Winter Classic Alumni Game Will Feature Gretzky, Brodeur With Blues

Martin Brodeur played in 1259 NHL games with the New Jersey Devils, and seven with St. Louis Blues.

Make that eight, as he is going to play for St. Louis at the Winter Classic Alumni game.

As hard as it is to see Marty in anything but a Devils' or Canada uniform, at least he stayed with the organization. And it's not like he's playing against the Devils.

Also playing for the Blues' Winter Classic Alumni team will be this guy:

Oh yes, that's right! Wayne Gretzky did every so briefly play for the St. Louis Blues. He played 18 games for the Blues, and another 13 in the 1996 playoffs, after the Blues traded Patrice Tardif, Craig Johnson, Roman Vopat and a first round pick used to draft the legendary Matt Zultek.

If you forgot that The Great One played in St. Louis its because it was so quick and somehow so wrong that we tend to just pretend it didn't happen.

Anyway, hockey's all-time winningest goaltender and the game's greatest scorer will both be at the Winter Classic. Brodeur is still recently retired enough to make a difference in net, as goalies tend not to play well in alumni games as they get older. Gretzky, on the other hand, admitted to struggling in his Heritage Classic Alumni game with Edmonton earlier this season.

Peter Stastny, another all time NHL great who played just 23 games in St. Louis, will also be at the Winter Classic.

But don't fret Blues fans. The team will also feature some real Blues legends like Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Bernie Federko, Al MacInnis, Chris Pronger, and Mike Liut.

The Blues full alumni roster can be seen here.

The Chicago Blackhawks have not yet announced their full Winter Classic Alumni roster.

Martin Brodeur: By The Numbers

Martin Brodeur officially is retiring.

Brodeur finishes his 22-year NHL career with a 691-397-176 record, a 2.24 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 1,266 appearances, all but seven coming with the New Jersey Devils. He holds regular-season NHL goaltending records for wins, shutouts, games played and minutes played (74,438), and in the history of the Stanley Cup Playoffs he ranks first in starts (204) and shutouts (24) and second in wins (113).

Brodeur appeared in 10 NHL All-Star Games and led the League in wins nine times, shutouts five times, and games played six times, including appearing in 70 or more games in 10 consecutive seasons from 1997-98 to 2007-08. He won the 1994 Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and won the Vezina Trophy four times (2003, 2004, 2007, 2008) and the Jennings Trophy five times (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2010). Brodeur won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 1995, 2000 and 2003, and was a two-time Olympic gold medalist with Canada (2002, 2010).

His numbers are unparalleled and perhaps even unreachable for some time. Does that make him the greatest goalie of all time? That is a debate for another time, at least on this forum, but he certainly is a worthy candidate in that conversation.

Martin Brodeur's Last Game With The New Jersey Devils?

Hockey Card of the Day: Martin Brodeur

Denis Brodeur Passes Away, Aged 82

Denis Brodeur passed away on September 26th. He was aged 82.

Denis Brodeur may be best known nowadays as Martin Brodeur's father, but he had quite the accomplished life in hockey in his own right.

Denis was once a goaltender, too. In face he represented Canada at the 1956 Olympics, winning a medal just like his son did (twice) many years later.

Denis really made his mark as a notable sports photographer. He was the official photographer of the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Expos, and also shot almost every sporting event in Montreal from motorsports to pro wrestling.

His most famous photo would be from the 1972 Summit Series where he captured the iconic image of Paul Henderson scoring the series winning goal.

Martin Brodeur's Historic Goal

If you ask any goalie what he wants more than anything in any given game, it is a lead to work with. Martin Brodeur took that into his own hands on Thursday night when he scored his third career goal. It was the first time in NHL history that a goaltender scored the first goal of the game!

Here's the video. As you can see, Marty gets a lucky bounce:


Here's some random Brodeur trivia for you:

Martin Brodeur's scoring stats: 1205 games: 2 goals, 41 assists. Add 1 goal and 12 assists in 428 Stanley Cup playoff games.

He now has more goals than 2128 NHL skaters in NHL history (plus all 628 NHL goalies, of course!)

Other NHL goalies to score: Billy Smith, Ron Hextall (twice), Chris Osgood, Damian Rhodes, Jose Theodore, Evgeni Nabokov, Mika Noronen, Chris Mason, and Cam Ward. Both of Hextall's goals were actually shot attempts. Same goes for Osgood, Theodore, Nabokov and Brodeur's first goal. The others were all accidental "own goals" by the other team.

Interestingly, Martin Brodeur is not the highest scoring goaltender of all time. Tom Barrasso has 48 points, followed by Grant Fuhr with 46 and Patrick Roy with 45. All of their points were assists.

That might be the only NHL goaltending record Martin Brodeur does not own - yet.

Did You Know? Martin Brodeur

Here's a few fun facts about Martin Brodeur, goaltender for the New Jersey Devils.

• At age 14 Martin Brodeur almost quit hockey to pursue a career as a competitive skier.
• Martin's father Denis Brodeur played goal for Canada at the 1956 Olympics
• Denis went on to become the official team photographer for the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Expos. Young Martin was able to hang out with many of the Montreal players after practice.
• Martin's brother Claude was a pitcher in the Montreal Expos system.
• Brodeur is the first goalie in NHL history to appear in a playoff game as a teenager and then later as a 40-year-old.

Martin Brodeur Sets Playoff Shutout Record

With 119 in the regular season, Martin Brodeur is already hockey's all time shutout king. With a 4-0 win over Florida on Thursday night Martin Brodeur broke one of the few goaltending records he did not already own - career playoff shutouts. It was Brodeur's 24th Stanley Cup shutout, passing Patrick Roy as the all time leader.

Here's the all time playoff shutout leaders:

Martin Brodeur - 24
Patrick Roy - 23
Curtis Joseph - 16
Chris Osgood - 15
Ed Belfour - 14
Dominik Hasek - 14
Jacques Plante - 14
Turk Broda - 13
Terry Sawchuk - 12
Ken Dryden - 10

Martin Brodeur: One Last Hurrah?

No matter who you believe to be the greatest goaltender in hockey history, you can not deny Martin Brodeur's inclusion in the conversation. After all, he happens to be the NHL's all time leader in wins and shutouts and he's a three time Stanley Cup champion, four time Vezina trophy winner and two time Olympic gold medallist.

As amazingly consistent as Brodeur has been over his long career, many believe we are now seeing a serious decline in Brodeur's game. Yes, he had a bad 2010 Olympics, and yes he had a terrible start to the 2010-11 season. People were convinced we had seen the end of Martin Brodeur's greatness.

But not so. Very quietly Brodeur finished the 2011 season as hot as any goalie, going 18-8-2 with a .923 save percentage from New Year's Day 2011 and forward. And this 2011-12 season he has quietly has New Jersey comfortably holding on to a playoff spot. Yes, his starts are down this year and his stats are off of his career norms, but he is getting wins. And it's not like he has Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer on the blue line any more either. I'm not even sure who Mark Fayne, Andy Greene and Matt Taormina are.

If the Devils can stay healthy and somehow squeeze out some more goals out of their offense-challenged team, Martin Brodeur and the Devils might just make some noise in the 2012 playoffs. He may be almost 40 years old and past his prime, but Martin Brodeur has enough fire within himself for one more great story in his amazing career. 

Luongo or Brodeur?

Update: Coach Babcock has made his decision. Clearly he sees it my way, as per follows!

The question Canadians have been debating seemingly forever gets a little closer to being answered tonight? Who will be Canada's goalie for the 2010 Olympics?

The real answer will not likely be known until game three or four of the tournament. In all likelihood Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo will alternate games one, against Norway, and two, against Switzerland. Whoever plays game three against USA will likely play the rest of the way, unless they have a meltdown against the Americans. Marc-Andre Fleury will likely be told he is the third goalie right from the start.

Traditionally, the goalie who is expected to be #1 will play the first game. That's why most people will be expecting Martin Brodeur to play against Norway, leaving Luongo to play the Swiss.

I would agree Brodeur, despite recent struggles, certainly has the resume to enter the tournament as #1. But if I were the coach, I would give Luongo game one, and Brodeur game two.

Here's why:

While we can never take Norway too lightly (this will be Norway's gold medal game in essence, after all), presumably we have the offense to win the game regardless of goaltending. So why not give Luongo, presumably Brodeur's back-up entering the tournament, that game.

That leaves Brodeur with a better challenge against the Swiss. With his recent struggles, this would allow him to "earn" his starting job against a tougher opponent.

Also, this would give Canada a puck handling goaltender against Switzerland. Despite lacking game-breaking offense, the Swiss are a more dangerous opponent with NHL goaltending and stifling defense. They will try to dump the puck in and get it back. With Brodeur free from any trapezoids at the Olympics, he will greatly eliminate the Swiss ability to do this. Luongo's game does not include this luxury.

Now all of this is subject to the coaching staff's thoughts on Brodeur's recent struggles. He was pulled in his last start, against the lowly Carolina Hurricanes. He has struggled immensely in February with a 2-3-1 record to go with a 3.15 goals-against average and a dismal .871 save percentage. But his career record arguably makes him the greatest goalie of all time.

Will Brodeur raise his game for the big games of the Olympics? Or do you go with Luongo who does not have nearly the same track record? Of course there is always Marc-Andre Fleury in the mix.

Picking the goalie is a bit of gamble, if only because Canada can not afford to be wrong in their choice.

Brodeur Coming Into Olympics Cold

While most people seemed comfortable with Martin Brodeur as Canada's starting goalie, in the past couple of weeks his game has stumbled too.

In his last 10 games he is 4-5-1 with a 2.65 GAA and a .896 save percentage. Hardly intimidating numbers. To make matters worse for Canada, #2 goalie Roberto Luongo has had his rough spots in the past couple of weeks too.

Now I have not followed the New Jersey Devils closely enough in the past 10 games to really know how Brodeur is playing. The whole team has struggled, inflating Brodeur's stats. But bottom line is he could be playing better right now, too.

While there may be some reason for concern in Canada, most people are taking it in stride. Brodeur's track record suggests he'll be ready for the big games. But he has four games left before the Olympics. He can cement his starting status with 4 strong outings, or, with continued struggles, really fire up the debate here in Canada.

104!

Who knew that this kid pictured below would one day go on to become the NHL's shutout king?


Martin Brodeur shutout the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-0 on Monday, the 104th blanking of his career. In doing so Brodeur surpassed Terry Sawchuk's record of 103 shutouts, once considered one of hockey's few unbreakable records.

Picture from SI.com

Brodeur Ties Sawchuk

Martin Brodeur tied Terry Sawchuk's record of 103 career shutouts, once thought to be unbreakable, with a 3-0 win over Buffalo on Monday night.

Critics of course will cite New Jersey's defense-first team approach greatly aiding Brodeur's shutout and wins all time records. Brodeur is quick to credit his teammates, too.

"I think it's just a lot of credit to the organization I've been playing all my career, the commitment defensively I think all the players who went through this organization while I was here that they made. It became a big number and hopefully it won't stop there."

I agree, all goalies' statistics are subject to their team's success. Some of the all time greats like Brodeur, Sawchuk Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden, Jacques Plante etc all benefit from playing great teams, while guys like Gilles Meloche, Rogie Vachon and, at least in the first half of his career, Gump Worsley were penalized for playing for bad teams.

Give Brodeur credit though. The 37 year old, now in his 16th full season, has been amazingly consistent. You don't become the NHL's winningest goaltender, shutout king, three time Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist by being just good.

Yes, New Jersey is a terrific defensive team and they keep a lot of the opposition's shots to the outside and might not surrender as many second and third chances. But Brodeur is a big part of that too, with his excellent puck handling helping to eliminate offensive zone set ups, his outstanding rebound control and his great ability to read and control the tempo of game.

Is Brodeur the best of all time? I'm still not sure where I sit on that one. Patrick Roy is the greatest playoff goalie in my mind. Dominik Hasek had the highest peak of any goaltender, in my opinion. Jacques Plante easily had the biggest legacy, and legacy is important in my books. But Brodeur unquestionably joins those three, and perhaps one or two others, in any conversation I have about the game's greatest goaltenders.

Next Target: Terry Sawchuk

Now that he is the winningest goalie in NHL history, next on Martin Brodeur's milestone target list is Terry Sawchuk's long standing NHL record 103 career shutouts. Brodeur is just three shutouts away from equaling the great Sawchuk.

Mike Zeisberger recently took a look at the career of Terry Sawchuk.

As a young kid, Sawchuk was forced to strap on the pads and go in net for a team in Winnipeg to replace their previous goalie, who had passed away. The boy who died just happened to be Sawchuk's brother.

Expect a lot of Sawchuk pieces as Brodeur gets closer to the record. With only a dozen games left, it is unlikely Brodeur will break the record this year, so the late-Mr. Sawchuk may get lots of press early next season.

Meet Jacques Caron - The Man Behind Martin Brodeur

Guest writer Vikash Khanna offers us a look at the man behind Martin Brodeur: long time New Jersey Devils goaltending coach Jacques Caron.

Martin Brodeur's recent milestone victories have elicited a great deal of interest in those who have influenced him over the years. Perhaps no figure has been more intimately involved in Brodeur's success than Jacques Caron, the tall, silver-haired, 69-year-old goaltending coach for the New Jersey Devils.

Caron joined the Devils' coaching staff in 1993, at which point Brodeur was serving humbly in their American Hockey League affiliate in Utica. Caron recognized at a very early stage that the organization had someone extraordinarily special brewing in the pipeline. "I could see his total ability was unbelievable," he later recalled. Using his bilingualism to communicate with the young goalie and make him feel right at home, Caron orchestrated an almost father-son relationship that has endured now for over fifteen years.

More than anyone else, Caron was responsible for developing that hybrid style of Brodeur's we are so accustomed to seeing today. "When I came in," Caron remarked, "he was a typical Québec goaltender; a butterfly goaltender. They play their feet real wide and they fall on every shot, hoping the puck hits them with a thud, with no control." Caron immediately got to work on Brodeur's balance, lateral mobility, and angular positioning. In due course, with Caron's guidance, Brodeur learned how to spend more of his time standing up.

Brodeur credits Caron for keeping him razor sharp during practice sessions, thanks to their endless private on-ice drills and video tape analyses. In between periods of games, Caron is always on hand to provide Brodeur with both technical suggestions and emotional support. Said Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello, "we just can’t overestimate the value of Jacques." In fact, even though Caron goes about his duties quietly, he is universally recognized around the league as one of the most valuable goaltending coaches of his generation.

Caron's own playing career spanned 18 seasons, most of which were spent either as a backup or in the minors. He established himself playing for the AHL's Springfield Indians from 1961 to 1968. The team was coached by the legendary Eddie Shore, who employed unorthodox tactics such as tying his goalies to the goalposts in order to drill home the importance of having strong footing. (That was old-time hockey for you!) Throughout his minor league career, Caron won a Calder Cup in the AHL; a Patrick Cup in the Western Hockey League; and a Lockhart Cup in the North American Hockey League.

The 1967 Expansion Los Angeles Kings acquired Caron, and although their goaltending was solid with the combination of Terry Sawchuk and Wayne Rutledge, he did manage to log in one game in December (a 4-2 loss). He would enjoy more action during the 1970s with St. Louis and Vancouver, as well as with Cleveland of the World Hockey Association. In all, his numbers were respectable, and his pretzel-like mask memorable; however, his time in the big leagues was plagued with intermittent episodes of retirement, stress and uncertainty.

In 1980, Caron opened a summer goalie school (one of the first of its kind) in his hometown of Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. He worked with the Hartford Whalers as a goaltending coach for several years before solidfying his hockey legacy with Brodeur and the Devils.

Martin Brodeur Trivia

Here's some Martin Brodeur trivia:

Of his 552 wins, 238 of them are by just one goal. The most common victorious score for Brodeur is 3-2, which has happened 99 times. On 64 occasions the score resulted in a 2-1 win.

Let's see if you can answer these questions. Post your responses in the comments section.

1. Martin Brodeur has a winning record against every NHL team except for one. Name that one team.

2. The record for most goals scored against Martin Brodeur is 17. Which former NHL player holds that record.

3. Martin Brodeur's first NHL victory was on March 26th, 1992 against Boston. Who was the losing goalie that night?

4. With 43 wins, Brodeur has defeated this team more often than any other. Name the team.

5. Which goalie has Martin Brodeur defeated the most often in head to head match ups? Here's a hint. He has won 15 of the 26 head to head match ups.

UPDATE: The answers are now posted in the comments section.

552!

Martin Brodeur is officially the winningest goalie of all time!

Brodeur Ties Roy With 551 Wins - Will Record Fall On St. Patrick's Day?

Martin Brodeur seems to have a good sense of showmanship.

It certainly was not lost on the New Jersey goaltending great as the tried to tie Patrick Roy, his childhood idol, with all time with his 551st win. | Also see: Is Brodeur The Greatest? |

Not only did Brodeur have a chance to do it in Montreal, where Roy reigned supreme for years, but he had a chance to do it with Roy in attendance.

Brodeur seized the moment and led his Devils' to a 3-1 victory.

Brodeur will now have a chance to become the winningest goalie in NHL history when the Devils host Chicago on Tuesday - St. Patrick's Day, of all days.

Isn't it ironic . . . don't you think? That Martin Brodeur is such a little devil!

Brodeur vs. Roy vs. Hasek Who Is The Greatest Goalie Of All Time?

Martin Brodeur hopes to catch up to Patrick Roy on the all time win column Saturday night as New Jersey travels to, of all places, Montreal. Brodeur is looking to match Roy's NHL record 551 career wins.

Health permitting, Brodeur probably has another 3 really good years in him, meaning he will greatly elevate the bar as the NHL's winningest goalie in NHL history. He should get close to 650 wins. Could he even challenge for 700 wins? Those are amazing numbers, even more impressive when you remember NHL-NHLPA labour disputes cost him possible 126 games, or probably another 60 wins.

More over, it's only a matter of time before Martin Brodeur overtakes Terry Sawchuk's title of shutout king, as he sits only 3 behind the once-untouchable record. Could he could push that total to 120 shutouts?

The Greatest Goalie?

Debate is sure to rage from now until someone challenges Brodeur's lofty totals, which means a really, really long time, as to whether or not Martin Brodeur is the greatest goalie of all time.

On one hand it is hard to argue with Brodeur's resume. On top of all of his dominating numbers he has 3 Stanley Cups, 1 Olympic gold medal, 1 World Cup, 4 Vezina trophies and 7 after-season All Star nods.

Critics will suggest he is the product of New Jersey's stringent defensive system. The fact that New Jersey rolled along nicely with a career minor league goalie, Scott Clemmensen, during Brodeur's 50 game absence due to injury this season only exacerbates that argument.

So who is the greatest goalie of all time?

Firstly, let's remove the pre-1967 goaltending greats from the equation. I intend no disrespect to Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Johnny Bower, Glenn Hall and company. Comparing players from different era's is always difficult, but we need not go back that far to determine that Brodeur may in fact not be the greatest goalie of all time.

To be the greatest goalie of all time, it stands to reason that one must be the best goalie of his own generation. There is a good argument that Brodeur was only the third best, with contemporaries Roy and Dominik Hasek besting him.

Let's compare their stats. I have chosen the time frame of the 1993-94 season through the 2001-02 season. This matches the time frame that all three went head to head, with Brodeur and Hasek arriving in the NHL as starting goalies. I picked 2002 as the end point as that was when Hasek initially ended his NHL career.

Those numbers are pretty amazing. Hasek clearly dominated the era, with all the Vezina and All Star honors, plus 2 Hart trophies as the NHL's MVP to boot. He has by far the best save percentage and the best GAA, despite playing with arguably the weakest team.

Look at that save percentage number - 0.926, the number that many agree is the one goalie stat that is not team dependent. Hasek's percentage is significantly better than Roy's or Brodeur's.

And he had to take a lot more shots to post that sparkling number. Despite playing in 60 fewer games, Hasek faced 925 more shots than Brodeur. Yet he allowed 135 fewer goals.

Despite Hasek's dominance, the generally accepted thought in NHL hockey is that Patrick Roy is the greatest goalie of all time. A case could be made that young Brodeur bested Roy in our comparison here, but Roy remains king largely due to his reputation in the playoffs.

So, let's take a look at the threesome's career playoff stats:

Emphasis on playoff success certainly is an important consideration, though Canadian media tend to over use it too liberally to discredit the foreigner Hasek. Make no mistake, such politics does unfairly these greatest ever debates. Why else is Hasek not usually mentioned, at least on this side of the Atlantic.

Roy certainly does impress in the playoffs, with NHL records for games and wins, as well as three Conn Smythe trophies as playoff MVP. When it counted most, Roy got the job done. Roy's GAA is noticeably higher, although he did begin his career earlier and in the latter half of the higher scoring 1980s.

So if we concede Hasek was the best of the three in the regular season, and the Roy the best of the playoffs, Brodeur ends up third fiddle in a comparison of his peers.

Keep in mind Brodeur was just 21 years old at the beginning of this comparison. Roy was 28, having already been in the league since 1986. Hasek was 29, as he was not free to play in the NHL until later in his career thanks to communist politics in his Czech homeland. Brodeur was just a youngster going head to head against two guys in their prime.

Brodeur will go on to play several seasons after Hasek and especially Roy retired, easily trumping them and everyone else in career numbers. In the time after Roy retired and Hasek initially retired, Brodeur has been the best goalie over the course of that time:

Just for fun, here's a comparative of Brodeur and Hasek upon Hasek's return to the NHL after retiring in 2002:

Brodeur played a lot more, which would get him the nod in award voting. The 40 year old Hasek simply could not play as many games any longer, but his save percentage and especially his GAA remain impressive.

Still, Brodeur will always be compared to Roy and Hasek. Here's a look at the career totals:

And we have not even talked about international play, where both Hasek and Brodeur have starred time and time again, including as Olympic gold medalists. Roy either shunned or was not asked to participate in international tourneys.

I think of Martin Brodeur as the goaltending equivalent of Gordie Howe. Brodeur has been remarkably consistent throughout his long career and will post amazing totals because of that, not unlike Howe.

Howe was very good, for a very long time, yet ther players had higher peak performances like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux.

A very similar case could be built for Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek and even older stars like Jacques Plante and Terry Sawchuk.

Here's some more interesting reads on Brodeur:

More About Marty - Eric Duhatschek
Bower Had 639 Pro Wins - Chris Mizzoni
A Unique Roy-Brodeur Comparison - Eyes On The Prize

Martin Brodeur's New Mask

We're definitely in a new age.

Martin Brodeur, who is poised to overtake the all time goaltender records for both wins and possibly shutouts this season, has donned a new mask specifically to promote his new website - MartinBrodeur30.com.

Goalies are usually a superstitious bunch. He achieved a lot of success in his "unfinished" Devil's tail mask he has always worn.