All about Martin
Cup hopes resting on Brodeur
By Jim Kernaghan, Free Press Sports Columnist
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Martin Brodeur watches the action behind his net during a Team Canada practice in preparation for The World Cup of Hockey August 22, 2004. The 8-team tournament starts on August 30.
(Jason Ransom/Ottawa Sun) |
The player upon whose shoulders Team Canada's World Cup hopes inevitably rest can't wait. Martin Brodeur lives for moments such as these. It's the ultimate showdown of supremely skilled shooters and the guy generally adjudged as being the best there is to stop them.
Team Canada takes on Slovakia tonight in what head coach Pat Quinn terms the final evaluation to determine which 20 players of the 25 in camp will dress for the tournament opener against Team USA on Tuesday.
There is no doubt who'll be in goal for tonight's game, possibly for the entire game.
"He's been maybe the best goaltender in the game for years now and he's answered in the big situations time after time," Quinn said yesterday.
"It's no secret why New Jersey is so successful year after year. It starts with him."
Brodeur was hoping to play the entire game tonight.
"I haven't had a 60-minute game for three or four months now," he said. He allowed just nine goals in five games during Canada's run to the 2002 Olympic gold medal.
For Quinn, it's comforting to have Brodeur in net, with Roberto Luongo and Jose Theodore backing up. When big games are on the line, the eight-time all-star and three-time Stanley Cup winner is the guy you want in.
The 32-year-old Montreal native is clearly not approaching tonight's game as a workout. He'll be running all the Slovak shooters' styles and tendencies through his head well before the game.
"Most of the guys are in the NHL, so I know them. But you have to adjust a bit when they're playing together as a team," he said. "The Europeans don't shoot as often as a North American team, for example."
Brodeur has a mental book on who is likely to shoot, and how, and who is more likely to pass. He amasses this during league games and through constant monitoring of television highlight clips.
He admits that one of the toughest teams he faced internationally was Germany.
"I didn't know anything about any of those guys when we played them a couple of years ago. I went in kind of blind against them."
The Team Canada mantra from the start has been to improve with each practice and each game. Quinn said his main concern going into training camp was the team's relative youth.
"For me, the youth of the team, the experience level, was the greatest concern. Some of these young men haven't been in this spot, if ever. The mental side of the game allows you to perform at your best and not be afraid.
"There's no question about their skill level. But we lost two very experienced international players (Steve Yzerman and Chris Pronger). A lot will be expected of those stepping in."
Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning replaced injured Detroit veteran Yzerman and Scott Hannan from San Jose replaces the St. Louis Blues' Pronger.
For all the young talent assembled, Quinn has touched on the importance of work ethic from the start of this camp. He referred to the great strides made by Calgary power forward Jarome Iginla as a result of watching the veterans level of toil at the Olympics.
"The woods are full of guys who are talented but don't know how to work," he said.
The message is clear for young defencemen Jay Bouwmeester, Hannan and Robyn Regehr, along with forwards Dany Heatley, Lecavalier, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Brad Richards and Simon Gagne -- grind it out at both ends of the rink.
There's no doubt about the mental preparation going on at one end. Brodeur is taking apart Slovakia, player by player and line by line, to get a fix on tendencies in all situations. He thrives on this stuff, the showdowns.
"It's why we play hockey. It's about pride, about risk, about beating their best.
"If I lose that, I'll be joining you guys to ask the questions," he laughed.
