The Moose? The Moose!!!

Martin Brodeur... what else can you say about him?  Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year.  10 All-Star Games.  8 seasons with 40+ wins, most ever.  2 Gold Medals.  3 time Stanley Cup winner.  4 Vezina Trophies.  5 Jennings Trophies.  All time leader amongst goalies in wins and shutouts.  Quite possibly... the greatest goalie of all time.

But what you cannot say is that in the 2010-2011 NHL season, Martin Brodeur has been the best goalie on his team.  That honor belongs to Johan Hedberg, aka "The Moose".  As the Devils stumbled out of the gates and were tied with the Islanders for the least points in the NHL after 20 games with Brodeur suddenly sidelined by an elbow injury, "The Moose" stepped up off the bench and has temporarily rescued the Devils season.  Hedberg and the Devils have won 3 of their last 4 games, accounting for 37.5% of their 8 wins through 24 games.  Most of this is due to Hedberg's brilliance in goal.

Over the past 4 games, Hedberg has allowed only 4 goals and has made 113 saves on 117 shots on goal, an overall save percentage of .966.  2 of these victories have come in the shootout, only allowing 1 out of 7 shootout attempts hit the back of the net.  He defeated both the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals, the top 2 scoring teams in the NHL and 2 of the NHL's elites, allowing one goal in those 2 games combined.

The Devils are fortunate to get such great play from "The Moose", because they are still struggling immensely on offense.  Though they broke out for 5 goals against the Capitals, they only scored 1 goal each against the Flyers and the Calgary Flames, leading to 1-1 ties that went to shootouts.  Sandwiched between the 1 goal efforts was a game in which they failed to score against the worst team in hockey, the New York Islanders, in a 2-0 loss.  100 million dollar man Ilya Kovalchuk is only converting on 5.8% of his shots on goal, well below his overall career average of 14.5%.  The team is missing fellow superstar scorer Zach Parise, out until February, and overall the team is shooting a league low 5.9% to go along with their league low 1.77 goals per game average.  While the masters of the neutral zone trap have never been a team marked by their goal scoring, you cannot win with that type of offensive ineptitude.  If the Devils are to get back in the playoff race and fulfill their preseason Cup hopes, they need to pick up the scoring to compensate for when Hedberg starts to play a little less superhuman.