Passing St. Patrick

Ah top o' the mornin' to ya lads and lassies...

Ok, I think that's enough of that.
Happy St. Patrick's day everyone and for all of you reading this who might be in university, may your face be as green as your beer.

It's kind of a funny day because not only is it St. Patrick's day, the holiday where god told us to celebrate beer in all it's wonder, but it also may turn out to be St. Patrick's last day.

On Saturday night, Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 and in doing so equalled Patrick Roy's all-time mark of 551 career victories.

Tonight, Brodeur will take his shot at passing St. Patrick (as he was known from his time in Montreal) at 7:30 in NJ versus Chicago.

The debate of which is truly the greatest goalie of all time is one that can not and will not be resolved here, but we can at least make an argument can't we?

Brodeur and Roy are tied atop the all-time list with 551 wins, but Roy got there in 1029 games where Brodeur did it in 986. However, it should also be accounted for that Brodeur has played the most recent four years of his career in an a game that had no ties and included shootouts.
Since the NHL instituted shootouts as part the game beginning in the 2005-06 season, no goalie has posted more wins in the format than him, with 27 against only 14 losses.

If those games would have all ended in ties, like they did for the beginning of his career and for the entirety of Roy's, Brodeur would still be 27 wins BEHIND Roy's totals. Consider the following:

Until he missed a significant portion of this season with an elbow injury, Martin Brodeur had averaged slightly over 41 wins and 72 games played the past 11 seasons; Those 27 wins he would be missing equate to slightly over half a season's worth of production (57%); As it stands now, Brodeur is 43 games ahead of Roy's 551-win pace.
So...
If you factor in those 27 extra wins Brodeur would have needed had shootouts not have been implemented, based on his average Brodeur would have had to play 45 games - according to his winning percentage - to get there, bringing his hypothetical games played total up to...1031, two games BEHIND the pace of Roy who did it in 1029.

That makes that wins/game average seem a little more even, now doesn't it?

Comparing the two head to head hardly gets us closer to picking a champion, as those totals have more to do with the teams surrounding the goalies than themselves, but let's do it for fun anyways.

In 18 regular-season meetings, Brodeur came out on top with a 10-8-0 record (18 starts), two shutouts, a 2.06 goals-against average, and a .922 save percentage. Roy (17 starts) went 8-9-0 with four shutouts, a 2.34 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
But when it counted most Roy took the cake when his Colorado Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils in a 2001 seven-game Stanley Cup Final, their only meeting in the playoffs.

The one category that Brodeur does have a decided egde in would be shutouts.
Roy finished his career with 66, whereas Marty currently has 100, only three away from tying Terry Sawchuk's once thought unbeatable record. But that also has less to do with individual talent as it does the team playing with you and the coaching philosophy they implement.

Brodeur has played his entire career with an organization that prides itself on its defensive play and shutting down other teams when it had a lead. Roy played on very talented teams in Montreal and Colorado, but teams that were just as happy winning a game 7-5 as 2-0. The same could not be said for New Jersey.

Brodeur has three Stanley Cups, four Vezina's, a calder trophy and an Olympic gold medal.
Roy has four Stanley Cups, three Vezina's but three Conn Smythe's as well.

So if it happens to be tonight, on St. Patrick's Day that Martin Brodeur passes Patrick Roy to become the all-time winingest goalie in NHL history, or any other night for that matter, the question will be the same: Who's really the best?

I guess it just comes down to a matter of taste, like would I rather have a Guinness or a Heineken as my first pint o' the day?