If Martin Brodeur was supposed to be shaky after returning from injury, nobody told him.
A few topics that need to be addressed before they are washed away by the tidal wave that is the National Hockey League trade deadline.
Marty Brodeur's Comeback Starts with Three Wins, Two of them Shutouts
What, you were expecting something less?
You can make your best argument for who the best goaltender all time is or is going to be, but when you start the debate the one thing that's a given is that over time Brodeur will have the numbers that just scream: Winner.
I think Jacques Plante is in the debate here. I can make a case for Terry Sawchuk, Dominik Hasek, Patrick Roy, Glenn Hall and maybe even Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent, Grant Fuhr and some true old-school netminders like Georges Vezina and George Hainsworth.
When you factor in different eras, the argument becomes next to impossible. Sure they played fewer games a long time ago but you could also argue that they faced far more skilled players and with less protective equipment than the netminders of today. Dryden's impact was undeniable, but if you argue that longevity counts, he didn't play as many seasons as some of the others on the list. Would Hasek be as undeniably great if he played in an era when they didn't wear masks? Would Hall be even greater if he played in the era where equipment was so state of the art that most of todays goalies couldn't be hurt by a shot if it came from a cannon?
Would Sawchuk hold all the marks if he played the bulk of games in an 82-game schedule as Brodeur does now and Roy did for most of his career? Would playing in the trap era help him? What about playing behind a franchise that demands its players play defence above everything else?
Tough questions and virtually impossible to answer, but at some point, likely by the end of this season or early into the next, Brodeur is going to hold the mark for most wins and most shutouts and he's already regarded as one of the all-time clutch playoff performers (three Stanley Cups) as well as being a superb puck handler, a talent that adds to his overall ability in terms of not only preventing goals but helping create them.
If you don't believe that, check out some of his empty net tallies or just look at the catch-and-release plays that start the New Jersey attacks and lead to goals at the other end of the ice.
Brodeur has the entire package and so when the debate really gets going it's difficult not to move his name to the top of anyone's list. He hit the 100 shutout number with his 3-0 triumph vs. Philadelphia on Sunday. That's three off Sawchuk's mark. His 547 career wins are just four away from matching Roy's mark.
When you have numbers like that on your resume, you're as good as it gets.
Jarome Iginla Nets his 400th NHL Goal and 831st Point
Those are all-time Flames marks, bettering Fleury's point mark and establishing Iginla as the most productive player in franchise history.
Few didn't believe this day would come as Iginla was on track for greatness the moment he arrived in Calgary and his decision not to leave when it was in his economic best interest assured this day would someday arrive.
Throw in his ability to lead, his power-forward talents and the fact that he is, arguably, the embodiment of everything that is great about a hockey player in North America and Iginla, is Brodeur-like in the completeness of his game.
As my friend and excellent writer George Johnson pointed out in the Calgary Herald, Iginla is to Calgary what "Jeter is to pinstripes, what Kobe is to Showtime and what (among other things) a Sinatra ballad is to seduction."
The only thing I might add is that he is also what causes sometimes cynical sportswriters to remember everything that is both good and great about this game, especially when he hits a milestone and points out "it was fun.'
Too many in today's game either dismiss these things with a false sense of "doesn't matter" or the old "I'm glad that's over with."
Iginla embraces challenge, revels in meeting it and is rational when it doesn't go his way. One of my great disappointments in this game is when Iginla told the powers that be in New York that he would gladly embrace being the face of the NHL if the NHL wanted to open that door for him.
The league response was deafening in its silence as it instead awaited the arrival of perceived saviors Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.
Those two are great players, fire and ice in their different personalities, but Iginla is arguably the most genuine person and superstar the NHL has to offer. Both Crosby and Ovechkin could learn from the way he carries himself en route to becoming one of the best the league will ever know.
And Now for Things Not Quite as Uplifting
The NHL endured another outbreak of head-hunting last week and it has no one to blame but itself.
Can Janssen delivered a horrific shot Thursday and got fined but not suspended. That seemed to cause a few others to raise their elbows, the most horrific being New York Islanders defenseman Brendan Witt leveling Toronto forward Nicklas Hagman.
Put aside for the moment the idea that it's more of a crime if seen by Toronto media and understand that had the league stayed true to its memo to come down hard on offenders, especially repeat offenders and especially if it were determined that this was a growing trend and it's clear that the league's initial memo was a farce.
Janssen is not just a repeat offender; he's a regular offender and a dangerous one at that. In giving him just a fine, the league made a mockery of its own edict.
Witt isn't near the goon that Janssen and Los Angles' Dennis Gauthier have proven themselves to be, but he's got a reputation.
What was sickening about his hit on Hagman is that it had precious little to do with the outcome of the game and seemed designed to let general managers know that come trade deadline day there's a big, tough, stay-at-home defenseman stuck on a losing team and more than willing to prove that he's got something to give to a team that's looking for some meanness.
Heck, delivering the hit with Toronto general manager Brian Burke looking on it almost appeared that Witt was showing Burke that he could be a part of that tenacious, in-your-face kind of team that Burke is looking to build there.
Nice!
The NHL then went down the wrong path again when Minnesota's Derek Boogaard leveled Calgary's Brandon Prust with a blindside flying elbow. The penalty matched Witt's but if the league's own memo is to be believed, he should have received more simply because it came on the heels of something the NHL said it is trying to eliminate.
We've printed this memo before, but it bears repeating. It states: "We cannot and will not tolerate blows to the head that are deliberate, avoidable and illegal. Furthermore, both the history and status of the offender (first time versus repeat) and the nature of the injury caused (if any) will be taken into consideration as they have been in the past. The length of suspensions for illegal blows to the head will be increased if these incidents persist across the League. Taking steps to maintain the safest on-ice environment possible for the players remains our most important priority."
Note the line that states "The length of suspensions for illegal blows to the head will be increased if these incidents persist across the League"
Exactly when is that supposed to take place?
And note the last line: "Taking steps to maintain the safest on-ice environment possible for the players remains our post important priority."
That was Prust's second major blow to the head this season. The first broke his jaw. This one was aimed at the same spot.
Given the most recent incidents in a season when head hunting has once again become commonplace, the league might as well go on record as stating that in regards blows to the head everything is "fine" the same way the Commissioner defines the economic state of the game.
Rare is the league that can speak out of both sides of its corporate mouth and be totally unbelievable both ways.
And the Commish wonders why few in media take him seriously anymore.
