The Player That I Love To Hate

            In what will probably be a rare admission on the blog, I must tell you that I do not like the New Jersey Devils.  As a die hard Flyers fan (which is it's own kind of personal hell), the NHL is the only league where I don't have some kind of New York/New Jersey rooting interest.  The biggest reason I don't like the Devils is Martin Brodeur.  Plain and simple.  In the nineties, anytime anyone's favorite hockey team came up against New Jersey, Brodeur was the reason to think 'ahhh, I thought my team had a chance, but not now'.  The guy was, and is, a literal brick wall.  As he entered his forties during the playoffs this season, one might assume that Marty just can't be the player he once was, that he must succumb to age just like any other player in any sport does.  There is evidence that this is a correct assumption.  For the last two seasons, Brodeur is not the player he always was.  His goals against average is up about two tenths of a goal and his save percentage is down about seven tenths of a percent.  Hardly a Brett Favre coming back for one season too many scenario.  The guy is forty years old and he is one of the top fifteen or twenty goaltenders on the planet.
            As much as I used to root for the man to fail, I now realize that Brodeur has probably given me more hockey memories than almost any other player. I now hope that Marvelous Martin plays another season, because as I was watching Game 6 on Tuesday night, I became aware that this was not how Brodeur should go out.  As soon as the referee made it known that a major penalty was being called, the Devils were in trouble.  In the last couple of years, there have been several teams that have tried to come back from 0-3 in NHL playoff series.  In 2010, the Flyers actually came back from an 0-3 deficit against Boston.  At least two other series, it has been game six that nixes the comeback.  In the NHL, it seems that Game 6 is the game where nothing can go wrong for the trailing team.  No major penalties, no soft early goals, no match-up mistakes, nothing can go wrong or there is your series clincher.  The Devils were in big trouble immediately, and never recovered.  The Kings took advantage, and hoisted the Stanley Cup, like Brodeur has three times before.
            I have been a hockey fan for a long time.  I even forgave the cancelled season after a while and I have now embraced the game again.  There have been many goaltenders who have made a splash, won Stanley Cups, and even had sustained success in the NHL.  None of them have been as consistently great for longer than the longtime Devils netminder.  Martin Brodeur has won 656 games as a goaltender in his career. Since his career began during the 1991-92 season, there have been only ten other goaltenders who have played in 656 games.  When he stood between the pipes for the first time, the Devils still wore green and red uniforms.  He is the greatest goaltender in history, in my opinion, even though I still root against him.  I hope my last image of the player I love to hate the most is not giving up a soft sixth goal during the beginning of another team's Stanley Cup celebration.  My least favorite player of all time deserves a lot better than that.

Thanks Marty, you're the greatest!