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Saluting Martin Brodeur, a Flyers-killer with style

Here in Philadelphia, we like our sports villains nasty, arrogant, demonstrative. It makes them easier to dislike. When Michael Irvin strutted out of a Texas Stadium tunnel, when Kobe Bryant promised to rip out the 76ers' hearts, when Scott Stevens went on a search-and-destroy mission in a conference finals' seventh game and found Eric Lindros, they touched something

Saint Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong (left) looks on as Martin Brodeur addresses the media during a press conference at Scottrade Center. (Scott Kane/USA TODAY Sports)
Saint Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong (left) looks on as Martin Brodeur addresses the media during a press conference at Scottrade Center. (Scott Kane/USA TODAY Sports)Read more

Here in Philadelphia, we like our sports villains nasty, arrogant, demonstrative. It makes them easier to dislike.

When Michael Irvin strutted out of a Texas Stadium tunnel, when Kobe Bryant promised to rip out the 76ers' hearts, when Scott Stevens went on a search-and-destroy mission in a conference finals' seventh game and found Eric Lindros, they touched something visceral, guttural, within every sports fan in this city. They did something, in its way, unforgivable. They won, and in winning, they knew, or at least acted as if they believed, that they were intrinsically better than Philadelphia and its teams and its people.

Irvin could catch a touchdown and taunt the Eagles. Bryant could flush another fadeaway and wag his finger. Stevens could sneer after squashing the Flyers' best player like a bug. And what could anyone here do to stop it?

Martin Brodeur never did that - not the knowing and the acting, anyway. It's probably the reason that, whenever someone compiles a list of the most reviled opponents in Philadelphia sports history, Brodeur never makes the cut. He didn't preen or talk trash or celebrate with a triple salchow at center ice over Lindros' fetal-positioned body, and there was so much attention paid to Stevens' bar-bouncing Flyers from the front of the New Jersey net that, during those Flyers-Devils playoff matchups over the years, Brodeur's excellence often went overlooked.

But it's worth acknowledging, in light of Brodeur's announcement Thursday that he was retiring from the NHL and ending the most accomplished goaltending career the league has seen, just how great a foil he was for the Flyers over the 20 seasons he spent with the Devils. He won 50 regular-season games against the Flyers - he beat just one franchise, the Islanders, more frequently - and another 14 in the postseason, beating them in three series. Twice, in 1995 and 2000, the Flyers advanced to the Eastern Conference finals with a roster talented and deep enough to win a championship, only to fall to Brodeur and the Devils, only to see them later lift the Stanley Cup.

Everyone remembers where he or she was when Stevens creamed Lindros. Everyone forgets that the Flyers outshot the Devils, 27-18, and controlled much of that Game 7, that Brodeur really was the difference that night.

Though Brodeur holds the NHL's career records for games by a goalie (1,266), regular-season victories (691), and regular-season shutouts (125), and though he won four Vezina Trophies as the league's top goalie, it is convenient to dismiss his achievements and his success against the Flyers as largely a product of his environment. The Devils emerged as a dominant team by implementing the neutral-zone trap in the mid-1990s, a strategy augmented by three elite defensemen: Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, and Ken Daneyko. Any goalie, the argument goes, could win games with those guys in that system.

What that argument neglects or omits are two factors: One, Brodeur's remarkable stickhandling and passing ability, which complemented the trap perfectly and forced the NHL to change its rules to minimize his and other goalies' effect on the flow of play. Two, the stability that Brodeur's presence provided the Devils. While the Flyers were basically flicking a board-game spinner every year to determine who their No. 1 goalie would be, the Devils never had to waste time worrying once Brodeur settled in during the 1993-94 season. Until last season, when Cory Schneider became the Devils' No. 1 goaltender, Lou Lamoriello, the team's longtime president and general manager, was never of a mind to replace Brodeur, and Brodeur was never of a mind to leave the Devils unless they moved on from him first.

"Loyalty is a big thing," he said in a December 2010 interview. "I was lucky enough with the success that we got, with my understanding that I want to win every year that I'm playing, to be able to make it happen if we stayed here and enjoyed it."

It was odd to see him Thursday at that news conference; he had played seven perfunctory games with the St. Louis Blues this season before deciding he'd had enough. It was odd just to have seen him suiting up for the Blues, wearing that unfamiliar jersey, like it was with Joe Namath and the Rams and will be with Jimmy Rollins and the Dodgers.

But in a sense, it's even odder to see someone else tending the New Jersey Devils' goal. No, the Flyers won't have Martin Brodeur standing in their way anymore, and for this opponent, for what he did and how he did it, it's OK for Philadelphia to keep the bitterness at bay, tap his pads, and wish him well.

@MikeSielski