HAVING industri ously killed four months of time hanging heavy on his hands, Marty Brodeur yesterday was relieved of the weighty matter of where he is going to become the NHL’s all-time winningest goalie.
Or, Brent Sutter was by a 7-3 loss to the Islanders that made it impossible for Brodeur to put up the Patrick Roy-beating victory No. 552 Saturday night in his hometown of Montreal, a place where he is far better known and appreciated than in Hackensack.
“A little pressure off,” Brodeur smiled. “Everybody was looking at the date because of the start I had.
“But it is what it is. Hopefully, I can now tie it there.”
If the Devils were ever anything more than about winning their next game, did not still have hopes of catching Boston for the No. 1 seed, Montreal vs. Newark (and the Blackhawks) three nights later as setting for Brodeur’s Night of Nights might have been a tough call.
But that point is now as moot as any threat the 30th-placed Islanders, who have smoked the Atlantic Division leaders by a combined score of 11-3 in their last two meetings, pose in the post-season.
The Islanders, banking wraparounds off Brodeur for rebounds, spraying him in the face, whizzing them past his ear from 10 feet out as he lowered the paddle, put six goals past him, perhaps activating the Devils’ plan to use him until too much, too soon became obvious, even for a goalie who played 70 or more games in 10 of his previous 12 seasons.
“Starting Tuesday we play every second day for two weeks and have a couple back-to-back games so it could change,” said Sutter pre-game. “I’m taking it game-to-game.”
Yesterday the coach passed on ample opportunities to take it goal-to-goal, instead waiting for the second-period break to go to Kevin Weekes.
“Six goals in two periods, I’m not going to get into it,” said Sutter. “It was a reflection of the whole team.”
Brodeur gave up no abject softies. Kicking awkwardly at times, neither was he his usual Last Standup Goalie Still Standing, failing to make even one big save when it could have made a difference.
“If everybody expected me to win every game and shut everybody down then thanks for the compliment,” said Brodeur. “Sometimes you have games like that.
“I felt pretty good, felt like I was right where I needed to be. The puck didn’t hit me.”
Perhaps it was nothing worse than a failure to rescue a team that Sutter said should have been “embarrassed” to be so outworked, perhaps Brodeur’s flopping was reality settling in after missing so much time following elbow surgery. Even the greatest goaltender who ever lived doesn’t pick up after four months exactly where he left off, though for four games it certainly had seemed like it.
“The first game (4-0 shutout of Colorado), he didn’t get a lot of work, just enough to get his feel, the second night (7-2 win over Florida) it was a little more, then the third game (3-0 shutout of Philadelphia) was high tempo,” said GM Lou Lamoriello. “So everything went perfectly.
“But of course you never know how these things are going to fall into place.”
You don’t even know how they are going to fall into place after they seem to fall perfectly into place.
“Adversity and how I’m going to overcome it, that’s where you see where your game is,” Brodeur, unimpressed with himself, had said Friday.
So now we learn, beginning Tuesday against Calgary.