Hossa on the Wrong Side, Part II

It’s been a while since I’ve done a non-baseball post and with the Penguins capturing the Stanley Cup on Friday night, what better time than now.  Actually… I could do a basketball post, too, but I really don’t like Kobe Bryant or the Lakers.

Anyway, In a rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals, the Penguins defeated the Red Wings in seven games this year, reversing Detroit’s win last year.  To me, the Stanley Cup is the best trophy in all of sports – what other championship trophy has every winner’s name on it?  That’s cool.  The handing off of the cup to the team’s captain and the subsequent parading around the ice, handing the cup off to different players is also pretty cool.

Here’s something that’s not cool – at least to one person.  Last year, Marian Hossa was a member of the Penguins.  In the off-season, his contract was up so he did what every hockey player who wants to win a championship does: he signed with that season’s Stanley Cup champions.  Hossa signed a one-year deal with Detroit after being a Penguin and being defeated by the Wings in the finals in 2008, only to wear red in this year’s finals and get beaten by his former team in the unlikely rematch.  Oops.  What’s more is that the Penguins were ina free fall to start this season, firing their coach early in the second half of the season.  A nice rebound gave them the four seed in the east and the rest is history.   A bit of bad luck for Hossa, though as he suffers another year on the wrong side of the cup.

Brodeur Hurt; Devils in Trouble

Perhaps I haven’t mentioned this before, but I’m a hockey fan.

In fact, after the 1994 baseball strike, hockey surpassed baseball as the sport “love-of-my-life.”  I went to two Devils’ Stanley Cup Finals games (game one in 2000 and 2003) and made it down to Jersey for a bunch of regular season games.  Hockey was my favorite sport for a while, until they had their own labor trouble and the owners locked out the players for an entire season.

I’ve been to one hockey game since then and haven’t paid for a ticket or ANYTHING to do with the sport.  Bitter? You could say that.

I’ve slightly gotten back into the game in the last year or so and this huge news hit me close to home.  As a Devils fan and a HUGE Martin Brodeur fan (I played goalie in my own hockey career as a tribute to him and wore #31 figuring his #30 would be retired by the time I made it to the NHL), it breaks my heart that Marty looks like he’s going to be out for 3-4 months with elbow trouble.

In my opinion, Brodeur is the best goaltender in the history of the game and the most integral part of the Devils system.  Since the Devils play a variation of the neutral zone trap, defense and the goalie are very important and with Marty out for an extended period, the successful Devils are in trouble.

Since 2000, the Devils are 26-24-8 and the netminder has played no less than 67 games in his entire career in which a full season was played.  He played 78 and 77 in the last two seasons and is on the verge of breaking Patrick Roy’s all-time wins record.  Since Brodeur hasn’t been hurt EVER, the Devils have utilized the game’s best goaltender as the backbone of their system.  It will be interesting to see how they alter game plans now with Kevin Weekes in net.

I will say this… Brodeur had the same goalie mask every year in his career until this year.  Coincidence? I dare to think differently.