Walked from my St. Louis hotel to Scottrade Centre with TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. (Buy a coat, Renaud.) It was impossible not to stop and stare at a "Thank you, Marty" sign outside Peabody Opera House, complete with Brodeur in a Blues’ uniform.
It looked weird.
But, after spending a few hours around him during his retirement announcement, here’s what I think this comes down to: If Martin Brodeur can no longer play in the National Hockey League, the St. Louis Blues will gladly rent his brain.
GM Doug Armstrong announced Brodeur will travel with the team for the rest of the season, beginning with Friday’s game in Carolina. This is a huge season for the Blues. For a couple years now, they’ve felt they were ready to contend for the Stanley Cup, only to run into Los Angeles and Chicago in the playoffs, learning in the process they weren’t close enough.
This year, they are again a dangerous team. They’re deep, they’re talented, they can win a few different ways — and they’re in the toughest division in the NHL. The road to the Final is a brutal one through the Central Division.
There will be ups and downs in this pressure-cooker. Who better than Brodeur to ride you through it? He’s been through the highs, he’s seen the lows. (In an interview that will air Saturday during Hockey Night in Canada, he said the lowest moments of his career were the Stanley Cup losses, because there’s nothing worse than going all the way and getting nothing.)
Brodeur also has great vision for the game. In his autobiography (written with Sportsnet’s Damien Cox), there’s a fascinating passage about the 2006 Olympic Quarterfinal against Russia. It was a 2-0 Russian victory, with the winning goal scored by Alexander Ovechkin. Brodeur explains how, if he had noticed sooner that Ovechkin was the shooter, he would not have gone down, but stayed up to try and make the save.
The Blues are buying that insight. He knows the players. He knows the game. If he can provide one detail a game that helps them win, he’s worth every cent they spend on him.
So, why not New Jersey?
Some of it is timing. As Brodeur said, it would have been "awkward" to retire in New Jersey, then immediately take the job in St. Louis. (Plans are underway for a larger celebration hosted by the Devils.) Some of it is position. The Blues are primed for a playoff run, the Devils are 13 points out.
And, some of it is the "newness" of it all. Look at his peers now running teams. Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman are the exceptions, playing and working for one club all their lives before taking the big job. Patrick Roy was with two, then rode the Quebec League buses for almost a decade.
Marc Bergevin played for 10 teams (if you count the Lightning twice); Brendan Shanahan six; Trevor Linden, Brian MacLellan and Garth Snow five; Ron Hextall and Ron Francis four. There’s something to be said for experience, seeing a different perspective, watching how someone else approaches their job.
New Jersey does business differently than any other team in the NHL. There is only one Lou Lamoriello. If Brodeur is to follow Lamoriello’s footsteps, he must do it his own way. It is impossible to copy.
Finally, some of it is a thank you. Whether you agree or not, Brodeur needed this. We don’t often get to write our own goodbyes, but he craved the opportunity. The Blues gave it to him. St. Louis prides itself on being a city players gravitate to. Brett Hull, Al MacInnis, and Wayne Gretzky now with a home there. Brodeur gives them another, at least for now.
Strange to the rest of us, but for Brodeur it made sense.
