Devils victorious in Brodeur’s return

So much for the notion that New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur could suffer from some ‘rink rust’ in his first game back from injury. In his first action since being sidelined by an elbow injury on November 1^st, Brodeur stopped 24 shots and earned his 99^th career regular season shutout as the New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 on Thursday night at the Meadowlands Arena.  With the win, Brodeur is now six shy of tying Patrick Roy’s record for all time wins and five shutouts away from tying Terry Sawchuck’s all time best mark in that department.

His teammates played exceptional hockey in Brodeur’s return to action, as the Devils were tenacious on defense all night as they limited Colorado’s scoring opportunities.  They were also very opportunistic on the offensive end of the ice, and quickly gave their goaltender a lead to work with as Jamie Langenbrunner  scored his 19^th of the season just under five minutes into the game (assisted by Travis Zajac and Zach Parise).    Patrick Elias made it 2-0 midway through the second, scoring his 24^th of the year on the power play assisted by Parise and Paul Martin.  Parise would score himself midway through the third period, netting his 36^th of the season assisted by Jamie Langenbrunner and Travis Zajac.  Zajac would cap the scoring late in the period with his 17^th of the season assisted by Paul Martin and Johnny Oduya.

The story of the game, however, was Brodeur’s quick return to form.  In his postgame comments, he shared some of his emotions from being back on the ice:

"It was an exciting night to get out there and perform. I was really anxious all day, more nervous that I thought I was going to be. We pulled it off. It was nice to score early in the game. I didn't get much work. It was a nice game to play.”

Brodeur also commended the Devils’ fans, who reacted with enthusiastic cheers for even routine saves:

"The fans were great. I don't know if they were sarcastic about cheering me on the saves sometimes but it was definitely nice."

And the surgically repaired elbow?:

"The elbow was great. I didn't feel anything all game long. I tested it a couple of times, especially getting up and moving across. In the middle of the second, I made a couple of saves, going left and right, moving across. It was good."