GAME 3: Hurricanes 3 – Devils 2
MARTIN Brodeur has been a difference-maker in nets since the day he arrived in New Jersey for his rookie 1993-94 season.
He’s been a difference-maker in winning three Cups during the Devils’ Era of Excellence just as surely as Ken Dryden was in winning six Cups in the ’70s for the Canadiens by making essentially all of the critical saves even if facing only 20-25 shots a night.
But now, playing behind a team that’s uncommonly pedestrian on defense and yields an alarming number of glorious scoring opportunities, Brodeur has to make the difference the way Patrick Roy did in 1986 and 1993 for mediocre Montreal teams, the way Bernie Parent did in 1974 and 1975 for out-talented Flyers clubs.
Brodeur not only has to be the best goaltender on the ice every game, he pretty well has to be the best player on the ice in order for the Devils to have any legitimate chance at winning their fourth Stanley Cup in 11 seasons.
Last night, he was neither.
This series, he’s been neither.
And as sands through the hourglass, the Devils are on the verge of being swept out of the second round of the playoffs by a Carolina team that, after last night’s 3-2 victory at the Meadowlands, is not only up 3-0 and going for the kill on Saturday, but is 9-3 in its last 12 playoff games against New Jersey stretching back to their first meeting in 2001.
“I want to be a difference-maker every night and be a factor, and I don’t think I was,” Brodeur said following the match. “I was not the difference out there. [Carolina goaltender] Cam Ward was.”
Ward faced 30 shots, but it wasn’t the ones he stopped as much as the ones he didn’t allow to get by him. Really, he was hardly under siege. But in the playoffs it’s not necessarily the saves a goaltender makes but the ones he doesn’t make that become the difference.
Which brings us to Brodeur 8:16 into the first period and the save he did not make on a rather routine Matt Cullen right-circle backhand with the Devils up 1-0.
“The shot surprised me,” said Brodeur, who was peppered with bad-angle tries from the front porch in the first two losses in Carolina but not so much last night. “I thought he was going to curl into the corner, but instead he shot it.
“I wish I could have it back.”
But he couldn’t get it back, and as such, the Devils were denied the opportunity to play with the lead and establish any kind of confidence level. Soon they were trailing, and though they did tie the score before Carolina got the eventual winner with 1:01 to play in the second on a Rod Brind’Amour power-play goal, the team never again appeared in command.
Brodeur was hardly the biggest miscreant for his side. Scott Gomez was dreadful. Brian Gionta was ineffective. Jamie Langenbrunner not only took a foolish high-sticking penalty on which the Canes capitalized for the winner, he was out of synch throughout. The specialty teams were outplayed again – Carolina is 8-for-18 on the PP (8-for-18!) while the Devils are 1-for-15 – and the defense was scrambly.
What’s more – or less – the Devils were not the hungrier team. Maybe that’s why the Hurricanes again seemed to get the breaks, as per the winner which bounced off three players.
“It’s work ethic,” Brodeur said. “Teams that work hard get the bounces. Teams that play with passion are rewarded with bounces.”
The Devils were outworked. They were outplayed. They were out-goaltended
One could say that was the difference.