Martin Brodeur Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame--Post a New Jersey, 30, or Finest Known
airplanenut
Posts: 22,382 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have three hobbies/passions: coins, airplanes, and hockey. I'm a die-hard New Jersey Devils fan (some proof: I've watched all but perhaps 3 games in the last 7 or 8 seasons--82 games per--and the last one I missed was in 2016 because I was in the air during the game, flying east to go to the next night's game, when the Devils would retire Brodeur's number).
Martin Brodeur got his start in the NHL when I was starting elementary school. He retired more than 5 years after I graduated college, setting nearly every record for a goaltender, often by an enormous margin (691 wins vs. the previous 551, 125 shutouts vs. the previous 103). He's the player whose posters plastered my walls as a kid (to be fair, I still have a fair amount of nicer memorabilia of his on display at home). Since his retirement, I've been waiting for his election to the Hall of Fame. That came yesterday, in his first year of eligibility. I'm still giddy.
To make this coin related, around the same time Brodeur was gaining prominence, I was starting collecting. Growing up in New Jersey, I quickly fell in love with the NJ coppers, but for the longest time, but taste for quality increased just a bit faster than my budget. It took until the Baltimore show the weekend after my college graduation before I finally bought one, a graduation gift to myself.
Go ahead and post something appropriate for the occasion. New Jerseys, anything with a 30, or might I suggest, any finest known, because as we Devils fans have chanted for years, Marty's Better!
Comments
I'll indulge your Hockey Addiction with a 1930 Quarter:
(I'd add an "8" coin for Teemu Selanne, inducted last year....but all I have handy is an AU-53 1888 nickel, and it just isn't good enough for Teemu).
My oldest son's favorite hockey player and idolized for all time (he tried to imitate every move in his own goaltending). How he picked Marty I'll never know as we live in VA. Will post a coin later when at home.
Straight Outta Jersey T-Shirts
I'm Not Yelling, I'm From New Jersey T-Shirt
https://www.amazon.com/Mens-Yelling-Jersey-T-Shirt-Heather/dp/B077WCF7GV/ref=sr_1_4?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1520705188&sr=1-4&nodeID=7141123011&psd=1&keywords=new+jersey+t-shirts
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
They misspelled "tawk" on that shirt however
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
If your son played from the early 90s until the middle of this decade, Brodeur was one of two household names for goalies (Marty's idol, Patrick Roy, being the other). What you described is the same thing as a kid playing forward wanting to be like Wayne Gretzky. Unless you specifically want to be like your home-town goalie, you'd go with the best. I'll bet most of the current goalies in the NHL looked up to Marty.
I was fortunate to see him as a Blue in a couple of games at the end of his career in St Louis.
Hockey is my favorite sport also.
No others are as fun to watch.
I Am almost like a kid when I know I will be going to a hockey game.
Great stuff.
It's fun when your favorite player gets into the HOF.
Thank you for sharing your excitement, @airplanenut .
Edited because my stupid phone keeps replacing "favorite" with the British "favourite."
Annoying.
The best NJ picture I can find, from the Goethal’s Bridge heading into Staten Island.
He was born in 1993, and started following Marty around 2000. We either drove 3 hrs to DC when they played there or 3 hrs to Raleigh for the Hurricanes (the latter much easier to navigate, but the food in DC can be incredible).
My son got bored with the junior inline so he scrimmaged with us old guys, no full slapshots until he was 12, and we had a blast for 5 years together until I "retired"
He kept on playing through college and he's getting married next month.
Marty had a great D in front of him, and it was an era where D was stressed and the game got choked in between the blue lines a lot of time. If he ever got pulled for having an off night. 100% guarantee the next game he would get a shut out. He stayed healthy and was an iron man for so many years. He did so many things right, that when he had a gaff, they would replay it relentlessly. But he never did pull a stunt like Roy and shove the glove save in Izerman's face, only have the puck fall out and get scored on -- oy! lol.
Thanks for starting a cool thread! He will always be a NJ Devil to my son, but here's medal with St Louis