The first round of the NHL playoffs are upon us and NY is buzzing.
Rangers v. Devils. Need I say more?
If John Davidson were still a Rangers broadcaster, and not running the St. Louis Blues, we’d get an “ohh baby” right about now. (Miss ya JD).
In anticipation of the best of seven series, there’s a lot of match ups we can talk about: Zach Parise v. Scott Gomez, Jaromir Jagr v. Dainius Zubrus, Sean Avery v. Everyone…
…But the one that will probably get the most attention is Martin Brodeur v. Henrik Lundqvist. The battle of the net minders.
As a Rangers fan, let me first say that Marty Brodeur is on a short list of the best goaltenders of all-time. That’s not me being diplomatic either, it’s a matter of fact (538 regular season wins, 3 championships). That being said, it is routine that coming into every playoffs series, the Devils have a clear cut advantage in the goal tending because of Brodeur. However this time, I’m not so sure.
I am a huge Henrik Lundqvist fan, and if you’re a Rangers fan like me, it’s easy to like him. When “the king” has his ‘A’ game, he is as good as any goalie I’ve ever seen (yes, Mike Richter 1994 good). The best example of this can be found a couple of years ago during the Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy when he lead Team Sweden to a gold medal. Then again, he has his moments where he lets up soft goals, like he did against the Islanders a couple of days ago.
Nevertheless, both goalies are considered among the top five in the league at their position right now, and the fact that they play a river apart will always create a rivalry. As far as we knew, there was no relationship to speak of between Brodeur and Lundqvist. That is, until Marty opened his mouth in a January edition of Sports Illustrated:
“The way he plays is not something I like too much…Lundqvist is weird.”
No one really knows what that means..but we assume he’s taking a shot at Lundqvist.
Apparently, Lundqvist is as clueless as we are:
“I have to tell you, I respect Marty a lot, and it’s always a great challenge for me to play against him, but I don’t know what to say about what he said about me. Does he think my [goaltending] style is weird? I don’t think I have a weird style.
Does he think that I’m weird as a person? I don’t think I’m weird. I don’t know what to say.”
Ok, not exactly the fighting words of a Jimmy Rollins or an Antonio Pierce, but remember, we’re talking hockey goalies here. Goalies that are sure to have egos too. So in my opinion that’s good enough to stir something up as this series progresses, especially if one goaltender outperforms the other. Furthermore. I expect the presence of Brodeur and the memory of his “weird” comments to motivate Henrik Lundqvist more than usual.
Stay Tuned.
What are your thoughts on the goaltending in this series? Who do you think has the edge?
Filed under: NHL - Devils, NHL - Rangers, Writer - Tim Sharobem
I give the goaltending edge to Tim Sharobem. His regular season performance was atrocious, but he’s proven in the past that when it’s playoff time, he comes to play. There’s no substitute for moxie, that’s why the edge goes to the MVP of the 2002 postseason.