Quick Shifts: Brodeur unhappy with outdoor ice

Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and satirical, and rolling four lines deep.

1. One thing you can depend on after an NHL outdoor game is glowing reviews from virtually all players and coaches involved. (John Tortorella excepted.) After Mike Babcock’s Red Wings lost the Winter Classic, he’d rather talk about how special the event was than critique his struggling team’s play. And when Pete DeBoer’s Devils got blown out 7-3 at Yankee Stadium Sunday afternoon, he refused to utter a negative word.

This is why it was so startling to hear Martin Brodeur — a glass-half-full guy — criticize the conditions of the second Stadium Series game.

“The ice was the worst ice I’ve ever played on. You went from the shadows to the sun. It was almost a 10-degree difference. It was unbelievable,” Brodeur told reporters, explaining there was no way the teams could have played at the 12:30 p.m. scheduled start time, hence the hour-long delay.

It might have been Brodeur’s final marquee NHL game (New Jersey is a postseason long shot, and retirement isn’t far off), and it turned sour midway through. Brodeur surrendered two goals in the first period, another four in the second as the Rangers smartly threw pucks toward the net and hoped for good bounces. Brodeur was pulled, a first for a New Jersey goalie this season. You have to think the future Hall of Famer, a man whose respect for the game’s legacy runs deep, hated getting embarrassed on such a grand stage.

“The whole atmosphere of this event, the mixed fans in the building, the aura of playing at Yankee Stadium, the whole thing was unbelievable — besides the hockey game,” the 41-year-old said. “You rely a lot on instinct and poise, and I couldn’t close my glove, it was so cold.”

That sound you hear is Gary Bettman cringing.

2. The highlight of NHL Revealed‘s debut episode was undoubtedly the cameras following New York Islanders forward (and Team USA oversight) Kyle Okposo and wife Danielle to the hospital for the birth of their daughter, Elliana, on Jan. 6. The life-changing moment was pieced together tenderly and topped all the off-ice footage of this year’s 24/7. If have it in you to root against Okposo now, you are either heartless or one dedicated Rangers fan.

Danielle provided some fantastic foreshadowing in the segment, predicting her husband’s game would only improve since becoming a father. Since his daughter’s birth, the piping-hot Okposo has 12 points in 10 games. Enjoying a five-game scoring streak, the Islanders forward is tied with Phil Kessel for seventh in NHL scoring, and Okposo has played one less game.

3. Despite the skepticism, Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau told us he was on board with the open-air California game as soon as he heard the idea.

“The interest around hockey circles, even if it’s for five minutes, is going to be peak because you’re in Los Angeles having an outdoor game. Just the thought is mind-boggling,” he said. Plus, it would open Californians’ eyes to the on-ice rivalry between the Kings and Ducks. (Boudreau is also a fan of the duck-hunter orange sweaters his club wore.)

Boudreau still enjoys talking about the 2011 Winter Classic.

“The last outdoor game was crazy. It was a downpour of rain. That had never happened to me before. I didn’t realize live, because you’re so into the game, but I watched the game on TV and saw just how much rain there was. It was coming down in buckets,” he said. “We’ve all been in cold rinks and played on bad ice where they patch up as you go, but never playing hockey in a rainstorm.”

4. Saturday’s warm-weather Dodger Stadium game brought us a whole whack of the unusual — a KISS concert interrupting a hockey game, beach volleyball adjacent to the rink, Wayne Gretzky back on happy terms with the NHL — but one thing very typical: another game-winning goal scored by Anaheim/Team Canada wing Corey Perry.

By bagging his 28th under the palm trees, Perry is second only to Alex Ovechkin in goals and now leads the entire NHL with nine winners. The guy on his tail (Ryan Getzlaf with seven) is usually the guy feeding him the puck.

“When you’re sitting on the bench and you’re counting on a goal, you’re hoping it’s [going to come from] other people, but you gotta believe Corey is the guy who’s going to get it,” Boudreau said.

5. Every time the Devils’ Jaromir Jagr surpasses another milestone, my first thought is “What if?” When the 41-year-old notched his 1,034th assist Sunday in the cold air of Yankee Stadium, he passed Mario Lemieux for 10th on the all-time assists list. Jagr’s name now pops up in the NHL’s all-time top 10 in all three major scoring categories: goals, assists and points. Imagine how far up those lists he’d be if Jagr didn’t endure three NHL lockouts and take a separate three-season sabbatical to play in the KHL. By the most modest of estimates, you could tack on another 200 points.

The cherry on top? Jagr’s setup of Patrik Elias was a pretty one in which he did all the work:

6. The biggest takeaway from the Yankee Stadium game, however, was neither the bad ice or Jagr’s benchmark. It was the awesomeness of the Devils’ throwback unis. Long live the green pants and the candy cane aesthetic. No sarcasm here. The Devils should seriously consider bringing their ’90s look back. Love it:

7. Quirky note. Ironically, the Rangers were considered the visiting team at Yankee Stadium (hence the Devils’ beauty jerseys). Because New York won, visiting NHL teams have now improved to a lopsided 8-1-1 record in the 10 regular-season outdoor contests. You take a team out of its familiar rink, the advantage vanishes like a snowflake on Mats Zuccarello’s tongue.

8. Might be the first and last SPHL (Southern Professional Hockey League) highlight we show. David Segal’s monstrous (and clean) open-ice body-check is worth a look:

9. I enjoy this type of randomness. KHL team Medvescak Zagreb set the world record for the loudest cheer Saturday with 130.02 decibels of Croatian enthusiasm. A throng of 15,200 smashed the previous mark of 126 decibels, set by fans of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings last November.

Crank your computer’s volume and listen to the record-breaking crowd here. Pretty loud.

10. With frustration settling in real deep in Edmonton, it’s hard to decide if you feel worse for the fans, whose patience is getting tested; the players, who must be equally sick of losing; or new coach Dallas Eakins. You probably couldn’t have designed a tougher scenario for a rookie NHL coach to walk into.

After the Oilers lost to Phoenix last week, another home fan threw a sweater onto the ice in disgust. The look on Eakins’ face says it all:

11. Super Bowl Sunday is on deck, which means plenty of attention will be paid to two of my favourite things: nachos and prop bets.

Sporting News points out a nice NHL-related prop bet is available. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is favoured (by 0.5) to throw more touchdown passes versus the Denver Broncos than Alex Ovechkin scores points against the Red Wings. Never change, America.

12. Why YouTube exists: A 1984 interview captures Randy Carlyle stressing the importance of a balanced breakfast and staying away from red meat — a revolutionary concept at the time.

Sportsnet.ca no longer supports comments.