Martin Brodeur Is No Better Than Sean Avery

The title on this should be self explanatory, but I'll go into some detail here. Before that, I must apologize for not getting something new up here in a few days. I had a buddy in town for all of last week and it was rather difficult to find the time to be able to sit down and write something up. He left yesterday and now here I am once again.

Anyway, Friday night after the Rangers had turned any normal day into one of my favorite holidays (Devils Elimination Day), Martin Brodeur did one of the most classless acts I have ever seen. I'm not saying this is as bad as Todd Bertuzzi or Marty McSorley, but it's close in terms of tradition.

In the handshake line, Brodeur and Sean Avery gradually got closer and closer. The cameras were fixated on the two as if it was a foregone conclusion that something would go down and it did.

Sean Avery extends his hand to Brodeur and Marty takes the low road and skates on by without accepting the handshake.



I have a serious problem with this. The handshake is one of the longest standing and greatest tradition that the NHL has. How many other professional American sports have this in place? One. The NFL, and even that is just one big sausage fest of hugging. If the teams are going to hug like that after battling each other, here's what I propose.

You get the cheerleaders to travel to road games. You have them compete against each other at halftime. Make it a quick 10 minute game of flag football. You keep records and standings just like you would for the NFL. Once the 10 minute game is over, the girls can hug it out. I can tell you right now that the lines at the urinal would be rather short at the half.

Furthermore, the Super Bowl halftime show continues to get worse and worse every year. I didn't like it when MTV had it before the infamous wardrobe malfunction and I don't like the watered down version we get every year now. Here's how you make the Super Bowl halftime show amazing.

Remember those standings from the cheerleader flag football? You take the top 2 records from the season and have them play a 30 minute game for all the marbles. It can be 30 minutes since halftime at the Super Bowl is about 2 hours long anyway. Once it's over you have a trophy presentation and one final Super Hugoff.

Anyway, back to hockey. The handshake line is one of the greatest sights in all of sports in my opinion. It's a symbol of tradition as guys who battled hard for upwards of seven games meet at center ice to man up one final time. You extend your hand to the guy as a sign of respect for a tough battle. In the handshake line, it doesn't matter who won or lost. All that matters is the respect among warriors.

What Brodeur did was the equivalent of a little kid throwing a temper tantrum when their parents took their favorite toy away. Do I see where Brodeur is coming from on this? Of course, especially after what Avery did in Game 3. Upon further review, I have a slight issue with the stick wagging, but still have no problem with how he as screening Brodeur face to face. None at all.

Brodeur gets all this talk and praise for being such a nice guy and a class act. This now makes two instances where I have lost even more respect for him. The first was two years ago at their practice rink. My parents came down for my father's birthday and we went to a Penguins/Devils game at the old Continental Airlines Arena. The Penguins won, which I was obviously happy about.

The next day we went to the rink where the Devils used to practice to try and get an autograph or a picture for my father. Every player who came off the ice that day stopped to sign stuff for the little kids and whoever wanted one. Not Marty. Brodeur walked right by and was halfway to the locker room when the screaming kids got in his head.

He turned around with an annoyed look on his face, walked back over to where we were standing and sign four things. I'll repeat that. Four. Then walked away. He actually took the card I had, looked at it and handed it back to me and then walked off without signing it. That would have been one of the best gifts I could have ever gotten my father and Marty screwed me and all the kids who look up to him that day.

Maybe he's just getting cranky in his old age and was annoyed that he let up way too many soft goals in the series. I don't know, but it was a disgrace to see him skate past an outstretched hand.

Super Let Down

It seems fitting that I should at least post something about Super Bowl XLII. I should explain that I am a Patriots fan. No, not a bandwagon fan. I grew up in New England, enough said.

There's not much to say about the game other than that the Patriots did not play their best game and as a result lost. The Giants defensive line was incredible with how much pressure they were able to get on Tom Brady. To me it seemed that some of those wide open receivers that Brady missed during the game were due to "happy feet." You know he had to be thinking he was going to get drilled again if he didn't get the ball out quick. The Giants knocked the Pats out of rhythm and that was why they won.

Just going to throw this out there too. Eli Manning's pass to David Tyree to set up the game winning touchdown was incredible. What's more amazing is that the Giants have been notorious for missed tackles leading to big plays and yet at least four Pats couldn't bring the little weasel down.

A sack there makes it fourth and a mile and all but locks up a perfect season. Just writing that last part pains me. We were 35 seconds from perfection....35! Argh! Suddenly, horrible suppressed memories of past sports moments that ripped my heart out came flashing back. Here's the quick top 3.

#3 - Bill Buckner - Granted I was about two-years-old at best, but even then I know something bad happened. They say you're too young to remember things from that age, I disagree. My little self wasn't prepared for the anointment of being a New England sports fan and thus, blocked it out entirely.

#2 - Pens Lose In 5OTs - I can still hear Steve Levy's call. "Primeau in over the line, pulls up, shoots...AND THERE IT IS! IN THE 5TH OVERTIME!!" Local time was about 2:30am and it was a school night. I would have been just fine had the Pens won that game to take a 3-0 lead in the series on home ice no less. Instead they go on to lose the series.

#1 - Aaron "Bleeping" Boone - Game 7 2003 ALCS. Seven of us are gathered in Bricks room. I called my grandfather in the sixth inning and the excited conversation was something I'll never forget because it ended with me saying "I'll call you after the game."

Then Grady Little leaves dead arm Pedro in, who naturally blows it. We go to extras and Tim Wakefield gives up the bomb to Boone prompting me to walk back to my room, take my keys out of my pocket, throw them against the wall, grab a wiffle ball bat and proceed to unleash hilarious hell on various pillows. The holes in the wall from the keys were still there on graduation day. Talk about leaving a legacy.

In time I'll get over this loss and accept the fact that it was a great game. The Pats just didn't play their best game and paid for it as a result. I guess we'll just have to wait another year for them to pull off perfection.