Martin Brodeur calls hockey 'too dangerous of a game': Report

Since joining the St. Louis Blues as a senior advisor last week, newly retired goaltender Martin Brodeur has been giving the team reports looking down from a scouting booth. But now the NHL veteran wants everyone to know about the ever-evolving game from the perspective of 20 years in front of the net too.

Brodeur spoke with Sportsnet to discuss what he likes and what he’d like to change about the game the future Hall of Famer played for almost his entire life.

The 42-year-old former New Jersey Devils legend pointed to the speed of the game and the resulting hits as something that he dislikes.

"It’s too tough of a game, too dangerous of a game. I think it goes… all the speed that they wanted to bring into the game, it kind of makes it up on those tough hits and it’s hard for the players to police themselves. First of all because fighting is going away from the game,” said Brodeur. “You have a lot of guys that are taking liberties and some guys they don’t, but because the game is so fast, they don’t have time to react to a lot of things.

"The dangerous part of the game, the accidents, some of the head injuries needs to get cleaned out."

Brodeur didn’t know exactly how the league needs to go about changing the game, but did have a couple of suggestions.

“The trapezoid has to go. I think the goalies have to help their players a little bit more, but a lot of the hits come because there’s no interference,” Brodeur said. “Put in the interference on the table for the players to use to help each other.

“In the neutral zone I understand the guy skating 100 miles an hour with the puck nobody should touch him, but when you see your guys getting lined up, you should be able to hook that guy a little bit to make him realize ‘hey, you got to stop buddy, you can’t hit him’. But if he does that, the guy gets a penalty. Interference needs to get back in the game.”

Brodeur was in Philadelphia on Saturday night scouting the Flyers and Leafs as part of his new role with St. Louis and spoke with NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman about his new vantage point on top of the ice.

“I think it’s a lot easier to judge people from up here,” Brodeur said. “That’s where I’m trying to find the way of doing it, the right way of doing it, to give the best input I can knowing that two weeks ago, three weeks ago I was the one down there.

“Hockey’s hockey. Right here I think it exposes it a little bit, but it’s all productive.”

Martin Brodeur gives up ridiculous center-ice goal to Dwight King (VIDEO)

Martin Brodeur has more saves than anyone in the history of the NHL, which means the Blues' new netminder has also given up his share of goals too. But Ol' Marty probably never saw the puck get by him as ridiculously as this shot from Dwight King Thursday night.

When the Los Angeles Kings forward sent this seemingly harmless shot from center ice towards Brodeur, nobody in the arena thought twice about him making the simple glove save. But after the puck hit the ice, it skipped up once and then bounced off the ice, over Brodeur and actually got a piece of the water bottle for the comedic goal.

Dwight King just scored on Martin Brodeur. From center ice. http://t.co/0AzeiejR7H https://t.co/WwoyD1g6Ei
— theScore (@theScore) December 19, 2014

Adding insult to injury, that was the sixth goal that Brodeur gave up in the game — one that the Blues led 3-0 — tidying up the Kings' 6-4 come-from-behind victory.

Sure the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer looked silly but, we'll blame it on the bounce.

Martin Brodeur's debut in a Blues uniform doesn't look right (VIDEO)

For the first time in his NHL career Martin Brodeur made a start for a team other than the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

The 42-year-old goalie who won 688 games over 21 years wearing a red Devils sweater was now in front of the goal wearing a St. Louis Blues uniform.

And to Devils fans, like pineapple on a slice, seeing Brodeur sporting a blue note didn't look right.

Brodeur, who hadn't played in a game since April 13, made 20 saves in his season debut for the Blues — a 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators.

He signed a one-year deal with St. Louis on Tuesday.

The future Hall of Famer who won three Stanley Cups and four Vezina Trophies with the Devils, refused to call it a career after going 19-14-6 with a 2.51 goals-against average, .901 save percentage and three shutouts in 39 games last season.

Brodeur is 688-394-176 and holds most major regular-season goalie records including games (1,259).

It's too bad the Blues and Devils have already played out this season and Mar-tan won't be coming back to Jersey one more time.

Sean Avery calls Martin Brodeur 'Fatso' in response to 'Dancing with the Stars' comment

On Wednesday, Martin Brodeur was asked about former nemesis and NHL hell-raiser Sean Avery appearing on "Dancing with the Stars," and the Devils goalie said he didn't watch the show but replied, "What more can he do to embarrass himself."

Avery — who was voted off the show after one week — fired back via Twitter.

Then the Twitter-happy Avery got personal.

Embarrassing is when u sleep with the #Nanny and get caught :)
— Sean Avery (@imseanavery) March 27, 2014

The reference to sleeping with the "nanny" isn't specifically clear, but Brodeur did eventually marry his sister-in-law after a well-publicized affair that ended his first marriage, if that's what he's referring to.

Former NHL player and referee Paul Stewart sided with Brodeur and sent this out after the Avery tweets:

Embarrassment is when you get booted from NHL b/c no one can put up with your crap anymore and own ex-teammates have no respect for you.
— Paul Stewart (@PaulStewart22) March 27, 2014

Avery has been known to be pretty opinionated on Twitter in the past, so it should come as no surprise when he tweeted a photo of a donut and coffee and another strange message — presumably to Devils fans.

In honor of every miserable #Asshole from NJ that takes this that seriously :) pic.twitter.com/WLhqMYaeP9
— Sean Avery (@imseanavery) March 27, 2014

Brodeur, by the way, posted nj.com’s original story with his comments on his Facebook page on Wednesday with a smiley face.

[nj.com]

Devils decide to keep Brodeur at trade deadline: Report

Despite Martin Brodeur's explicit request to be traded so that he could play more often than he will behind Cory Schneider, the Devils decided to keep the future Hall of Famer rather than deal him before Wednesday's trade deadline.

The 41-year-old Brodeur spoke to general manager Lou Lamoriello about his wish to get more playing time, and gave the GM a long list of teams he'd be willing to play for.

The 3:15 p.m. deadline came and went without a swap, reported nj.com.

Brodeur played his second game in the past month Tuesday night in what many fans thought be his last game with the Devils, making 20 saves in New Jersey's 4-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings. Brodeur has a 2.49 goals-against average and .899 save percentage this season.

But coach Pete DeBoer still would not call Schneider his No. 1 goalie.

"I don't think it's necessarily an accurate statement to say (Brodeur) is not the No, 1 guy," DeBoer said. "I think Cory grabbed the ball here prior to the Olympic break and ran with it for a while. Prior to that, Marty ran with it for a while.

"So I think it's been there for either of them to grab and they have at different respective times. And that's the case moving forward."

Brodeur attended the Devils' team meeting Wednesday morning, but he did not take part in the optional practice.

Lamoriello did not want to discuss Brodeur and the fact the goalie revealed he had spoken to him about his desire to play more often, even if it meant being traded. The GM was still upset about inaccurate reports saying a trade had been agreed upon to send Brodeur to Minnesota.

"It's just a shame that without any substance at different times and no facts that people say things," Lamoriello said.

Is Brodeur happy to be staying with the Devils for the remainder of this season?

"You'd have to talk to Marty," Lamoriello said. "I hope so. I feel that way. I don't know why not.

"This player just won one of the most important games last night."

Brodeur returns to net and scores strangest goal ever

Martin Brodeur returned to the New Jersey Devils' net Thursday night and, besides giving the team their first road win since Feb. 21, scored what could be the oddest goal ever.

During a Devils' power play against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Devils were whistled for a delayed penalty. Because the play doesn't stop until until the penalized team touches the puck, the Hurricanes pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, assuming the Devils couldn't score without touching the puck. How can a team score without touching the puck? Simple.

A wayward pass by Jordan Stall bounces off the boards , travels the length of the ice, and into the open net.  Since Brodeur was the last Devils player to touch the puck (while making a save) he gets credited with the goal.



The fluke bounce silenced the confused PNC Arena crowd before it became the third goal of Brodeur's 21-year career giving him the most ever for an NHL goaltender.

More important to the Devils, the 4-1 victory was their first on the road after going 0-4-2 since Brodeur was sidelined with a neck injury.  Brodeur's teammates were happy to see the 40-year-old goalie back in front of the net.

"Scoring a goal and just keeping us in the game the first period ... unbelievable," said center Travis Zajac. "He was awesome tonight."

Brodeur appears in 1,200th game and makes goofy save

Martin Brodeur appeared in his 1,200th game for the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and led his team to a 3-1 victory over the streaking Pittsburgh Penguins in front of a sellout crowd of 17,625 at the Prudential Center.

In typical fashion, Brodeur stopped 24 of 25 shots on goal — as the Devils took over first place — but it was a unusual Brodeur moment at the end of the second period that fans will remember.  One that will probably never make the future Hall of Famer's highlight film, but will definitely be on his blooper reel.

The sequence starts with the Penguins on a power play, Brodeur loses his stick and has to chase it into a corner to retrieve it. The Devils goalie picks it up and as he heads back to the net, Evgeni Malkin fires a shot from the blue line at the empty net while Brodeur races over.

The puck hit the post, bounces off Brodeur's toe and slides across the net as he acrobatically tries to keep it from going in. Then he just falls over.

The goal wouldn't have counted because the Penguins were offside, but that's what makes it even funnier.

Even the old pro had a good laugh after that play.

Tortorella: Some Rangers players 'look scared' to me

After Tuesday's 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers coach John Tortorella made it clear that his players will not get ice time based on reputation and will have to earn it with merit.

The Rangers dropped the game with their cross-river rivals in Newark at "The Rock" after what Tortorella called "two free ones" in the first period. With the impressive debut of 19-year-old forward  J.T. Miller and the successful return of Chris Kreider, Torts sounded like some players might be losing time on the ice if they don't toughen up.

"They're gonna probably take some people's jobs," Tortorella said after the team dropped to 4-5-0,  "I'll tell you, with our hockey club right now, we have some guys that look scared to me, and tentative.

"I'll tell you right now, we're not waiting."

After falling into the early hole, the Rangers had an uphill battle against the Devils big-game goalie, Martin Brodeur.

The 40-year-old Brodeur lives for these games.

"It always feels good to play well against a big rival, in a big game," said the net minder who made 24 saves.

Meanwhile, the Rangers veterans better watch out.

"We have some guys that are playing very tentative, very careful," Tortorella said, "and we don't play careful hockey."