Last night Marty Brodeur beat Patrick Roy’s short-lived record of victories in the NHL (551), making him the winningest (it’s a real word since 1972 according to Webster’s) goalie in hockey history. Too bad he plays for a team that has plagued mine for over a decade.
However, I’m confident there will be the naysayers, namely Avalanche fans, who will claim Brodeur’s stats are unfairly tweaked because he came into the NHL when there were fewer ties, thus Roy’s accomplishment was more amazing especially in light of his 1000+ games. I say Brodeur will be vindicated in a couple seasons after he crosses the 600 mark and may retire with almost 700 victories. Him beating Terry Sawchuk’s shutout record will only be the coup de grace on the Roy fan club.
To me the more unusual part of this milestone is Brodeur achieving this with one team. He has always played for the New Jersey Devils while many great goalies, forwards, defensemen and coaches practically never do in this era. Roy played for Montreal and Colorado, Gretzky was on four teams, Bobby Orr had a brief stint in Chicago before injuries ended his career and I can only list four teams on Scotty Bowman (St. Louis, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Detroit) while I’m sure there’s more.
Well, today I congratulate Monsieur Brodeur but when the playoffs start, the gloves are off and I will be cheering on my Flyers to get the puck past numerous times.