As many of you likely know, career New Jersey Devil Martin Brodeur has already joined the pantheon of great goaltenders in NHL history. He first made his debut in the 1991-92 season, playing 4 games while going 2-1-0 (0 is ties, remember this was long before the Bettman point was introduced) and by 1995-96 became the uncontested starter in the Devils crease after backstopping the team to a sweep of Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals the season prior. Through his career, Brodeur would visit the Finals four more times, most recently and forgettably in 2011-12, and would come out with the big prize twice, in 1999-2000 against Dallas and 2002-03 against Anaheim.
Martin Brodeur owns records mostly due to his inhuman body of work. During the peak of his career between '95-96 through 2009-10, a span of 14 seasons, he logged time in 985 games which comes out to an average workload of 70.36 games per season. If you take out the two seasons he played fewer than 70 games (67 in '96-97 and 31 in '08-09) in that span, his average leaps up to 73.92 games per season. Long story short, that is absolutely insane.
Prior to the start of this season, his records included most combined regular season and playoff wins (782), combined games played (1,425), combined shutouts (145) as well as shutouts in a single playoff run (7), most consecutive 20- and 30-or-more win seasons (12 for each) and most 40-or-more win seasons overall (8). He has also been the youngest goaltender of all time to win 300, 400, 500, and 600 games for each of those milestones. As a guy who has played almost every single New Jersey Devils game for the better part of two decades, Brodeur has definitely shown that he is up to take on any task.
So when the the Devils were slated to play at Yankee Stadium against the New York Rangers, Brodeur seemed like the logical choice. When the assignment had been revealed, head coach Peter DeBoer was quoted as saying, "It really is an easy decision from a right thing to do perspective. His career, 20 years with the Devils, what he's done, and he's played some excellent hockey for us this year." Both Brodeur and colleague Cory Schneider did equal legwork in diffusing any implied controversy as well. Brodeur: "I want to deserve to play because of the way I play now, not what I did in the past." Schneider, on not starting: "He always seems to play his best against the Rangers and in these big games. I'm fine with it."
Except this is all a bunch of PR crap. If you look at where the tandem was at entering Sunday, it was almost a no-brainer as to who should have gotten the nod for the outdoor matchup.
The thing about Brodeur is that he has historically played for the clutch showing in the playoffs. In his career, he has been average at best during the regular season and has even been less-so since his ice time was reduced in the 2010-11 season. Even moreso, this is truly the first time in his career that his standing with the team is legitimately in jeopardy.
Entering play on Sunday, Brodeur boasted a 13-10-4 record while dragging a .905 SV% and 2.36 GAA along with him. Schneider appeared somewhat less spectacular with a 9-9-7 record, but his .928 SV% and 1.84 GAA is really starting to separate him from the incumbent, especially on a team that struggles to score goals.
On to the actual game, the Devils jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period and things were going back and forth at a decent pace. But with about three minutes left in the period, the first snowflake would fall that would cause the avalanche. Marc Staal would score to bring the Rangers within one and they would score 4 more in a row during the second period to put things away. Schneider entered the game in relief for the third and would play flawlessly save for a score on a penalty shot by Derek Stepan, bringing the final total to 7-3.
Brodeur has been bad this year no doubt, not surprising given his existence through 41 cycles of the annual calendar. The thing that is quickly starting to sour me to the future Hall-of-Fame-er is how he's acting like a child now that his game is going south and he's being replaced.
Understandably, Brodeur didn't have anything nice to say about the Stadium Series. The catch is he said nothing to come down on his own play. How was the rink, Marty? "It was the worst ice I ever played hockey on." What do you think about how your team played? "I'm sure [all the odd-man rushes] would have never happened in a regular game." How did it feel to get pulled on a national stage like this? "I told DeBoer to 'give Schneider the experience of a period in this environment?'" Are there any positives to draw from this game? "The whole thing was unbelievable, besides the hockey game."
These outdoor games are supposed to be a celebration of hockey, opening it up to fans around the world who may not be avid consumers of the sport, and all our most storied goaltender of the modern era could do is complain about having a bad game. What kind of message do you think that sends to those on the outskirts of the fandom? Sure, the game still counted towards the standings for the season so I doubt he imagined that he would get embarrassed like he did, but don't sh*t all over the fans and the overall experience because you had a no good, very bad day.
(On a lighter note, here's Yelp user "Marty B." posting a review of Yankee Stadium.)
I'll give Brodeur some benefit of the doubt here: He suffered due to some bad bounces that found their way past him, the ice might have prevented him from making otherwise smart positional plays and habits are hard to adjust for in an environment he will only play in once in his life, and the defence hung him out to dry in some crucial moments, a factor which has been plaguing the team for most of the season to begin with.
That said, the saga that unfolded - at least how it has been spun in the media - between the second and third periods with the goaltender change just serves to prove the extent that Marty is driving the ship in the crease. Any coach worth his salt would have pulled the goalie by the time New York scored 3 or, at most, 4 unanswered with 26 minutes left to turn things around. In Brodeur's words, "in a regular game" you would certainly hope so. Keeping up appearances doesn't win you hockey games, or at least there's no fancy stat to determine whether it does or not.
With the understanding that Brodeur is not long for this league, the Devils organisation made the big move at the draft by bringing Cory Schneider over from Vancouver to hopefully take over full-time by season's end. After 54 games, New Jersey sits in 7th in the Metro Division with 55 points, 4 points behind the 2nd place Rangers but with a lot of other teams to leapfrog. He started the season very well despite playing behind a poor offence, but as time has marched forward he has started to slip. When he wins, he wins in excellent fashion, but when he falls short, he falls hard. For a team that, I would assume, wants to push for the playoffs down the stretch, you would think that playtime would be over and you would defer not to nostalgia but to the netminder giving you the best chance to pick up points. It should be pointed out that, despite his record, Schneider has allowed 3 or fewer goals in all of his 27 appearances this year except for one.
Martin Brodeur has done a phenomenal job for the New Jersey Devils over the course of his career and deserves all the respect in the world for it. But there comes a time when the old guard needs to gracefully relinquish the reigns to the next generation. He has stated that he will accept a trade if it will benefit the team but recent events haven't exactly backed up his acceptance of a limited role.
My sincerest congratulations to you for everything you have accomplished in your legendary career, Marty Brodeur. It's just time to pass the torch.
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