Proud papa

Denis Brodeur was disappointed that he missed the postgame photo opportunity of his son. Martin, with Patrick Roy -- the two goaltenders who now share the NHL wins record with 551 each. Denis was doing a television interview with RDS at the time.

Denis, the former Canadiens team photographer, said he got some good photos during the game, though, and one of Brodeur with the record-setting puck after the game.

"I got the winning puck, 551," Denis Brodeur said. "I asked Martin for the puck and the trainer put 551 (on it) and I took a picture of Martin with the puck. Then, I gave it back to him."

Denis was excited about the standing ovation the crowd gave him after the game. He admitted that he cried.

“The Montreal crowd has always been a good crowd, but to stand up for Martin for five minutes, it’s unreal,” Denis said.

***

Roy passed Terry Sawchuk to become the NHL’s leader in wins with his 448th victory on Oct. 18, 2000. By the time he retired at the end of the 2002-03 season, Roy had 551 wins in 1029 games.

     

Tonight's game was the 986th of Brodeur’s 15-year NHL career, which is certain to end with him joining Roy in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

     

Brodeur has been aided, however, by 27 shootout victories. Roy retired before the NHL adopted the shootout to break ties in 2005.

 

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Brodeur has 54 overtime wins. Roy had 44.

 

***

Brodeur improved to 13-8-1 with a 1.59 goals-against average and .942 save percentage in 22 career starts at Bell Centre.

Comments

[RC]

The numbers are what they are, and can't be disputed, and it comes down to the whole "comparing eras" issue, but I am sick of hearing about Marty's "advantage" with shootout victories as if it's automatically assumed that 5 years ago those are all automatic ties. Just as if there's no OT, the tone of the game would change when teams have no OT/SO fallback and some of those shootout wins would have turned out to be OT wins. This assumption by the Marty naysayers that his numbers somehow don't measure up to Roy's is ridiculous. It's just a peeve of mine lately, in the end Marty will own the "regulation win" record outright anyhow. Not aimed at you TG, you just reminded me of it is all. Thanks for all the great coverage tonight, and always

[Puckster]

By the time Marty retires, he'll be so far ahead of Roy that there will not need to be a footnote about the shootout victories.

[Steve Lepore]

Tom, any news about the NHL possibly getting a national TV outlet for Tuesday's game? I had heard that they were going to try.

[adkjdkj]

again, marty lost more wins to lockouts than he gained from the shootout

[John]

The real comparison of numbers can only be taken following marty's 1029th game. if he has more regulation wins then roy does, the story of numbers is over(concerning wins, there is still the conn smythes and cups). but hockey is a team sport and brodeur is a team player. roy is not and its as simple as that.

[Jim B]

For a subject differant than milestones

Did anybody else like seeing the team wear red for tonight's game? I prefer them wearing white at home and red on the road.

[HF]

agreed Jim B, they def should go back to the old way...

[Brodie30]

I figure of the SO wins and losses not much more than a half would be ties (in the 4 on 4 era). Teams play carefully to get to the shootout where as 4 on 4 used to be a free for all. If the shootout didn't exist Marty would have more non-shootout wins than he currently does.

As far as Smythes go, irrelevant. Marty might as well have three. He was beat by two equally worthy teammates and a regrettable vote split with another that ended up awarding an opponent. It's a sportswriters' award (no offense Tom) where "story" has as much to do with it as value to your team. It's not a quantifiable accomplishment like Cups, milestones, and statistics. The same goes for MVPs and Vezinas. Certainly a huge deal, but if you start counting them to compare two players, their value gets a little hazy.

[AreJay]

The shootout victories just make up for the lost season Brodeur had.

2004-05 probably would've brought another 40 wins, at least. Roy never lost an entire year like that.

So Brodeur is about halfway there to making it up with shootout wins. Plus, like it's been mentioned, he's going to SHATTER the record. And any goaltender who has a chance to catch him that comes in later WILL have the shootout to help him out.

[Bing]

It was a great game to watch and hats off to Marty and the Fans at the Bell Centre. Not an easy place for an opposing player to get a standing ovation. It was nice seeing them in Red but BLACK, With the old GREEN, RED logo would be better ;) Comon Devil's Marketers, make us spend more money...I would. The game on Tuesday will be great. Hat's off again to Marty for the win and his excellent interview afterwards where he thanked the Montreal fans, the Devil's organization and even us unworthy fans. If you read this Marty...Thanks man, You're the Greatest. TG, you're not bad:)

[axondog]

The Devils were in red because the Canadiens were wearing a ceremonial white jersey in recognition of their 100 year celebration.

The fans at the Forum were great at the end of the game - hopefully, we can rock Prudential Center on Tuesday.

Time to raise the #30 to the rafters.

[keith]

i would like to seem them wear the old jerserys just for tuesday nights game the old white red and green just like marty wore when he played his first game.

[av]

why did the nhl switch to wearing white jerseys on the road? I liked the old way...

[John B]

Keith, that'd be a nice touch for St. Patrick's Day... but since it's a night that historic, the unis he led the Devils to three Cups in would more than suffice. But to the above comments, yeah I miss the white-at-home days. Some teams still have their fans do white-outs in the playoffs (see Tampa 2004 and Pittsburgh 2008) but it's just not the same. I know they changed it to promote alternate unis, but the Devils don't have one and 90% of them are bad anyway. So yeah, it'd be nice to see it switched back.

[Mike]

I actually got used to the dark colors at home. It really brings more of a home team color to the arena. I think it's safe to assume that the Devils' main colors are black and red. White is rather dominant in the then-home now-away jerseys. I was really against it when they changed it, but I've come to really like it. I don't think it's really about alternate jerseys (which do indeed more or less suck) as much as it is about playoff time and an arena wearing the home team color. That's just what I think. I really like my white jerseys though.

Also, the shootout isn't an automatic win. Marty has to work for them just as hard as he has to work for the OT wins. I understand this new era gives goaltenders two extra shots at a win, but they also have those two extra chances for a loss. In Overtime and definitely the shootout, one bad break can cost you a win. It's impressive no matter what. In the end, a win's a win. Marty's earned this team 2 points 551 times out of 970ish tries. That's pretty good I think.

[Captain Lou Albano]

Vote for Marty here:

http://www.sportsfanlive.com/web/poll?pollId=7143806

[JoeDevil]

TG- Patty mentioned in a post game interview that he's been a teammate in THE most of Marty's wins.

Is that true? or does someone else past/present hold that distinction?

[TG]

I'm looking that up Joe Devil. I know he's been there the most of any of Brodeur's current teammates. I'll get you that info later today.

And, though Brodeur missed that entire season because of the lockout, I think it's irrelevant in terms of the comparison.

It's games played. He's still played fewer games that Roy did to get to 551. He was aided by the 27 shootout wins. I don't know if he'll pick up 27 more regulation or overtime wins before he gets to the 1,029 games Roy played. It will be close.

Even so, it's still difficult to compare because teams sometimes play for the shootout these days.

Don't be so sensitive about the shootout wins, though. Someone asked for the info, so I posted it.

[TG]

For those who asked about the white jersey/dark jersey thing, the NHL mostly switched for marketing reasons -- to sell more jerseys.

But, actually, teams used to wear dark at home before they wore white, so this is just the way it was originally.

[Jack the Bear]

Thank-you to the Montreal fans. Total class.