When the winningest goaltender in NHL history takes the ice for his 1,148th game today, he will try to live up to his reputation as The Greatest, and confound the critics whispering he’s living off it.
In what may be his final season, 39-year-old Devils goalie Martin Brodeur will try to prove he isn’t riding into the sunset on past glories, but on another of the performances that made him the best.
After yanking the Hall of Famer before the second period for the second time in three starts, coach Pete DeBoer said Brodeur will start against the Canadiens today in Newark (1 p.m., MSG Plus), though Johan Hedberg was the winner in relief against Ottawa Thursday.
Brodeur was replaced after the first period of that 5-4 shootout victory. The Devils trailed 2-0 entering the second period, and the Senators added a third on Hedberg before New Jersey responded with four straight goals. Ottawa forced overtime and the Devils followed with their sixth shootout win in seven tries.
“I think he deserves to go back in,” DeBoer said. “We didn’t have a good start [Thursday] as a team. . . . He deserves to go back in there.”
Brodeur said he understood the reasoning, but he was not pleased at being pulled.
“Personally, you’d like to play better,” said Brodeur, 6-7 this season. . . . It’s kind of tough to get pulled after a period like that.
“It worked. We won the game and that’s the bottom line. ’’
Brodeur has been yanked three times this season, and his confidence is not where an all-timer’s should be.
“We’ll see [today] how I feel when I get in there,” he said. “It’s hard when you don’t finish a game to feel good about yourself, regardless of how it happened.”