Sidney Crosby Pens tale about date with Stanley Cup

By Garth Woolsey
December 24, 2009


Sidney Crosby, only 21 years of age, this past week was named winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy – for the second time. He has given himself a tough act to follow but no one would be surprised if he won the award for Canada's top athlete again, and again.

This latest laurel is the result of Crosby, as team captain, taking his Pittsburgh Penguins to Stanley Cup victory last spring. One of the winners' perks is getting to spend a day with the Cup itself, an occasion in The Next One's case that is commemorated by this book (note the price – the 87 cents, of course, duplicates the number on his Penguins sweater).

It is every hockey-playing kid's dream to share the Cup with family and friends. Since 1995, the NHL has made it a tradition to allow members of the winning team to do just that.

Crosby, being Crosby, made his day extra special, complete with Sea King helicopter and armoured personnel carrier rides and rallies in his hometown of Cole Harbour, N.S. Oh, it happened to be his birthday, too.

Crosby "wrote" the book himself, but he is a man of few words. It is mainly about the feel-good photos, taken by Brad McCaughan.

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It was a very good year for Brodeur

By Tom Gulitti
December 24, 2009


The question seemed to be a natural one, but there was no obvious answer.
After Martin Brodeur posted his NHL record-breaking 104th career shutout Monday in a 4-0 win over the reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, the Devils goaltender was asked if there were any records left for him to break.

"I don’t know," Brodeur replied. "You guys will tell me."

As far as regular season records, there aren’t any of real significance. In 2009 alone, Brodeur has become the NHL’s all-time leader in regular season wins (he now has 580), shutouts, games (1,032) and minutes played (60,962). He also holds the NHL’s single-season win record after having 48 in 2006-07. With a league-high 23 wins in the Devils’ first 35 games, he’s on pace to break that record and finish with 53.

Although Brodeur has surpassed Patrick Roy’s records for regular wins (551), games (1029) and minutes (60,235), he still has a bit of ground to cover to break Roy’s record for most playoff wins (151) and most postseason games (247).

Brodeur has 98 career wins in 176 postseason games. He is tied with Roy for the most playoff shutouts with 23.

After Brodeur broke Terry Sawchuk’s nearly 40-year-old NHL shutout record on Monday, it was suggested Brodeur go after Ken Daneyko’s Devils’ record of 1,283 regular season games, but the 37-year-old Montreal native seemed reluctant to try to take that distinction from the player known as, "Mr. Devil."

"I don’t know about that," he said.

Brodeur has always been appreciative of his teammates’ efforts and often points out that, though his name goes in the record book, he couldn’t have done it without them.

"It’s something that I really appreciate throughout the years – the commitment that my team is making," he said. "I’m definitely getting the fruit of it with breaking records, but shutouts, you don’t do it by yourself."

Brodeur compared the final minutes of Monday’s game to a playoff game. His teammates were going down to block shots, unselfishly chipping the puck out of the defensive zone rather than risk an offensive rush, doing whatever they could to stop the Penguins from scoring one goal.

"You could tell the guys were really focused and knew exactly what was going on," Brodeur said.

His teammates took as much pride in Brodeur getting the record as he did.

"He’ll be the first to admit it. He can’t do it all by himself," captain Jamie Langenbrunner said. "Some nights he may, but I think we did a lot of good things to help him."

Forward Patrik Elias, who has played more games with Brodeur than any current Devil, was almost ho hum about being part of history, as he said, "again."

"I think we’re going to get that question a few more times," Elias said. "But it was nice. You saw the way we played even the last shift. We just wanted to get it done."

With the shutout record behind them, the Devils might turn their attention to capturing their first President’s Trophy, which goes to the NHL team with the most regular season points. With three more days off for Christmas before resuming play Saturday in Washington, the Devils are first overall with a 26-8-1 record and 53 points.

They are 3-0 against each of their closest competitors in the East – the Penguins (51 points) and the Capitals (50).

"It’s a long year," Brodeur said. "There’s streaks. It’s only 35 games or so played for everybody. There’s a lot of real estate to cover until the end of the year and the playoffs. "It’s how good you are in the playoffs that really counts."

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