Meadowlands every time. On that particular day, the snowstorm was awful and, for once in a blue moon, we went straight to where we were supposed to be. So we just laid around the dressing room for what seemed like weeks.”

The visitors had a long wait because the locals struggled to make it there at all. The game was scheduled for 7:35, but by 6:30, only ten of the Devils had arrived. Forward Doug Sulliman explained, “What I wasn’t ready for was all the abandoned cars that were stuck. I couldn’t get on the ramp to go two miles to the Meadowlands. So what I had to do was go on the other side of the road and I drove the whole way there in reverse. It was an adventure.” According to fellow-forward Peter McNab, “We found out later an 18-wheeler had turned over right in front of the Lincoln Tunnel. There was nowhere to go and I could see I was not going anywhere. I could see the rink. It was a couple of miles away. So I just walked.” A state trooper took his keys and moved the car to a nearby hotel parking lot.

When McNab got to the arena, he said, “We walked in and the Flames were already there. I could see Bob Johnson, he was coaching the Flames. He was counting the [Devils] players, because he knew once you had 16 or 17 players, you could start the game. Bob wanted to get the game going. He wanted that thing to start.” The Devils coach, Doug Carpenter, instead wanted to stall until he had more players. Sulliman remembered Carpenter saying, “’Just keep hiding people. We’re not going out there until we have 16 or 17 guys.” So Sullivan remembered, “They were hiding in the medical room, hiding in the stick room.” Johnson complained, “I thought the whole operation stunk from the time I got here at 5 o’clock until right now. I called up (NHL executive vice president) Brian O’Neill. He couldn’t make a decision. I talked to (Devils’ GM) Max McNab. He couldn’t make a decision. … It’s not as if we were holding the crowd up. There weren’t going to be a lot of people turned away.”

The game was pushed back an hour as of 6:45. It wasn’t until about 8:30 that the last four Devils arrived who were needed to get started. Defenseman Ken Daneyko remembered, “Me, Joe Cirella, Pat Verbeek, Kirk Muller and John MacLean; we all knew we had to leave early, so we took one vehicle. We left around 3 o’clock. We didn’t get there until a quarter to 9. We were the last group and they needed us to play.” An hour later, there were still four Devils skaters missing.

At least the officials finally made it. For a while, it looked as though a referee in the area who wasn’t even scheduled, Andy van Hellemond, would need to step in with assistance from Flames’ defenseman Paul Baxter as linesman. However, at nearly 6:40, most of the officials made it after walking 2.5 miles. Linesman Dan McCourt relayed his journey, “I got on the Garden State Parkway onto the [New Jersey] Turnpike and the traffic stopped dead. By 7:30, I’m still sitting there. I turned the radio on thinking I could listen to the hockey game on the radio. I go up and down the radio dial and can’t find the game anywhere. I don’t get to the rink until just before 9 o’clock. The Calgary Flames are there and the players from the home team aren’t. So we waited.”

Meanwhile, the team physician finally arrived at 7:45. The anthem singer never did. Even though injured forward Mike Bullard volunteered to sing, they decided to forgo the anthems. Warmups for both teams at last began at 8:45, and the game started after 9.

The Devils led from the start with Sulliman assisting Perry Anderson on the first shot and goal of the game at 2:03. Sulliman gave them the lead again when he scored his own goal in the final 30 seconds of the first period. In the second period, the Flames had a three-goal spree, but the Devils answered with four in the third period. The Calgary Herald remarked, “The Flames fell asleep in the third period, executing a brilliant collapse.” 

In that final rush, Sulliman scored again at 8:42 and into the empty net in the final ten seconds. According to teammate defenseman Bruce Driver, “Dougie Sulliman wasn’t even supposed to play in the game and he ended up being the last guy to come into the room. That’s when we decided we were ready to start the game. And he got a hat trick.” For Sulliman, he could look back at his only hat trick with a laugh. “They were all busting my chops about that one. There’s the tradition of throwing the hats on the ice. I think one of our trainers threw his hat on the ice. There were only one or two hats out there so he threw his baseball cap on the ice just so there was another hat on the ice.”

New Jersey goalie Alain Chevrier set a franchise record with his 17th win of the season. He had only been granted the starting position because he arrived at the game before Craig Billingston. On the other end of the ice, the Flames gave rookie Doug Dadswell his debut in the net. Dadswell said, “I was pretty up for the game. It put me off when I had to wait two hours to play, but I felt good once I was out there. They didn’t get a lot of shots, but I don’t think I let in any bad goals. They were all good goals.” Coach Johnson bemoaned, “The goals they scored were point blank. We didn’t play well defensively. We gave up too many quality scoring chances. It was a bizarre finish to a bizarre day.”

The game ended just before midnight with the Devils beating the Flames 7-5. Daneyko summarized, “It was a crazy night. You could hear a pin drop in the arena. We just wanted to play and we won, so it worked out. It will go down in Devils history, certainly.”

The most memorable part of the game was the crowd, or lack thereof. They had sold 11,247 seats, but only 334 spectators showed. The Calgary Herald reported, “In the snowbound Meadowlands, 334 intrepid – some would say stupid – spectators turned out to watch.” Sulliman joked, “There were 334 people and I’m sure half of them just wanted to get out of the storm. They walked in and got a hot dog and a beer and thought ‘Let’s sit here for a while.’” He continued, “You went out and there was no one in the stands and there was no music playing. It was eerie.”

One of the audience members, Jeff Mazzei, described the experience. “We got in there and there it was, this 20,000-seat arena with 300 people spread all over the place. They didn’t close any sections. They let people sit wherever they wanted.” He then explained how the Devils went about making a club for the die-hard fans there that night. “Someone from the Devils came around with a yellow pad and went to every fan to get our names and addresses. That’s how the 334 Club came about. They then sent out a letter thanking everyone for coming. They said they were going to send everyone souvenirs and tickets, and they did. We got a scarf and a shirt and a badge like we were in an official club.” The Devils backup goalie jested, “I should have got one of those badges. I watched that game too.”

They even held a reunion for the 334 Club and players. Mazzei said, “The reunion was really a high-class thing. Three of the players and Lou Lamoriello were there. Everyone was telling stories.” Daneyko was one of the alumni and commented, “We all chatted with them and they all had fond memories of it. It’s a story they can tell their grandkids.” He noted how “When I ran into fans at the arena or doing a broadcast, fans would say, ‘I was one of the 334.’ They’re proud, loyal Devil fans. It was a disaster, but they weren’t going to miss it for the world. We appreciate those types of fans.” TV commentator Stan Fischler added, “I went to reunions. We would just tell stories. The joy of seeing the Devils win that game, that made it worthwhile. Because they played their hearts out.”

Additional Sources:
In her personal history, Kyle Hurst hated her toe picks and wanted to skate on a hockey team like her brother. With age comes wisdom, and realizing how poorly she skates, she now much prefers watching the professionals. Writing about history for her day job, Kyle enjoys combining her two loves by writing hockey history. She still hates toe picks.

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