Last night Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils broke one of those records that many thought would never be broken.
When he posted a goose-egg versus Pittsburgh, and notched his 104th career shutout with a 4-0 win, he broke a record that had stood for almost 40 years!
Marty Bro...you are the man.
I remember, when I was a young goalie in the West Vancouver Minor Hockey system...when I wasn't on the ice, I was busy being pretty obsessed with goalie stats. I poured over the Vancouver Sun every night (yes, the paper was delivered in the evening back then!) finding out how many shots guys had stopped the night before, who got the wins and the shutouts.
I remember seeing a stat that said Terry Sawchuck (who played before I started following hockey...heck...before I was born) had 103 career shutouts.
"This MUST be a misprint," I thought. "There's no way a guy could get 103 shutouts in his career."
Buuuuuuuuut...it wasn't. Sawchuck had shut out the opponent 103 times during his career. AMAZING!
Now along comes Martin Brodeur...who actually broke that seemingly unbreakable record. The stats say that Marty posts a shut out every 9.92 games...talk about impressive. And, Marty is only 37...how many more shutouts does he have left in his career? MANY more as far as I can see.
When will his record be broken? The closest to him are Detroit's Chris Osgood with 50, and Vancouver's Roberto Luongo and San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov have 49.
I'd say it's pretty safe...for a LONG while.
It's no wonder David Puddy was such a HUGE Brodeur fan!
BrockTalk
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I think comparing comparing hockey old timers to today's modern players is tough. Hockey is one sport where equipment and style of play has come the furthest. With the diluted talent pool, bigger pads, the trap, goalie masks...it was only a matter of time till someone beat Sawchuck's record. Not saying Brodeur isn't good, he has just had a lot of advantages that Terry didn't.
ReplyDeleteVery true...and the game continues to evolve.
ReplyDeleteI will say that Brodeur uses equipment that is right outta the 1980's (actually I think it's all the same stuff he's worn for about 10 years)...compared to the gigantic stuff all other goalies in 2010 are rockin.