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Brodeur’s Most Deserving Vezina

June 13, 2008, 10:43 AM ET [ Comments]
Sam Woo
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The competition between Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, and Evgeni Nabokov featured three stellar goaltenders that made their mark on the 2007-08 NHL regular season. Brodeur’s fourth Vezina trophy may have come to a surprise to him, given the competition, but it reflected how great this future first ballot hockey hall of famer had this season. Moreover, this year was the best individual regular season Brodeur has had in his entire NHL career, including last year’s record breaking wins benchmark.

Why do I say this? Nobody, with the exception of XM’s Shawn Lavigne and myself, had the Devils making the playoffs because of the losses of key players during the off season. Also, the Devils had some major obstacles to overcome in the beginning of the season with Colin White’s sudden eye injury, Langenbrunner’s surgery, a new coach with a different system, and a new unfamiliar building while starting the season on the road nine straight games. This was a transition year for the New Jersey Devils but the one thing remained constant was the unbelievable goaltending between the pipes. Brodeur gave his team a chance to succeed.

Although the Devils’ defensive corps overachieved, they were not as talented as what Detroit, Anaheim, and Dallas possessed on their roster. Brodeur was a leader in his own zone and most times, played like a man possessed when faced with a defensive zone relapse. In the past, many critics would say that Brodeur’s success was the byproduct of the defensive style system and no question he was the best goalie to have his team play that scheme. But with Sutter’s new aggressive system, he faced more quality scoring chances and was equally dominant even when the Devils now no longer play a style that relied on the opposing team making mistakes. As Devils were transitioning into this new style, Brodeur proved that he can be a top notch goaltender in any system, especially on a team that was offensively shutout 11 times in the regular season.

Despite all of the challenges, even at the age of 36, Brodeur remains on top of the hockey world as the best goaltender. His style of reacting to the puck with his acrobatic reflex is much more exciting than an oversized goalie with leg pads in a constant butterfly position waiting for the puck to be blocked. This year’s Vezina trophy was the most deserving than the previous three and as the league tries to find more ways of scoring, Brodeur will keep on defying all odds by getting even better as he enters into hockey immortality.

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