Rangers-Devils rivalry in debt to Martin Brodeur’s greatness

Martin Brodeur will be there forever, not only in the hearts and minds of Devils fans, but at the team’s rink in New Jersey, the statue commemorating The Franchise Goaltender’s career unveiled in front of Prudential Center in Newark on Monday night.
He will be there forever, just as it seemed he would be in the Devils nets forever, and just as it seemed he would lead that team — his team — onto the ice at the Garden from the visitors’ Zamboni entrance at 33rd and Eighth.

But on Monday, it was Cory Schneider leading the Devils onto the ice against the Rangers while Brodeur — only in his first full year of retirement — was across the river hosting a viewing party of the game after the unveiling, a night before his No. 30 would be retired and hoisted to the rafters.
There is much that defines the winningest goaltender in NHL history, but it was Brodeur who defined the Battle of the Hudson for two decades through which he was the face(mask) of this special rivalry and Public Enemy No. 1 at the Garden; mocked and jeered on Broadway through good Rangers times and bad.
No player more enjoyed or reveled in that rivalry that peaked 18 years apart in two memorable Eastern Conference Final showdowns that shadowed one another.

The first, of course, was the epochal 1994 clash that ended with Stephane Matteau’s historic Game 7 overtime goal that presaged the Blueshirts’ first (and still only) Stanley Cup victory since 1940, when Brodeur was a 22-year-old rookie.
The bookend, Blueshirt fans will recall painfully, was the 2012 conference final confrontation in which the Devils and their 40-year-old netminder knocked out the heavily favored regular-season conference champion Rangers when Adam Henrique scored in overtime of Game 6, 18 years to the day after Mark Messier’s guarantee came through in another Game 6 in New Jersey.

At the time, it seemed as if it would be Brodeur then, Brodeur now, and Brodeur forever, just as it as seemed it would be Peyton then, Peyton now and Peyton forever on the football field, but without the beer promos.
Because from Dec. 26, 1993 through Oct. 13, 2005, it was Brodeur then, now and forever in nets for the Devils against the Rangers, a span of 56 straight regular-season matches (plus another 12 in the postseason) in which No. 30 started against 10 different Blueshirt netminders.
The 10? Mike Richter (30, plus 12 in the playoffs); Glenn Healy (4); Jason Muzzatti (1); Dan Cloutier (3); Kirk McLean (3); Guy Hebert (1); Dan Blackburn (2); Mike Dunham (9); Steve Valiquette (1); and a 2005-06 rookie named Henrik Lundqvist (2).
But when Brodeur did return after a two-game absence due to a knee injury, Lundqvist rang up a staggering record of success against the face of the New Jersey franchise, going 26-10-5 in their regular-season showdowns (while Brodeur went 15-21-5).
Think of it: Brodeur 34-11-5 against everybody else, yet 15-21-5 against Lundqvist.
But if the Battle of the Hudson morphed into Brodeur-Lundqvist, The Rivalry was between Brodeur and Sean Avery, and it was personal.
Because other than Messier completing the Game 6 hat trick (into an empty net) and Matteau scoring the goal that elevated him into history, the most memorable moments of this rivalry came in Game 3 of the 2008 first-round when Avery set up a screen in front of Brodeur while waving his gloves, arms and stick in front of the goaltender’s face.

There was no rule against the face-guarding antics that No. 16 unveiled while the Rangers were on a 5-on-3 power play during the second period. Avery stood there, the Devils watched, Brodeur fumed, and on the next rush down the ice, Avery scored from in front.
The next day the league violated its own constitution by hurriedly adopting a regulation banning such a tactic. That was the Avery Rule. And after the Rangers eliminated the Devils in five games, after a series through which Avery had relentlessly taunted Brodeur, the goaltender refused to shake his opponent’s hand.
There was hatred there.
For a long spell, that seemed destined to put a bow on The Rivalry. But instead, it was Brodeur with a history-twisting, remarkable scorpion save on Marian Gaborik during Game 2 of the 2012 series that served as the final punctuation mark of the rivalry.
That’s the final moment of Brodeur versus Rangers that is frozen in time, just as Brodeur and a stick salute will forever be memorialized in bronze in New Jersey.