For the first month of this season, the New Jersey Devils looked like a team caught in between.
One night they would score goals and then their goaltending would fail. Other nights they’d get sharp netminding and their goal well ran dry.
And while Cory Schneider still isn’t getting much help — in baseball, he’d be known as a pitcher who doesn’t get any run support — the Devils are all of a sudden playing consistently, at least five-on-five.
New Jersey has gained points in seven of its last nine games and has won five of those contests. The Devils can thank Martin Brodeur, partly, for that. Brodeur suddenly has found the form that won him four Vezina Trophies and three Stanley Cups.
An inordinate number of back-to-back games has kept Devils coach Pete DeBoer from answering whether Brodeur or Schneider is his No. 1 goalie. Either way, he really can’t complain. Schneider and Brodeur have provided the goaltending that the Devils organization and its fans expect, as they entered the weekend ranked 12th and 17th in the league with respectable goals-against averages under 2.10.
“I think we’ve gotten some outstanding goaltending here the last three weeks,” DeBoer said after the Devils’ 3-2 road win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
Maybe DeBoer hasn’t chosen who his top goalie is, though one would expect him to ride the hot hand, which has been Brodeur. After a 1-5-3 open pushed rumours of his trade from New Jersey, the 41-year-old has pitched two shutouts in his last three outings and has allowed two goals or less in his last five starts.
Only a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers kept Brodeur from winning all five. His best outing came in which he stopped 33 shots in the Devils’ win at Madison Square Garden Tuesday.
Brodeur helped save the Devils’ defense which lost Anton Volchenkov to a lower-body injury in the first period. Brodeur’s ornery side even came out on Tuesday after Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello mixed it up with the goalie in his crease during the second period.
“Zuccarello better hope Marty doesn’t get upset,” DeBoer said.
Brodeur said before the year that he didn’t need the accountability and that if the Devils didn’t know what he could do, they’d never know. Still, Schneider’s presence has suddenly pushed Brodeur. New Jersey has not had a netminder in years who could press Brodeur for playing time, yet Schneider poses that threat.
And after a shaky first five outings, the pride of Brodeur has come out.
His 1-5-3 record may not show it, but Schneider has also played remarkably well as a Devil — his .918 save percentage is actually better than Brodeur’s. But New Jersey has scored only 10 goals in his nine starts, a product of injuries to forwards Ryane Clowe and Patrik Elias.
But the Devils are showing signs of life this year, and with Schneider as a valid backup option they seem poised to remain in the hunt even if Brodeur’s play drops off. In last year’s sprint of a season, a pinched nerve in Brodeur’s back forced Johan Hedberg into action, and the backup went just 6-10-3 with 2.76 GAA and a save percentage of .883 in 19 starts.
Few expect Schneider to struggle like that.
In this Olympic year, each goalie will get starts, but DeBoer knows what Brodeur brings to the New Jersey market. He’s a legend, backstopped all five Stanley Cup Finals runs in franchise history, is beloved in the area and even helped carry the DeBoer-coached Devils to the Cup final in 2012.
So, as long as he’s stopping pucks, it’s hard to argue with Marty playing in goal, even if Schneider is the better option long-term.
With Brodeur in the final year of his contract, Schneider will likely get his turn next year.
And if Brodeur returns, we’ll revisit all this then.