Kevin Dupont

Much of the talk the last couple of weeks of the NHL's regular season centered around either Sidney Crosby or Roberto Luongo being named the 2006-'07 MVP.

Great talents, yes. Certainly worthy of the discussion. In fact, I've got Crosby No. 2 and Luongo No. 3 on my ballot.  But the winner of this season's Hart Trophy, I believe, has to be New Jersey netminder Martin Brodeur.

Without Brodeur, the Devils weren't a playoff team.  Of course, the same was true of the Penguins (see: Crosby) and the Canucks (see: Luongo). Based on the sole criterion of what a player means to his team — which is the definition of the MVP award — it's actually a three-way tie for first place.  Remove any one of these players from his team, and said team ends up an also-ran, one of the teams with a high pick for the upcoming amateur draft, June 22-23, in Columbus.

Faced with that three-way tie, we are forced to crunch the numbers. In that case, Brodeur is an easy pick over Luongo. Brodeur topped the league in both wins (48) and shutouts (12), and finished third in goals-against average and save percentage.

Of the 16 teams to make the playoffs, Brodeur's Devils scored the fewest of the bunch, which in part is why head coach Claude Julien was sent packing at Exit 16W with only three games to go in the regular season. GM Lou Lamoriello couldn't stomach watching the nightly disappearing act of his best offensive performers. Saddled with a coach who couldn't get his forwards to pot the puck, and a defensive corps that is a shadow of what it was during the Scott Stevens era, all Brodeur did was win, win and win some more.  

Luongo, meanwhile, received just about the same offensive backing from his Canucks, but finished one behind Brodeur for wins and shutouts.  Sorry if that sounds like too much mathematical dissection, but frankly, it's the only way I know of choosing between the two.  It's somewhat like watching two great hitters on the last day of the baseball season, and one guys takes the crown by a margin of .001.  Sometimes it's just a numbers game.

Now, as for Brodeur vs. Crosby. A much tougher choice.

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Crosby's name was on 120 of Pittsburgh's 277 goals (43.3 percent).  The second-leading point-getter, Joe Thornton, had factored in 44.2 percent of San Jose's 258 goals, and Vincent LeCavalier 42.7 percent of the Bolts's 253 goals.  Sid the Kid did not win the goal-scoring crown (see: LeCavalier) or the assist title (see: Thornton). Crosby kept great company there, but by no means did he blow out the category.  He was to Pittsburgh's offense what Thornton was to San Jose's and LeCavalier to Tampa Bay's.  

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OK, so I'll call it a tie when comparing Brodeur's accomplishment of most wins with Crosby's Art Ross Trophy for most points. That leaves me with Brodeur's impressive runaway in the "shutouts" category and his top-three finishes in save percentage and goal-against average. Oh, and let's not forget that he played some 200 minutes more than any other goalie, which made him the position's iron man on top of everything else.

You know, the more I've delved into the numbers here, the easier it becomes to pick Brodeur. Will he be a popular choice? Hardly. But that doesn't make him the wrong choice.

Working against Brodeur — and not fair at all — is that he has been around for so long (he'll turn 35 at the start of May), and that he plays for one of the sport's most boring teams.  He is not the sexy new kid on the block, as Crosby is in Pittsburgh.  He's not the franchise goalie who finally has a franchise, which is what Luongo pined for in his days with the Islanders and Panthers and now has with the Canucks.

Brodeur simply is the best goalie in today's game, which is why he has won two of the last three Vezinza Trophies and three times has been the award's runner-up.  

He is also, based on the tale of the numbers, this year's MVP.