Sports

Canadian coach won’t commit to Brodeur

Martin Brodeur is indispensable for the Devils, but the same cannot be said about his role with the reeling Canadian hockey team.

After Brodeur allowed four goals on 22 shots in a 5-3 loss to the United States last night, head coach Mike Babcock said that he has not decided who will be in net for the Canadians when they play their qualification round game against Germany on Tuesday.

“What I’ll do is just without emotion. I’ll watch the game here tonight and then I’ll make my decision and go from there,” Babcock said after the loss. “Obviously tonight was a night we would have liked to have been better in that area. But we’ll have a look at it and make a decision.”

Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo is Brodeur’s backup and had a shutout in Canada’s tournament-opening 8-0 win over Norway. Penguins’ Marc-Andre Fleury is the team’s third goalie.

“It was a tough game,” Brodeur told ESPN.com. “They got some bounces, they scored some goals, one went off my player. I thought I made some key saves in the game to turn it around, but we just didn’t take advantage of it. I think after the two breakaway saves I made in the second, I feel that maybe something was going to happen, but we went out there and took three penalties in a row from there. They scored that fourth goal and that was important for them.”

The winner of the Canada-Germany matchup will get the high-powered Russians in the quarterfinals.