Mike Vaccaro
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From the other side of the ice, Martin Brodeur kept looking for a sign: a spinning red light. Upraised hockey sticks. A gathering dog pile.
Anything.
Hey, it’s a good 180 or so feet from where he was standing, inside the sky-blue Devils crease, to where the action was taking place, just in front of Henrik Lundqvist’s trapezoid. And maybe you’ve heard but … Marty’s 40. Even if the nerves are just as steely as they were when he was 22, it’s hard peering through 40-year-old eyes.
Trying to tell the difference between what you want to see and what you really see.
UPI
OH YEAH! Martin Brodeur pumps his fist while celebrating the Devils’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Rangers last night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“I kept moving up, and then back, up and then back,” he said, laughing, recalling the anxious moments before Adam Henrique buried the puck behind Lundqvist 63 seconds into overtime, clinching the game 3-2 for the Devils and the series, 4-2.
And wouldn’t you know it: here came the 40-year-old goalie, taking a victorious leap and then sprinting toward a joyous pile of Devils, and damned if Marty didn’t look half his age, acting a quarter of it, loving every second of it.
“This,” he would say, “is why you play this game.”
And this is why the Devils will play more games starting Wednesday, and why the Rangers won’t play again until after the baseball playoffs have begun: because across these six games and 13 days, they had Martin Brodeur on their side, and the other guys had someone else. In the end, it didn’t matter that someone else was Lundqvist, probably the best goalie alive today at age 30.
Because Brodeur, affable as he is, still burns about the puck Stephane Matteau snuck past him 18 years ago tomorrow, evidenced when he said, “We’ve won three Cups since then. But we’re always taking a second seat to that team for some reason.” And because Brodeur has won more hockey games than any goalie ever born. You win that much, it can be habit-forming.
“He gives us a chance to win every game,” Devils captain Zach Parise said. “When they put pressure on and guys are getting antsy, he has the ability to calm a bench down.”
It’s been a long eight years since Brodeur last etched his name on the side of a Cup. Since shutting out the Ducks in Game 7 of the ’03 Finals, Brodeur has ridden a roller coaster that would’ve been unthinkable earlier in his career. He set the all-time record for wins and shutouts, won three of his four Vezina Trophies, beat the Rangers for the first time in 2006. But he also endured a splattering of injuries, lost some awful playoff games, got benched in the 2010 Olympics in favor of Roberto Luongo.
Mostly, there were whispers: he isn’t what he was, he gives up too many soft goals, he’s propped up by his team on good nights, sabotaging them on bad. Amazingly, only 39 days earlier, he heard boos at Prudential Center when he was pulled from Game 3 of Jersey’s opening-round series with Florida after squandering an early 3-0 lead.
Now, the people chanted his name good and long and loud, a reverent cheer, unlike the taunting ones he heard the other night at the Garden. Funny: it didn’t seem to matter to anyone that the Devils had blown a 3-0 lead in Game 5 and a 2-0 advantage last night. After it got to 2-2, the Rangers had great chances to close the deal, never did. Just like at 3-3 Wednesday. Brodeur reached back 10 years both nights. And broke the Rangers’ hearts.
That’s always been the beauty of Brodeur, after all. He was never about standing on his head. Hotshots come and go every spring. The great ones come back every spring. Marty comes back. He may never get to Ken Dryden or Jacques Plante and their six Cups.
But he’s four wins away from tying Billy Smith at four.
“I’m enjoying this ride,” he said, and he should. Forty? That’s just a number. Last night, you could believe he might play forever. Forever player. Forever career.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, Devils, the Devils, the Devils, Rangers, Rangers
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