** Quick Note: Just 14 days ago, I wrote a piece about having to cope with sports mortality. This was following the Broncos sullen loss to the Colts where an injured Manning was playing with one leg. I noted there that I was facing that same situation with Marty Brodeur. Well, little did I know, Marty would actually retire just two weeks later. Everything in that column holds for Marty, but for one of the 5 best goalies of All Time retires, and he is my favorite hockey player I've ever followed, it deserves its own space**
Marty Brodeur will retire officially in two days. Of course, he will retire with a St. Louis Blues's backdrop in his press conference. This may be sad, this may be an imperfect way to go, but to me it is a perfect way to go. Marty Brodeur played as long as he thought he could play for, he played for as long as he wanted to, and retired probably a year too late. But he retired just in time to pick up one last shutout, his 125th of his career. He picked up three more wins, the 688th-690th of his career. Both those records will likely never fall. In fact, he's smashed both. The old wins record was 551. Just think of that. Hockey, has been played since the 1910's. Goalies really haven't changed too much. It isn't like baseball where pitchers went from throwing 50 starts a year to 30. Marty Brodeur knocked that record by 140. Of course, the shutout record might be even more ridiculous, as he passed a Golden record in hockey, Terry Sawchuck's 103 shutouts, by 20%. Marty Brodeur is the most voluminously impressive goaltender in NHL history, and his peers are really of the Barry Bonds and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar types.
In fact, Jabaar might be the best comp, a guy who played a ridiculous amount of years at a high enough level to do things few ever will. We have proof in front of our eyes that Kareem's ~38,000 points is ridiculous, as Kobe's essentially done. Marty Brodeur is the same, but his legacy goes far beyond all of that. Marty Brodeur is a winner. Not in the Tom Brady sense, not in the Madison Bumgarner sense. He's a winner in the best sense of the word. He was the goalie for three Stanley Cup Champions, and two more teams who made the Stanley Cup Finals. He was the goalie of a team that made the playoffs all but three years of his career, including 13 straight right in teh square of his prime. He set records for most 30-win seasons and most 40-wins seasons, again records few will ever touch. He was the Goalie on 2 Gold Medal winning teams, including dominant performances for the 2002 Canada team, the first Canadian team to win Gold in a long, long time. Marty Brodeur just won, a lot.
In a way, the success of his teams has always been the one knock on Brodeur. It was always the system, a trapping system that squeezed offensive success away from the game. It was always the talent around him, as for the first half of his career he was surrounded by multiple HOF-level defensemen, including two first ballot guys in Scott Stevens and Scott Neidermayer. There was always reasons to knock Brodeur, but at the end of the day, he just one. He won despite players coming in and out all the time, without ever getting good offensive support apart from two seasons (1999-2001, which happened to be two years the Devils made the Cup Finals and were a game way from going back-to-back). He won even after Stevens and Neidermayer left, setting records with the mid-2000s Devils, who asked him to play more than anyone else. He did the most amazing thing I've ever seen: won so much that despite winning three Cups, he actually got a long line of questions of 'can you succeed in the playoffs.'
That might be the most incredible thing in his career. From 1995 through 2003, the Devils made the Stanley Cup Finals four times and won three Cups. They were essentially a dynasty. Yet Brodeur's Stanley Cup Playoffs credentials were questioned. He was questioned after the Devils failed to advance past the 2nd round for 6 straight playoff campaigns following the 2003 Cup. He failed in notable moments. But he was also a 3-time Cup Winner. He also has the record for most shutouts in playoff history, and essentially the 2nd best GAA in NHL Playoff History (taking away guys who played back in the 1920-30's. Marty Brodeur was the greatest Regular Season goalie of all time, but he was also a pretty damn fantastic Playoff Goalie too.
Marty Brodeur played in teh Golden Era of goalies. He is part of the Big-3 of himself, Patrick Roy and Dominek Hasek, and they were flanked by Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph, Olaf Kolzig and many others, but those first three stood out. They all had their different descriptions, but Marty's was always the least complimentary. Patrick Roy was the innovator, as he perfected the butterfly style of goaltending that essentially runs the league now, but he was always the most clutch, as his playoff winning is absurd. Hasek was the ultimate highlight goalie, with the numerous dramatic saves that could fill a whole night's worth of Sportscenter. He was also the Valuable one, the guy on the bad team who was so good he won MVP a few times. Marty was just the other won, the guy that was consistently, boringly good.
Marty, though, was so much more. He was an innovator too. Marty Brodeur's excellence with stickhandling is legendary. He was basically a 3rd defenseman, ruining offensive rushes all the time. He was the central cog in the Devils break. He was so good at handling the puck, the NHL basically invented a rule to shackle his effectiveness, creating the trapezoid that is there today. Marty also was a great throwback goalie, with a convential stand-up style, one that was able to fight off the Butterfly advances far longer than any of his peers. Marty was so good for so long, it really got under the radar by the end.
Marty Brodeur kept that team competitive long past their natural expiration date. The Devils hemorraghed talent from 2003-2010, losing players all the time. Especially defenseman, through retirement (Stevens, Daneyko), and Free Agency (Neidermayer the star, but also Rafalski and Paul Martin). The Devils stayed good, consistently getting close to 100 points each year and winning that division, because of Marty. They had to overwork him, to the point he was playing 75 of 82 games. This had an impact where he was tiring by the playoffs, but he made the playoffs possible.
I love Scott Stevens, he was a fearless leader that helped instill a true personality with the Devils. I think the World of Scott Neidermayer, one of the most innately talented players I've ever seen. I find Patrik Elias one of the most underrated players in the last 15 years. Still, Marty Brodeur was the best player the Devils have ever had. He will likely be the best player the Devils ever have. Marty Brodeur cared about the Devils, but he also just cared about winning and cared about hockey. He cared enough to play all the games. He cared enough to keep going at 40+, despite slipping skills. He was good enough to get the Devils to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012. He was so good for so long people forgot and started to hate.
Bye, Martin Brodeur, the best player in hockey I will ever root for, the best I will ever follow and care about. I hope retirement treats you well. I hope you come back to the Devils as reported in 2015, and be with this organization for years to come. I hope everything works out for you, and I hope people finally give you the respect you deserve. Marty Brodeur, the best I've ever seen.
