Loyalty Separates Brodeur from the Rest
Goalie has stayed true to Devils for 15 years and counting
Posted on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 2:39 PMWhile observing the Dany Heatley — "I Don't Want To Do This; I Don't Want To Do That" — Circus, I'm immediately reminded of Martin Brodeur.
Whether he's the greatest goalie of all time; or the best of the Expansion Era; or the best of whatever really isn't the point.
What Brodeur IS can be defined with one virtually obsolete term in contemporary sports — LOYAL.
Considering his record-breaking number of wins alone, Marty could have commanded a record-breaking salary with any number of teams starting with his hometown Montreal Canadiens.
While it may be hard to find, there still IS such a thing as loyalty and Brodeur has re-defined it, simply by remaining a New Jersey Devil for life.
He has done this not only at a major financial sacrifice, but also while earning the wrath — at least in the past — of militant members of the NHL Players' Association, whose accent on greed often overshadows much of the good work done by the union.
By contrast, we have a talent such as Heatley who was a principal in one of the worst off-ice tragedies in hockey annals while playing for the Thrashers.
At the time, Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk virtually guaranteed a one-two offensive combination that would thrust Atlanta toward the top of the NHL.
But the auto wreck cast Heatley into an extremely negative limelight and he eventually begged his way out of Georgia.
Thrashers general manager Don Waddell accommodated his request, moving the "enfant terrible" to Ottawa where Dany became the centerpiece of a Stanley Cup-contending Senators club.
This time Sens GM Bryan Murray did what seemed like a sensible move
— signing Heatley, Dan Alfredsson, Jason Spezza — to long-term deals that would assure a Cup-contending nucleus.
One would have thought that Dany would reciprocate such faith with loyalty to his embattled GM as well as his teammates.
So, what happens?
The team nosedives in 2008-09; the coach gets canned; a new coach arrives and, lo and behold, Heatley's ice time is cut.
Whoa! What else happens?
All of a sudden, the Senators reel off win after win and look like contenders-come-lately — except that it was too late.
A team player would have loved the revived club, but Heatley apparently is interested in Dany; and Dany alone.
Thus, he requested a trade and Murray obliged by dispatching him to Edmonton.
But since the Oilers are the closest team to the North Pole, Heatley nixed the move putting himself and Murray back to Square Ottawa.
Wherever Heatley goes from here — Dallas? — he immediately becomes the quintessential poster boy for DISLOYALTY.
Too bad Dany never read Brodeur's book!
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