The New Jersey Devils were in the Stanley Cup Finals for their fourth time in franchise history, as well as their third appearance in four years.

Forwards John Madden and Jeff Friesen, the latter of whom had been traded to New Jersey from Anaheim during the off-season, also finished among the top scorers in the league during the playoffs.

Anaheim also swept the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference Finals, largely due to the stellar goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who only allowed one goal during the entire series.

The Devils, who finished the season with 108 points, defeated the Mighty Ducks in seven games to win the Stanley Cup.

In a virtual repeat of game one, Patrik Elias scored the winning goal in the second period and the Devils shut out Anaheim 3–0 again.

With the game tied 3–3 in the second period, the Devils took the lead with a deflection goal by Jay Pandolfo that was initially waved off by referees due to an apparent kicking motion with the skates.

Video replays, however, showed that there was no distinct kicking motion from the skates, and thus the referees' call was reversed, resulting in a goal.

Ducks captain Paul Kariya failed to see Devils captain Scott Stevens approaching after he passed the puck, and he was subsequently checked by the defensemen in a hit similar to the check that knocked out Eric Lindros during the 2000 playoffs and caused Lindros to miss the next season.

Additionally, Jeff Friesen dominated his former Mighty Duck teammates, scoring the game's final two goals to solidify the victory.

He became only the fifth player, and fourth goaltender, in NHL history to have won the trophy as a member of the losing team, joining Detroit's Roger Crozier (1966), the St. Louis Blues' Glenn Hall (1968), and the Philadelphia Flyers' Reggie Leach (1976, a right winger) and Ron Hextall (1987).

He was the last player to win the Conn Smythe trophy on a losing team until the Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid did so in 2024.

Martin Brodeur, Sergei Brylin, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens, Bobby Carpenter Jr. (one as a player, two as an assistant coach), Lou Lamoriello, Larry Robinson, Jacques Caron, Claude Carrier, David Conte, Milt Fisher, Dan Labraaten, Marcel Provonost, Mike Vasalani, Peter McMullen (left Cup in 2003).

Gary Thorne, and Bill Clement called the entire series, with John Davidson joining them for the ABC games.

This was also the only year that ABC broadcast both the Stanley Cup and the NBA Finals that involved teams playing in the same arena during each series.

For the radio coverage, Devils team broadcaster John Hennessy called the series on WABC–AM 770 in New York City.