Brodeur is ready
NEWARK, N. J. — Martin Brodeur has played in a deciding Game Seven of a playoff series eight times in his career with the New Jersey Devils and the prospect of another hasn’t changed the way the goaltender feels.
The 24 hours before the game are brutal. You know everything about your opponent. There is nothing more to study. There is only time to kill and butterflies to control.
That’s what Brodeur and probably everyone else on the Devils and Hurricanes was doing Monday as Carolina and New Jersey waited for Game Seven of their Eastern Conference first-round series to be played at 7:30 tonight at the Prudential Center.
Carolina forced a winner-take-all contest Sunday night with a dominating 4-0 victory at home.
“You have to control your emotions,” Brodeur said. “It’s definitely a tough game to play, but they are fun. When you play and dream as a kid, you always get that situation you make up to be a Game Seven. It’s nothing different when you have played for real. It’s still a game, you have to control everything inside.
“You can’t do too much and you can’t sit back either,” said Brodeur, who has led the Devils to three Stanley Cup titles, the last coming in 2003 in a Game Seven win over Anaheim. “The hardest part is now, waiting for the puck to drop. Whenever the puck drops, it’s just a hockey game.”
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