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OTTAWA — Martin Brodeur made one thing clear the other night — the playoff series between his New Jersey Devils and the Ottawa Senators will be settled by goaltending.
For three of the four-and-a-bit periods played on Saturday, the Senators were the better team. But that was not enough to prevent the Devils from tying the National Hockey League Eastern Conference semi-final 1-1.
The difference was Brodeur, whose work in stopping 43 shots was responsible for the Devils being in position to win 3-2 in double overtime. If the Senators are to prevail, then their goaltender, Ray Emery, has to outduel Brodeur over what promises to be a seven-game series.
Naturally, given the habit of many Senators fans and more than a few of the local media to immediately embrace the prospect of the worst possible outcome, there are a lot of long faces in the National Capital Region today.
Related Information
- New Jersey Devils
- Ottawa Senators
- Daniel Alfredsson
- Martin Brodeur
- Ray Emery
- Martin Gerber
- Dominik Hasek
- Jason Spezza
Based on the Senators', ah, checkered playoff history, replete with collapses both from the goaltenders and the rest of the roster, and a comparison of Brodeur's glittering résumé with Emery's rather short one, their gloom is understandable, albeit misplaced.
None of Emery's teammates claims to be apprehensive about the prospect.
"Yeah, that hasn't even been an issue for us," captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "All year long, we expected nothing less, so we're very comfortable in that area."
This could be considered whistling past the graveyard if you scan each goaltender's list of accomplishments.
Brodeur, who will turn 35 on Saturday, is a lock for the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Montreal native has three Stanley Cup championships, an Olympic gold medal and enough individual awards to fill a museum. Arguments about who is the best goaltender in the world start with him.
Emery, 24, naturally does not have nearly as much to brag about. After he left Hamilton to play junior hockey, Emery was never on a world junior team, but he was an all-star in the Ontario Hockey League and in his first professional league, the American Hockey League.
In this series, Emery can say he outplayed Brodeur in one game and was not quite his equal in the other. Critics can argue he should have had both Devils goals in the first period on Saturday, but both shots were good ones and his teammates were much worse than he.
One year ago, he was thrown into a difficult situation as a rookie. Dominik Hasek frustrated the Senators and their fans with a never-healing groin injury, so they were forced to turn to Emery.
In the first round, Emery did well, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games with a 2.52 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. Things did not go so well against the explosive Buffalo Sabres in the second round, as his GAA jumped to 3.13 and his save percentage fell to .864, and the Sens were gone in five games.
A conviction that Emery was not ready for a full-time job in the NHL led the Senators to give free-agent Martin Gerber a pricey contract last summer. But when Gerber fell flat on his face, Emery stepped in and took control of the No. 1 job, finishing with 2.47 GAA and .918 save percentage.
That, and the value of the experience of last year's playoffs, should be enough to make his teammates feel much more comfortable that he can stay with Brodeur in a goaltending battle.
"For me, it's not much different because I know him really well," said centre Jason Spezza, who played with Emery on the Senators' AHL farm team. "For some of the guys, maybe they have a little more confidence in him because now they know how he competes and how he performs.
"We all feel real confident with Razor [Emery] in the net."
What Emery's teammates learned is that not much scares him. The prospect of beating Brodeur fills him with no more dread than the prospect of beating the kid next door in street hockey.
Emery also brushes aside the notion of being that much better because of last year's playoff experience. He learned a few things about how to play, he said, but they were mechanical rather than mental.
"I'm not a big-pressure guy," he said. "There's a lot worse things to be doing than playing in a playoff hockey game, you know.
"I just play because I like playing, whether I'm stacked up against a lot of odds or not, I still enjoy it. I'm not fearing it."
This may not make him a typical Ottawa resident — you should be scared witless — but it does make him qualified for the challenge.
