Time For Brodeur to Say Goodbye

Martin Brodeur is having his worst statistical campaign this season for the New Jersey Devils.

           There have been a number of surprises so far in this year’s NHL season. Examples include the rising play of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta Thrashers, the disappointments in Calgary and the vastly improved Philadelphia Flyers goaltending. However, the biggest surprise in the NHL this season has been the play of not only the New Jersey Devils, but in particular, their goaltender Martin Brodeur.

            Heading into the 2010-2011 season, the New Jersey Devils were predicted to be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They had made several acquisitions during the off-season, including acquiring defencemen Henrik Tallinder, Anton Volchenkov and resigning Russian sniper Ilya Kovalchuk to a 15 year deal. With superstar netminder Martin Brodeur in net, the Devils were an automatic top four seed in the eastern conference, right?

            Approximately halfway through the season, Brodeur is having an absolutely preposterous year. In fact, this has been his worst statistical campaign in his storied 17 year NHL career. Some have argued that Brodeur has always been an average goaltender playing behind an excellent defence. Sure, he has played behind the likes of Scott Stevens, Brian Rafalski, Ken Daneyko and Scott Niedermayer, but there’s a reason Brodeur has the most career victories and shutouts in the history of the league.

            This year has been completely different for the New Jersey Devils. Brodeur has always been on a winning team throughout his career, but this year he has faltered significantly. He has a record of 6-18-1 with a 3.05 goals against average and a .890 save percentage. These statistics are extremely unheard of for Brodeur, who has never had a goals against average over 3 and a save percentage under .900 at any point during his career.

            Brodeur missed about two weeks earlier in the year with an elbow injury. He also missed half of the 2008-2009 season with that same elbow injury. Seeing him struggle with injuries at this point in his career after being healthy for his first 15 years is troubling to hear. Recently, he was also relegated to the backup role in favour of journeyman Johan Hedberg. It was the first time Brodeur acted as a backup goalie for three consecutive games. It is clear Brodeur’s career is on a significant downfall.

            Throughout his career, the 38 year old Montreal native has always played a unique style. Some call it a ‘hybrid’ style between the now ancient stand up and the modern butterfly techniques. However, Brodeur has played more like a butterfly goaltender all season. He has relied on his butterfly far too much and that doesn’t suit Broduer’s game. He was always known for reading the play extremely well and appeared to make any save look easy. This season, he has been very wonky, dropping to his knees much faster than ever before and that has hurt his overall performance on the ice.

            His poor play didn’t just start this season. Canadians remember last year at the Olympics, when Brodeur was yanked in favour of butterfly specialist Roberto Luongo. His lackluster play continued straight into the playoffs, where the seventh seed Philadelphia Flyers ousted the Devils in five games.

            It doesn’t make sense for Brodeur to completely change his style as a 38 year old veteran. Martin Brodeur and butterfly don’t mesh well in the same sentence. We have seen other athletes stretch their careers for far too many years. Brett Favre is a prime example. He has retired and ‘un-retired’ about four times and he definitely played one too many years. In fact, his body was literally falling apart during this past season. He claims to be ‘definitely finished’, but it’s Brett Favre, so who really knows?

            Martin Brodeur is not only on the ‘back nine’ of his career; he is on the 18^th green. He has faced injuries for the first time after being healthy for the majority of his career, which is definitely not a good sign. Brodeur has had a fantastic career as a New Jersey Devil and is definitely a sure-fire Hall of Famer, but Marty, don’t follow Brett Favre’s footsteps and play more when both your game and body aren’t in top form.