Ok, so bad goals do matter even if you're clearly an elite puck stopper by the stats, right? Because sometimes that doesn't matter, or so I've read.
Brodeur is top 10 all time in GAA. And that's the name of the game, right? Not allowing goals.
Also, it's a common misconception that Brodeur always played for a defensive juggernaut. Even in the DPE.
Yes, the Lemaire Devils were a very conservative bunch. But any more of a "defensive juggernaut" than Pat Burns with Patrick Roy? Or Toe Blake with Jacques Plante? Or...
The Robbie Ftorek Devils were much different. They were more aggressive. Just a sampling can be gleaned here, because I don't think anyone wants to sit through a complete tactical breakdown because I'm not gonna break buzzword-led stereotypes in this post...
I mean, look at this mess from NJ. There isn't five guys on a screen, sometimes there's only two. There's guys diving all over the floor, not a staple of Devils hockey, odd-man rushes. These Devils teams were 2-men up. They attacked defenders at the breakout level as opposed to sitting back and attacking forwards at the center and defensive blue.
As a result, they lost to a more defensive Penguins team in 1999 to save their franchise...ironically enough.
Obviously, Brodeur transitioned out of the DPE into a wide open lockout era where he couldn't necessarily have had a "defensive juggernaut". He proceeds to win multiple Vezinas, finish near the top for others, was a prime candidate in the Hart discussion, etc. Oh and MOST IMPORTANTLY (sonk) .920 save percentages! Hooray!
With Colin White's giant brain playing 22+ minutes on this "juggernaut", you know things are air tight haha
That's NJ...25 years of pure stalwart hockey...including the three-man aggressive forecheck and cycling game led by Ilya Kovalchuk and backed by #1 d-man Marek Zidlicky that got to the Final.
Ken Dryden...yeah, now, that's a guy that was really fighting it. 7 years with a roster three tiers better than everyone else, behind the guy that famously brought defensive cohesion everywhere he went, on a team with three #1 d-men, some of the best checkers of all time, in an unbalanced league...
Not Patrick Roy, on a team that carried on the legend of being a defensive team, with famously great checkers and defensive coaches...
Let's check out the 1986 Habs...you'll eventually see them on the screen against this Whaler breakout.
Look, I'm not saying that Brodeur didn't benefit from the trap (well, in a real sense...but in a faulty save pct.-led sense, probably not...his reputation seems irreparably damaged by something that he played behind for about five years of his 20 year career). I just never understand why it's applied so heavily to Brodeur and so lightly to every other goalie. As if everyone else was a disciple of the 1985 Oilers or something haha
These goalies are up here because they played for defensive teams for most of their careers. Otherwise, they wouldn't be recognized in the first place.
I'll be back to talk about the "bad goals theory"...