NHL Brodeur having another spectacular year in goal

The New Jersey goalie is among the NHL leaders and has 10 shutouts.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Standing in his goaltender's crease during a morning skate, Martin Brodeur saw his New Jersey Devils teammates coming toward him and kicked out his leg.
A dull thud echoed through the empty Continental Airlines Arena as the slap shot hit off his pad.
It was another routine stop for Brodeur, who is following his first Vezina Trophy-winning season with a spectacular campaign. He is again among the NHL leaders in wins and goals against average, and his 10 shutouts are six shy of breaking Tony Esposito's 34-year-old single-season, modern-era record.
"I'm a pretty simple guy," said the 31-year-old Brodeur, who has led the Devils to three Stanley Cups since 1995 and helped Canada win an Olympic gold medal in 2002.
Loves the game
"I love the game. That's it," he said. "Every time I go in the net, it's just that little black puck trying to get through me. I block everything else out."
That focus was tested during the Devils' championship run last season by a much-publicized separation from his wife.
"Tough skin," Devils coach Pat Burns said about Brodeur. "All the stuff he had to go through concerning last year, I don't know how he focused going through it. People weren't very nice to him. People brought his personal life into the public."
Brodeur, who doesn't like discussing his private life, said the publicity surrounding the breakup was surprising.
"Now I understand what different levels guys like Kobe Bryant go through and what a lot of athletes go through," Brodeur said. "Before, I was the one saying, 'Look at this guy.' It's hard enough to deal with these people talking to you about it all the time."
When Brodeur plays hockey, though, it's hard not to talk about him. He appeared in at least 70 games in seven of the last eight seasons.
At the morning skate, as Brodeur readied to face the next group of players, veteran forward Sergei Brylin glided toward the net, seemingly out of the goalie's sight line.
Within seconds, there was another thud and the puck fell in front of the crease. Brylin got his stick on it and almost immediately snapped it toward net.
The puck never made it in. Brodeur fanned out his glove hand and picked the puck out of the air like a first baseman snagging a bad throw from an infielder.
"He loves to make saves like that," Brylin said with wry smile. "He tries all the time. He can't let up. He never quits."
Lauded by teammates
Igor Larionov added: "He is the best goaltender in the world."
That's not a comment to be taken lightly from the NHL's oldest player.
Larionov, who turned 43 last December, played with Vladislav Tretiak on the great teams of the former Soviet Union and has played with Curtis Joseph and Dominik Hasek in his 14 years in the NHL.
"He is very calm in the nets, not emotional," Larionov said of Brodeur. "He reads the game so well. He doesn't do anything foolish, like overreact and cheat or gamble. He is a guy who knows exactly what the other player is going to do."
For all his focus, Brodeur is remarkably laid back.
During a game against the Montreal Canadiens last week, Grant Marshall of the Devils was awarded a penalty shot.
More of a grinder than a skill player, Marshall skated over to Brodeur to ask his advice.
Brodeur didn't tell him what to do against Canadiens goaltender Jose Theodore. Instead, he told Marshall to have fun because he was probably never going to get another penalty shot again.
While it didn't help on the unsuccessful shot, it made Marshall laugh.
Carefree approach to game
Brodeur takes the same somewhat carefree approach to goaltending. He doesn't spend much time reading scouting reports or watching videotapes of opponents. He arrives about 2 1/2 hours before the opening faceoff, changes into shorts and a T-shirt and then walks out to the bench to tape a couple of sticks for the game.
He will meet with goaltending coach Jacques Caron after that to watch clips of each save and goal allowed from the Devils' last game. It takes less than five minutes.
"If I don't do well for a reason, I want to know why and I'm going to try to work at it," Brodeur said.