NHL

Farewell tour not Brodeur’s style

Martin Brodeur sure could have made it easier for all of us if he had just chosen to go out the way Derek Jeter is — by choosing retirement before it could be chosen for him, by giving his notice in advance to allow for an emotionally satisfying ceremonial sendoff that would wrap (up) his career with a bow.

Instead, this Devils goaltender, whose 1993-94 Calder Trophy season began 30 months before Jeter started his Rookie of the Year season in The Bronx, has had the audacity to tell us, in his heart of hearts, he would like to be able to continue to play next season if the right opportunity presents itself, even if that’s not in a Devils uniform.

What an ingrate.

Shouldn’t Brodeur know by now, at the age of 41, he serves at the pleasure of the public that apparently has decided for him it is time to leave the stage, ready or not?

Doesn’t Brodeur recognize he doesn’t have the right to offend the senses of those people who insist going elsewhere would somehow ruin his legacy or their memory of him? As if anyone actually remembers Guy Lafleur as a

Ranger or as a Nordique, or that Bobby Orr destroyed his legacy by trying to play those last couple of seasons in a Blackhawks uniform.

I don’t think Brodeur made it especially easy this season for Pete DeBoer to effect the transition to Cory Schneider, but that’s a different story. It seems as if No. 30 might have been more understanding of the workplace dynamic, and the drama surrounding the trade deadline — in which Brodeur all but pleaded for the chance to go somewhere else but went nowhere — was more than a bit bizarre.

But the people who want him to retire so they don’t have to see him someplace else, so they don’t have their precious memories sullied, well, they’re the guys who would have told Sinatra to step off the stage so they could always freeze him in time somewhere in the ’50s. They loved it, all right, when Sinatra sang, “I did it my way,” as long as he really didn’t want to do it his way.

As he enters what surely will be the final week of his Devils career and perhaps the final week of his NHL career, Brodeur gets to do his life his way. This is his world, and we all have had the pleasure of living in it for one hockey season after another through two decades of unparalleled excellence, during which he became the unquestioned face of his franchise.

Joe Montana wanted to keep playing even when the 49ers passed the torch to Steve Young, and he did for a couple of years in Kansas City without somehow destroying his legacy. Even before he stumbled in the outfield that October day in Oakland, Willie Mays already had told everyone he knew the time had come to say goodbye to America.

Yes, it would have been neater if Brodeur had chosen retirement the way Jeter is and the way Mariano Rivera did. But Brodeur hasn’t chosen retirement at all. Last I looked, he gets to make the choice.

John Tortorella won’t be back as coach of the Canucks next season unless owner Francesco Aquilini chooses him over general manager Mike Gillis in the him-or-me scenario, which all but certainly will be presented by both parties as soon as the season ends.

And if the owner, whose fingerprints were all over Tortorella’s hiring last summer, chooses to stick with the coach and instead dismisses Gillis, then expect former Tampa Bay general manager Jay Feaster to resurface in that position in Vancouver.

We’re told Tortorella is quietly spreading the word that Feaster, who was in place for the Lightning’s 2004 Stanley Cup victory, is a GM he can work with.

It is, according to sources, a fait accompli in Carolina that Kirk Muller will be dismissed a head coach at the conclusion of the season by incoming GM Ron Francis. The Candy Canes have made the playoffs once in eight seasons since winning the 2006 Stanley Cup.

So choosing between Semyon Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth and Braden Holtby, the Caps wound up with Jaro Halak, now three months away from unrestricted free agency.

Varlamov, a likely Finalist for the Vezina who could become not only the second straight Russian to win it, but the second straight Russian to win it after being traded by his original team (a la Sergei Bobrovsky), wound up being traded for what essentially became 62 games of two-goal production by Martin Erat.

Owner Ted Leonsis likely is to take note of that when deciding the future of GM George McPhee, whose Caps teams have won a total of three playoff rounds without ever getting as far as the conference finals since Alex Ovechkin joined the team in 2005-06.

Craig Berube has done a fine job behind the Flyers’ bench since replacing Peter Laviolette, no doubt about that, but it is a two-man-race for the Adams as Coach of the Year between the Red Wings’ Mike Babcock and the Avalanche’s Patrick Roy.

Finally, all those stories that focus on this team’s or that team’s percentage-based chance of making the playoffs that of course dramatically changes with one or two victories?

There’s a 100-percent chance you should pay no attention to them.