(Eeleus/Flickr.com)
A “Homer” Moment….
Just let me have my moment here. Yes it was great to see Gordie Howe be the first NHL Lifetime Award Winner. It was also awesome to see Alex Ovechkin do the “MVP double” and even better to see a guy like Pavel Datsyuk win the Selke and Lady Byng. However for me, this night was all about seeing if Martin Brodeur could win a fourth Vezina against some incredible odds.
Face it the two guys he was going against are no slouches. Evgeni Nabokov had 46 wins this year and Henrik Lundqvist had a league best 10 shutouts. Both are outstanding goalies in their own right and I would not have been surprised if either won had beat out Brodeur. I knew it would be close…but not THAT close…a measley 7 points…that’s it! Monsieur Brodeur won the Vezina by just 7 points and really two first place votes that I am sure could have gone either way.
The reality is if you had to go based on all the numbers and circumstances that Brodeur probably was an easier choice. Which defense would you have wanted to play behind this year? Probably from easiest to hardest, this is how it would have went.
- San Jose
- New York Rangers
- New Jersey
Nothing against the Devils but their defense (a cornerstone of the franchise) has taken several considerably hits in the last few years. It started with the retirement of Daneyko, the loss (then retirement of Stevens), the defection of Niedermayer, the loss of Rafalski and the list goes on and on. The reflex signing of Dan McGillis by Lamoriello and the underachieving of guys like Rachunek, Paul Martin, etc…have left the team in a defensively disarray. It is nothing short of miraculous that Brodeur even won 40 games this year honestly.
So when the announcement came shortly before 5:30 PT thereabouts…a quiet ring of joy sprang out of Yucca Valley. When I realized how close the vote was…I wasn’t that surprised but in the end I knew Martin Brodeur would win again…against all odds. Can he tie Hasek’s record of 6? I don’t know. Like Brodeur said tonight “These youngsters are getting harder and harder to play against…I just like to see if I can match up against them night in and night out.” That sums it up…the heart of a warrior who is on his way to rewriting the goaltending record books.
That’s how I see it.
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 1:20 am and is filed under CBC, New Jersey Devils, Martin Brodeur.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
THE AUTHOR
POLL
ARCHIVE
2 Responses to “A “Homer” Moment….”
June 13th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I think its terrible Brodeur won the Vezina. It should’ve been Nabokov’s hands down. Although the biggest joke of them all was giving Mats Sundin the Mark Messier Leadership award. How much leadership did he show in basically leaving his team out to dry by not waiving his trade clause. He basically doomed the Leafs to another year of mediocrity because of his own selfishness.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I think honestly Nabokov wins this if he had maybe a less stellar defense. Martin Brodeur had one of the poorer D’s in the league and still produced. Have to give credit where credit is due.
Leave a comment