Martin Brodeur is the greatest goalie in the history of professional hockey.  Last night, he was also a goal scoring machine.

It wasn’t a case of “he shoots he scores”, it was more like “he makes a save during a delayed penalty and some Whaler makes a crappy pass that banks off the boards in the New Jersey end and deflects all the way down to the Whaler’s end and goes right smack into the middle of the net”.

It was the third goal of his career.  100 years from now, some kid walking through the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto is going to see the Martin Brodeur display and it is going to list his career stats:
9 billion wins.
2 billion shutouts.
3 goals.

Note, I have watched this video but I have not listened to it.  I do not know if any hockey announcers say anything stupid or not.  You’ve been warned.

Staying with the hockey theme, as I posted yesterday, I got home from picking up the kids and put the game on the radio.  By radio, I mean the CBS radio iPhone app that streams 98.5 WBZ FM.  As soon as the stream reached my ear pods Ottawa scored.  I listened for a while feeling completely underwhelmed by the Bruins performance.  Before the second period ended I put the game on the TV.  With less than two minutes left in the second the Bruins tied the game.  Intermission started, I went to say good night to the first step child.  I then watched some of the third period and the Bruins were not the snooze inducing hockey boredom machines they had been in the second.  They had a little more life.  I had to go downstairs and do some laundry business, then say good night to the second step child, then turn out all the lights and lock the doors, then get into bed.  I had planned to listen to the end of the game while reading a little, but I was a little late.  I checked the score.  Bruins win 2-1.

This season’s shortened schedule really is an insult to hockey lovers everywhere.  The Bruins have played 29 games and we’re already nearly 75% of the way through the season.  That’s garbage.  The reason you play a long season is so that everyone can get the crap kicked out of them by life itself, and the really good teams separate themselves from the not so good teams.  That’s not going to happen this year.  I mean, the Leafs are in sixth in the East.  That’s all the proof you need!

Having said that, I don’t really see the Bruins contending for the Cup the way many in the press seem to.  They just don’t have the fire yet.  They don’t have the killer instinct.  They have lost four games in which they had the lead in the third period.  When they are good they are outstanding.  When they aren’t good they are maddeningly boring and mediocre.

The third period last night was a nice change from the recent snooze.  Let’s hope the momentum continues Saturday night in Toronto.

Go Bruins.