Charles Krupa / AP

Will Devils goalie Martin Brodeur win his fourth Stanley Cup this year?

OPINION

By Craig Custance

updated 7:20 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2009

It was a rare moment in which Martin Brodeur has been missed. In Tuesday night's game against the Capitals, Washington's Michael Nylander held the puck, looking for anyone to pass to. Anyone.

But the New Jersey penalty-killing unit took away all his options, so he settled for a bad-angle shot on Scott Clemmensen. He scored — a soft goal — and the Capitals opened up a two-goal lead in the third period of a game Washington eventually won.

Clemmensen has been outstanding for the Devils, who before Tuesday night's loss had won eight consecutive games. In Brodeur's absence, the Devils have emerged as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. But for New Jersey to truly be considered a Stanley Cup contender this season — and its play of late suggests it could be — it needs Brodeur back on the ice leading the way.

In his blog, Devils beat writer Tom Gulitti said Brodeur and the Devils are targeting a Feb. 26 game against the Avalanche as his first back following elbow surgery in November. It's also the date Devils fans can start serious talk of another Stanley Cup run.

Yes, Brodeur will have to be eased back into action, but any talk that he should share time with Clemmensen during the playoffs is absurd. That isn't a knock on Clemmensen, who is a major reason the Devils are in first place despite the loss of Brodeur. But combine the evolution of the Devils as one of the league's most dangerous offensive teams with a Hall of Fame goalie, and New Jersey could be the team nobody wants to play in April.

In a strange way, it took losing Brodeur to get to this point. For years, you couldn't help but wonder if the success in New Jersey was more a product of an outstanding goalie than the talent around him.

But this season, the Devils have proven to be anything but a one-person team.

"No. 1, there is always a good foundation," New Jersey coach Brent Sutter told SportingNews.com. "Your foundation isn't built around one person. Your foundation is built around a group. That's why I've said it is really important when you go through adversity, you always lean on that. It's your security blanket."

And here we thought Brodeur was the security blanket.

"I don't think there was ever a misconception in the locker room about the kind of team we could be without Marty," Sutter continued. "I think the misconception was always on the outside — this idea that we were a one-man team."

In the East, Boston has become the team to beat, partly because of its depth at forward. Every night, it seems, there's a matchup problem for the opposition because the talented Bruins forwards keep coming.

Without Brodeur, the New Jersey forwards have become as deep of a group as Boston's. In Zach Parise and Patrik Elias, the Devils have two of the top 10 point-scorers in the NHL. Jamie Langenbrunner has seven goals in his last four games, and now the Devils can roll out a line with veterans Brendan Shanahan and Bobby Holik playing side-by-side. When the playoffs get here, that will be a nice advantage for New Jersey.

But it's more than the forwards, Parise said. It's about an evolution of play as a team that started even before Brodeur's injury.

"I don't think that when Marty went down we started looking at ourselves and said, 'We have to change things now,'" Parise told SportingNews.com. "Going from last year to this year, we're more aggressive. Our D is pinching more and jumping into play more. Which if you ask me, is the way you have to play now. We're more aggressive and scoring more goals because of it."

This clearly is a better Devils team now than it was when Brodeur was injured back in November. And when he gets back to form in the coming weeks, we'll get to see how good the Devils really are.

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