Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Brodeur on Penguins gaffe: “We don’t have the luxury right now to give up these goals”

Martin Brodeur

FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2010, file photo, New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur looks on during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo, N.Y. Brodeur has a sprained right knee and his status has been listed as day to day. The Devils said Tuesday. Feb. 8, 2011, that his injury will not require surgery. The 38-year-old Brodeur was hurt on Sunday when something “popped” in his knee in the first period of a 4-1 win over the Canadiens in Montreal. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

AP

Even though he’s been a catalyst for New Jersey’s playoff push and was hardly to blame for Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Pittsburgh, Devils goalie Martin Brodeur still feels his game needs improvement as the postseason draws near.

“These are the things in which I look to try to be more consistent,” Brodeur told the New Jersey Star-Ledger. “Try to be good every night. I feel good. I feel like I’m making the big saves, but there are a couple goals here and there that you’d like to have back.

“We don’t have the luxury right now to give up these goals.”

“These goals” is in reference to the opening marker Pittsburgh scored on Brodeur:

Whoops.

Brodeur’s comments are likely a byproduct of two things. One, he’s right -- a goal like that can’t be surrendered at such a crucial stage of the season.

Two, the 39-year-old knows that if his team wants to make noise this postseason, he’ll need to be razor sharp. The Devils will likely be underdogs against whomever they draw in the opening round and given their current goalscoring woes -- New Jersey has 10 goals in its last seven games -- one mistake by Brodeur could be the difference between winning and losing.

“That was the first time this year it really happened for me and it came as a bad time,” he said of the Penguins goal. “I know I’ll make mistakes and, trust me, I’ll be back there tomorrow. I’m not going to be afraid to do it. I’ve been around so long to know what to do to play my game.

“But you make mistakes at the (wrong) time against the wrong teams it gets magnified a little bit. I know I should be better than that.”