Marty the Great

By Eric Redner

For those who bleed Orange and Black this might be difficult to read.

But, after seeing Ken Dryden's number retired it got me thinking about the best goaltender of all-time. Again and again I kept coming back to the same man, Martin Brodeur.

One Calder trophy, two Vezina trophies, three Stanley Cup trophies, 480 victories and 90 shutouts. These are the numbers Marty has posted in his14 years in the league, all with the hated New Jersey Devils. In addition to the three Stanley Cup championships, the team has only missed the playoffs once since he has been the netminder.

Brodeur is a workhorse and has played in over 70 games in every season since the 1996-97 campaign. Out of the Devils 56 games this season, he has started54 of them!

In addition to holding almost every Devils' franchise goaltending record, he is on pace to surpass Patrick Roy's career records for wins (551), games played (1,029) and minutes played (75,444), as well as Terry Sawchuk's record for career shutouts (103) in just two more seasons.

Brodeur first burst on the scene in 1994 when he won the Calder Trophy after leading the Devils to the Eastern Conference finals -- where they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers in seven games.

However, the next season, a strike-shortened campaign, a veteran Brodeur helped guide the Devils to their first Stanley Cup, sweeping the Detroit Red Wings and only allowing Detroit to just seven goals in the four games.

The next year the Devils missed the playoffs, the only time in his career that Brodeur didn't taste postseason play, but he did play in 77 out of a possible 82 games and set a single-season record for most minutes played by a goaltender.

Brodeur accomplished a rare feat the following season when, in the first game of the opening round of the playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens, he fired the puck the length of the ice and into the empty net to ensure a 5-2 victory. It was only the second time in NHL history that a goalie had scored in the playoffs, and the fifth time overall. The Devils, though, fell to the Rangers in the next round of the playoffs. Remember who beat the Rangers in theConference Finals that year? Despite having the lowest goals-against averagein almost 30 years, he lost the Vezina trophy to Dominik Hasek.

The next two seasons the Devils lost in the first round of the playoffs, but in the 1999-2000 season, Brodeur once again guided the Devils to that coveted chalice when the Devils downed the Stars in six games.

Next year Brodeur posted his third 40-plus win season and New Jersey once again made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but this time the team failed as they fell to Roy and the Colorado Avalanche in seven games.

In the 2002-03 season Brodeur won his third Stanley Cup, this time defeating the then-named Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Also, Brodeur finally captured theVezina and was again honored with the award the following season.

So many times this man has been a thorn in the side, fly in the ointment,wrench in the gears and every other idiom you can think of when he faces theFlyers. I can still remember the 2000 playoffs when the Flyers had a 3-1 advantage, only to lose the next three games and the series with Brodeur limiting the Flyers to just one goal in each of the final three games.

"Whatever happens we have got Martin Brodeur -- and they have not."

This I pilfered from an old British colonial service saying. The original quote went "Whatever happens we have got the Maxim gun -- and they have not."This was in reference to the Maxim machine gun which the British used to counter the massive numbers tribal warriors would throw at them.

But, it also applies to Brodeur -- a player we have watched bail out a Devils team time and time again.

-You can send your death threats to Eric Redner at ERedner@phanaticmag.com.