Legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur will soon make his season debut and it won’t be with the New Jersey Devils.
Brodeur signed a one-year contract with the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, giving the Central Division club much-needed goaltending depth with veteran Brian Elliott on injured reserve and 24-year-old Jake Allen lacking NHL experience.
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Brodeur’s résumé speaks for itself. He’s the all-time leader in victories, shutouts and helped the Devils win three Stanley Cup champions during his 20-year career in New Jersey from 1993-94 through 2013-14.
The Blues are desperate for goaltending, but Brodeur isn’t a smart solution. Brodeur’s save percentage hasn’t been above .908 since the 2009-10 campaign, and he finished the 2013-14 season with a .901 save percentage (lowest of his career) and a 2.51 goals against average (second-highest of his career). Broduer posted a .904 save percentage in 183 games over the last four seasons.
St. Louis gives up the second fewest shots per game at 26.7, so Brodeur probably won’t need to make 30-plus saves on most nights in front of a blue line with great talent and depth. However, the Devils allowed the least amount of shots per game (25.5) last season and Brodeur still struggled to keep pucks out of the net.
Brodeur is nothing more than a short-term stop gap for the Blues, and they will be in major trouble if he’s forced to play a lot of regular-season games or even make an appearance in the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs.
— New York Islanders defenseman and former Bruin Johnny Boychuk was placed on injured reserve Wednesday. The Islanders recalled 2012 No. 4 overall draft pick Griffin Reinhart as a result. Boychuk has 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) in 24 games for New York.
— Anders Lindback hasn’t played well as a backup goaltender for the Dallas Stars with an .861 save percentage and a 4.63 goals against average.
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— Bovada has dropped the Bruins’ odds to win the Stanley Cup from 10/1 to 11/1. The Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins are co-favorites at 15/2. The Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers have the worst odds at 300/1.
— Last season, the Colorado Avalanche won despite lackluster puck-possession numbers. The advanced stats community predicted a regression for Colorado and to this point, they have been correct as the Avs sit at the bottom of the Central Division with 23 points.
The 2014-15 version of the Avalanche are the Calgary Flames. The Flames have the second-worst Corsi-for percentage at even strength (43.83), which means they are consistently out-shot. Calgary’s average of 24.43 unblocked shot attempts per game is the second-lowest in the league.
Despite these numbers, Calgary is 16-8-2 and three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the third playoff spot from the Pacific Division. It’ll be interesting to see if the Flames are able to keep winning with these poor possession stats.
— More injury concerns for the Chicago Blackhawks, who already are without top-six forward Patrick Sharp.
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— The hockey world lost a legend Tuesday when Montreal Canadiens forward Jean Beliveau passed away at age 83. Gare Joyce wrote a wonderful piece on Beliveau for Sportsnet.ca, and be sure to follow Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette on Twitter for great photos and stories of Beliveau’s remarkable career.
Thumbnail photo via Tim Larsen/Associated Press
