I also thought about calling this article "Anything your Brodeur can do, mine can do better"

Despite his best attempts to deny the Mike "Not Martin" Brodeur experience from hockey fans and humour enthusiasts, Ottawa Senators coach Cory Clouston finally gave our favourite backup backup goalie his first NHL start on Saturday night.

Apparently Clouston hates anecdotes, because he had the perfect opportunity on Friday to create what would have been an excellent footnote in the NHL record book. Ottawa was playing in New Jersey in what was Martin Brodeur's 1030th NHL game, surpassing Patrick Roy's previous league record of 1029. Clouston started Brian Elliott instead of Not Martin, which is really too bad, because we could have seen the following on post-game recaps:

NJD: M. Brodeur (W)
OTT: M. Brodeur (L)

Oh well. After the Minnesota Wild's equipment truck falling victim to a large burning sensation, Clouston took advantage of the greatly handicapped Wild to actually give a game to his Brodeur. Elsewhere that night, the Devils were taking on the Atlanta Thrashers. Here's how the two Brodeurs fared:

Martin Brodeur (3 goals against, 3 saves)
Mike Brodeur (1 goal against, 22 saves)

It's always a nice feeling to watch a rookie goaltender get his first NHL win, especially a journeyman like Brodeur. At only 26 years of age, Brodeur has played for four ECHL teams and three AHL teams. In his first NHL callup, he spent nearly a month sitting on the bench as regular backup Brian Elliott started 15 consecutive games.

Interestingly, both Elliott and Brodeur are members of the incredible 2003 draft class. Brodeur was picked in the 7th round, 211th overall by Chicago, while Elliott was a 9th rounder, 291st overall by Ottawa. Montreal's Jaroslav Halak was another goaltender picked late in 2003 at 271st overall in the 9th round.

A choice quote from Not Martin following the game:

"It's a dream come true to get that win. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight. I'm floating."

Congratulations to Mike Brodeur on his first start, first win, first first star, and first game confusing people reading scoresheets.

The Price of Vancouver: On Friday night I attempted to attend the Washington Capitals and Vancouver Canucks game at GM Place. The Canucks are always an expensive ticket with corner seats in the upper level, last row costing upwards of $60 at face value. Games are almost always sold out well in advance, so most of the time you're forced to go through the bane of the fan on a budget's existence: scalpers.

How much does a date with Ovechkin go for in the city of Vancouver? Try $250 per ticket, upper bowl. Club level were around $400-500 each. A father bringing his two young sons had to shell out $600 with the game already five minutes into the first period!

One of the tricks in Vancouver to get cheap seats is to intentionally miss some of the game. By sticking around until 7:15 for a 7:00 start time, you can usually find scalpers willing to do anything to get a return on their remaining tickets. People have been known to get lower bowls for $20-30 once a game has been already underway for 10 minutes. On Friday I was witnessed the exception to the rule. By 7:50, with the first period over, scalpers were still demanding $150 per ticket, and people were buying. The absolute cheapest I saw seats go for was $500 for five. This, too, was at 7:30, and purchased by a group of people who shouted out their ultimatum of that price or no sale at all.

There are cities where there are tickets still available for $40 in the lower bowl on game day. Then there are cities like Vancouver. There is no way I could argue that these insane prices are a detriment to growing the fanbase here. Vancouver fans are passionate as any (sometimes deafeningly so), and the kids in this city are no exception. They don't need to go to games to love their team. What high ticket prices and even higher scalper prices do is deny those with lower incomes and with families from taking in a game live. Not every father can swallow $600 to take his children to see Alexander Ovechkin. Unfortunately for those who can, there's always someone gladly willing to take advantage of them.

I realize that scalping is an economy of its own, but it's a real shame that there are people who intentionally deny families from an evening at a game just to turn disgustingly high profits.

PSA: Alternate standings point systems report coming up next weekend.

Some thoughts and notes this week:

• Ottawa defenceman Erik Karlsson scored his first NHL goal Saturday in his 21st game. After pulling off an (unsuccessful) breakaway on Friday against New Jersey - as a defenceman - it was only a matter of time. Congratulations to him.
• More Senators: since the introduction of the shootout in 2005-06, Ottawa has gone 13-26. In 2007-08 alone, Edmonton went 15-4.
• After Saturday's games eight teams have records below .500. Another four are exactly .500, leaving 18 teams being above a point a game. It's better than a couple of weeks ago when only four teams were below the .500 mark.
• Canucks forward Henrik Sedin, known mostly for being part of a freaky twin combination, has 44 points in 35 games. He's 3rd in points behind Marian Gaborik (45) and Joe Thornton (48), while also on pace for 103 points. He had his highest point total last season with 82 points in 82 games.
• Henrik Sedin is also the only player in the top 14 in league scoring with an average time on ice below 20:00 (he averages 19:16, over 3:00 less than Gaborik). Going into Saturday night he also had the lowest ice time of the 20 top scorers. Coach Alain Vigneault is rather notorious for holding back and playing defensive when his team is leading in the third period. Imagine what Hank Sedin could do if Vigneault would let him loose a few more minutes each night.
• Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin (okay, technically a centre, but that 37% faceoff percentage disagrees) is snakebitten when it comes to scoring goals. To date he has fired 117 pucks on the net for 10 goals in 28 games with a shooting percentage of 8.5%. You might not think of Malkin as a sniper, but he's scored 33, 47, and 35 goals in his first three seasons, respectively. Last year he had the worst shooting percentage of his career at 12.1%.
• Meanwhile, Washington Capitals winger Tomas Fleischmann has an unreal 27.5% shooting percentage. 14 goals on 51 shots. Also amongst the accurate shooters is Penguins centre and legend-in-the-making Mike Rupp who has 9 goals on 44 shots.
• Pascal Leclaire is the only goaltender in the top five on Ottawa's depth chart not drafted in 2003. Brian Elliott (9th round, 291st overall, Ottawa), Mike Brodeur (7th, 211th, Chicago), Andy Chiodo (7th, 199th, Pittsburgh), and Chris Holt (6th, 180th, New York Rangers) are all members of the 2003 draft class (Chiodo re-entered the draft after previously been drafted in 2001 by the New York Islanders). All four have played NHL games.

Your Lottery Teams after Saturday Night:

1. Carolina Hurricanes (24 points, 35 games)
2. Anaheim Ducks, via Philadelphia Flyers (32 points, 34 games)
3. New York Islanders (33 points, 36 games)
4. Boston Bruins, via Toronto Maple Leafs (33 points, 36 games)
5. Tampa Bay Lightning (33 points, 35 games)

And Finally...: Vesa Toskala is awesome. Check out the difference between his years in San Jose, Toronto, and this season and last combined (2008-10):

 

Photo via NHL.com