*Disclaimer: None of this should be taken too seriously.
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| Martin Brodeur, pictured above, holds several New Jersey Devils franchise records, including most wins by a goaltender to leave the team via free agency. Photo credit: MoreThanAFan.net |
NEW JERSEY DEVILS vs. EDMONTON OILERS -- February 9th, 2016
My Jersey Retirement Speech - Final Draft
First of all, thank
you fans and to the New Jersey Devils organization for honoring me on this
monumental night, even though I didn’t recognize anyone in the front office
when I walked in here this morning. I
also want to thank the St. Louis Blues for letting me take the night off. There comes a point in every player’s career
where he realizes it’s time to retire; luckily for me, I only realized it two
years late. There have been times when I
regret retiring, including last weekend, when I realized that I had more points
than some of this year’s All-Stars, but for the most part, I am enjoying my new
life. It took some time adjusting to my
new role, especially every time we get a new delivery of pucks to the arena, I
have to remind myself not to stop them, and also not having 17,000 people
shouting your name every night, but hey, sometimes Doug Armstrong shouting at
me can be louder than 17,000 people!
I
have a lot of people to thank tonight, because without them, I would not be
standing here right now. I first want to
thank Trevor Kidd. Thanks to you, I didn’t
have to go spend my career in that middle-of-nowhere known as Calgary! You really took one for the team there,
buddy. I also want to thank Lou
Lamoriello, because if it weren’t for you, I might have been drafted by Boston,
and I would have had to put up with thousands of New England accents instead of
just yours. I want to thank my teammates
over the years, particularly my defensemen.
Thank you Colin White, Mike Mottau, Marek Zidlicky and all of you who
turned the puck over so much that I got to make SportsCentre and Hockey Night
in Canada highlight reels every week.
You guys truly helped shape my career.
Most of all, thank you fans for your support every night. You guys, along with Rangers, Flyers,
Penguins and Habs fans, filled this arena… well, this and the one in the
Meadowlands, and were always shouting things I definitely don’t want my kids to
hear… even today!
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| Perhaps Brodeur's final significant triumph: winning the Eastern Conference over the NY Rangers in 2012. Photo credit: NY Daily News |
There
are other parts of the game I miss and will always miss. I miss watching opposing players weep after
being leveled by Scotty. I miss watching
Brian Rolston wind up his slapshot, only to have it sail five feet wide. I miss Devils fans booing Scott Gomez when he
came back as a Ranger. I miss playing
Vancouver and watching three gingers on their bench, yet you could only recognize
Schneider. I miss going to MSG and being
taunted days before Adam Henrique took matters into his own hands. But I won’t miss everything. I especially won’t miss coaches asking me to
go easy on the guys in practice so they would feel good about themselves. And I won't miss having a new coach every other month.
There
have been many moments that come to mind when I look back on my career. Even though I still flinch when I hear the
name “Matteau,” there are more positives memories than negative. When we swept Detroit in ’95, I felt like I
made it in the NHL. It was then that I finally
understood why Jacques Lemaire kept muttering “It’s a trap!” every day after
practice. Then in ’97, I scored my first
NHL goal. Not many players get to say
that they’ve won the Calder and a Stanley Cup before their first goal, so I had
that going for me. Obviously winning the
next two Cups was pretty special, and it was so special that I graciously
allowed my goaltending nemesis to win one against me in between.
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| Before making his 'Dancing With the Stars' debut, Avery learned to dance with Brodeur. Photo credit: NorthJersey.com |
Even
though we didn’t win any more Cups after 2003, I still had a lot of fun. Tying Patrick Roy’s win record up at Montreal
was incredible and was probably the biggest ovation I’ve ever gotten in my
career. I ended up breaking a lot of
records in New Jersey and in league history, including wins, shutouts, most
games played, most minutes and most takedowns of Sean Avery. I guess you know you’re good when the league
has to cancel an entire season just to come up with the trapezoid rule to slow
you down. I was truly blessed throughout
my 21 years in New Jersey and seven games in St. Louis. Oh, and for the record, Sean Avery is still
an asshole!
A
lot of people ask me if there’s anything I regret in my career, especially not finishing
in the same place that it started. To be
honest, I thought I was just continuing the tradition of great Devils players
leaving in free agency and signing elsewhere.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the “going home” excuse, because Montreal
didn’t need me, so St. Louis seemed like a random enough place to go. I don’t regret it at all because they liked
me so much in St. Louis that I went from being the backup backup goalie to
assistant General Manager in two weeks.
Lou wouldn’t even let me have a Twitter account after 21 years! In all seriousness, Lou is a first class guy
and by the way Lou, the jelly that you had N.J. Devil drop off at my place this
morning was delicious! I’m still not
coming to work for you in Toronto, though; there’s a team with goaltending
issues even I can’t fix, except for maybe this year.
I
should probably wrap this whole speech thing up now. I heard the chef has a big surprise for me up
at my suite tonight, so I need to get going!
I had a lot of fun playing here.
I guess you won’t hear many forwards say that, but I loved the way we
used to play, and I’m honored to join Stevens, Daneyko and Niedermayer up in
the rafters here. Considering I only
played seven games for the Blues, this is probably the last time I’ll have my number
retired by an NHL team. It’s a great
honor and I thank the Devils and Blues organizations for making this night
possible. Good luck to the Oilers and
Devils tonight, and remember Oilers players, the drinking age in New Jersey and
all of the U.S. is 21, so most of you guys won’t have anything to do after this
game. Anyway, I’m going to try to not get
emotional now. Thank you guys for
everything and be sure to check out martinbrodeur30.com to buy my gear! See you guys on Patrik Elias Night next year. Let’s Go Blues! Let’s Go Devils!
