There have been six transcendant players in the last ten years, Federer, Duncan, numbers 3-1, and the simple doughy man from Quebec. Martin Brodeur is that good, the best really. For the last 15 years, he has done everything that has ever been asked of a man in a team sport, simply put, to lead a team devoid of tangible, long-term offensive talent and continiuty, and make them not only good but Stanley-Cup good. Brodeur has answered the bell, and answered it to the tune of 13 thirty win seasons (most all time), 7 forty win seasons (most all time), 591 wins (most all time), 108 shutouts (most all time), 23 playoff shutouts (most all time). He has backstopped New Jersey to eleven, and soon to be twelve straight playoff appearances, and all of this with a franchise that has let every good player they had, save for Patrik Elias, to leave. He's seen hall-of-famers retire or be shown the door out of Jersey (Scott Stevens and Scott Neidermayer, Bill Guerin, Dave Andreychuck), and seen other all-stars join them on the NJ Transit out of the Garden State, and the Devils have stayed not only afloat but also thriving. Brodeur is the reason, the reason that New Jersey cares about hockey, that three glistening large cups from Stanley sit in the coffers of the Prudential Center, and that Lou Lamorriello is hailed as a genius. Marty is Zeus in pads, with a lightning fast glove.
This decade has seen Marty at his best, dominating two different NHLs, the pre-lockout years when he led the Devils to three Stanley Cup finals in four years, and the post-lockout, where he was asked to play better and more often than any goalie in history. All the while, shots were stopped, points were gathered, and opponents left the rink feeling the same thing, "Damn, how is he that good?." Statistics cannot truly explain Marty's greatness, although the stats are there in earnest, with the fifth-best Goals Allowed a Game average (The NHLs form of ERA), and a top-10 Save Percentage for his career. Marty's greatness resides in one single stat: wins. Goalies are truly the only position in any team sport that wins should matter statistically. Sure, pitchers have their W-L record, but as seen by the BBWAA giving Zack Grienke (16 wins) and Tim Lincecum (15 wins) the Cy Young awards, it seems obvious that the wins for Starting Pitchers are terribly inaccurate ways of judging a pitcher's performance. Even Quarterbacks, who get too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses, are not as solely important to the success of their teams. Nothing is quite like a goalie. Goalies can single-handidly win games, series and Cups. Marty has done all three. He's a winner above all. In less games, he has more wins than any goalie ever. Sure, he's had the luxury of playing the last four years in an NHL without ties, but he's also had the unfortunate instance of missing out on 1.5 seasons due to strikes and lockouts over his career. Simply put, there is no better winner, and no better player in the NHL in the last decade.
Marty Brodeur's ability to play great every night, and play inspired is all the more amazing. He is not a butterfly goalie, eschewing the robotic goalie style that was popularized by Patrick Roy, where the goalie essentially only cares about taking out the bottom half of the net. Marty was different, unique, brilliant. He had no style, no method. He just did whatever it took to stop the puck from hitting the twine behind him. Whether it was going in the butterfly, kick-saving a puck away, flashing the quick glove, head-butting the rubber out of the air, going ground and stacking pads, or sprawling in a gymnastic routine to stop the puck. Whatever was needed, it was delivered. It wasn't necessarily graceful, but it was majestic, as the underratedly athletic Brodeur was flexible enough to assume any position if it allowed him a better chance of stopping the puck. This was only enhanced in the playoffs, where he turned his contortionist act into a Michelangelo artform. Every time a player took a shot, they had to know, I have very little chance, because if Marty had to stop the puck with his toes, he would. There is a reason hy Marty Brodeur is the best shootout goalie in the NHL. It is because there is no formula for beating him. He has no weakness, and he is equally good at stopping every shot. It is over before it starts. Marty will make the save, the Devils will win, and deep into May, New Jersey will have an active hockey team.
If anything can highlight just how brilliant Marty Brodeur is was his magnus opus, the 2003 playoffs. Marty was criticized for his "lacluster" play in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, losing head-to-head with Patrick Roy's Colorado team (the team that was all-around better, the favorite heading in, and in no way needed their goalie as much as the Devils did). Despite winning two Stanley Cups and taking the Devils to three, all in the previous 8 season, Brodeur was seen as a player fighting for the title of "best in the NHL" (which is more ironic since now he is pretty much the consensus "best ever"), fighting to overcome playoff demons. In the proceeding 24 games, Marty was unbeatable. He won 16 games, accrued 7 shutouts (a playoff record), with a .938 save percantage and an absurd 1.67 GAA. He was truly playing at a level never seen before. What was more interesting was that in those playoffs, there was another goalie playing at such a level through three rounds. Jean-Sebastian Giguere was carrying the 7th seeding Mighty Ducks on his back, doing his best Joshua Jackson routine with the quack-attack, culminating in the conference finals where he posted back-to-back-to-back shutouts. J-S Giguere was on top of the world when he entered the old Continental Airlines Arena for Game 1 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals. Little did he know that he was helpless, Marty was here.
In the seven games series, Brodeur gave up 12 goals, total. Three times, in Game 1, 2 and 7, he shut out the ducks, becoming the first goalie ever to record three shutouts in the Cup Finals. He was never better. Nothing got buy him. Even after he let in a soft, hilarious goal of his dropped goal-stick to help lose Game 3, he came back with 38 saves in an eventual 1-0 loss in Anaheim (the only game where he was outclassed by Giguere). Giguere stole Marty's MVP of the Playoffs trophy, but Brodeur had the most important trophy, and had it for the third time in 9 years, and the second time in the 2000s. Brodeur was king, and although the team has never gotten to those heights since, all Brodeur has done in the years since is win 38+ games, set an NHL record for wins in a season, and win four Vezina trophies as the league's best goalie.
Brodeur cemented his place as a Canadian hero, and also as a performer for the ages for the 2000s, in the 2002 Olympic Games. As the goalie for Canada, a team that had not won a Gold Medal since 1952, Brodeur was under massive scrutiny. Never a fan-favorite in Canada, except for in hometown Montreal, Brodeur unleashed his mastery on the world in Salt Lake City, giving up just 9 goals in the five games, ending it with allowing two to the hometown USA team in the Gold Medal Game. More than any of the acheivements that he ammassed with the Devils, however numerous and amazing they may be, nothing compares to that moment. Canada is the country where hockey means everything. For 50 years they had nothing in the Olympics to show for all of the hall-of-famers they had produced. Then, Brodeur comes along and all of that changes. He was St. Marty, and it has never really left him. Even after ridiculously being benched in the 2010 Games (for Luongo, a goalie who ended up playing like a nervous wreck in the Gold Medal Game), he still got the second loudest cheer in the Medal Ceremony for the Canadian faithful. He was complete, he had acheived it all: Three Stanley Cups, Two records that will never be broken (wins and shutouts), and a Goal Medal. What a decade it was.
Marty is the rare transcendant player, the one that gives every fan of the opposing team the feeling of "Man, if he's on, there is no way we win this game" and more importantly every fan of his team the feeling of, "It's okay, he's on our side". Devils fans have thought to themselves probably millions of times, "We got a chance, Maty is in goal" and really that is the highest plateau in athlete can achieve. Brady briefly reached it in 2004, Duncan reached it from 2003-2007, and Manning is there right now. Marty has been there for a good 15 years, but never moreso than this decade. He has carried a franchise on his back. The roster turnover in New Jersey is incredible. There are precisely three other players still left from the 2003 Title Team, and none of them play defense. Marty is the defense, Marty is the team and in many ways he is the greatest goalie of all time. Every Devils fan distinctly remembers a certain cheer that was elicited from the Continental Airlines Arena faithful late in Game 2 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, with the Devils cruising to a 2-0 lead and a 2-0 series advantage. It was a simple chant, but one that was endlessly meaningful. The opposing goalie was the one getting all the attention, the goalie in red and white was the one that was better. "Marty's Bet-ter... Marty's Bet-ter... Marty's Bet-ter". It reduced J-S Giguere to solemn tears after the game, because he knew it was true. "Marty's Bet-ter" and who then knew that it wouldn't only be J-S Giguere that the chant was aimed at, but all but three athletes in the 2000s. Marty was, is and will always be "bet-ter".
The Man at his very finest.
