The New Jersey Devil’s public relations staff should be applauded for their handling of recent story in the New York Post claiming that the Newark based ice hockey team was on the verge of financial collapse.

“The attendance-challenged, heavily indebted team missed its Sept. 1 loan payment, giving its lenders a breakaway chance to push the team into bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.”

Full text of the story can be found here.

Upon first reading of this story, it would be easy to start assuming Newark will be losing its second professional sports team in less than five years (Remember the Nets are relocating to Brooklyn).

The Devils public relations team realized that the reputation impacts of this story could be quite severe and responded effectively to stop this story from snowballing.

A full recount of the Devil’s response can be found here.

By maintaining a professional tone and approach, the team was able to provide accurate statements as to the current financial standing of the team. Walking the line between providing facts and asking people to accept those facts is often times a challenge in the public relations world. The Devil’s public relations staff walked this line masterfully. The Devils provided the facts and leave it up to us whether we will trust the Post’s unnamed source versus the Devil’s professional staff. The staff at Evergreen will be eagerly monitoring this story to see how the New York Post responds to the Devil’s statement.