As Martin Brodeur moves closer to breaking Patrick Roy's career win record (ironically, he gets his first shot today, on St. Patrick's Day), Rangers fans are celebrating a wins-record of their own.
Henrik Lundqvist has recorded his 30th win of the year, making him the first goalie in history to win 30 games in each of his first four seasons.
Many Rangers fans are quick to point out that even the great Brodeur could not accomplish such a feat.
Well, that's all well and good, but Brodeur was also not a starting goalie when he first came up.
In his first four seasons, Brodeur played all of four, 47, 40 and 77 games, respectively.
Once he had racked up a decent amount of games in his fourth year, he did crack the 30-win mark—34 win.
The following season, Brodeur's workload was reduced by 10 games to 67, yet he increased his win total to 37, which ties Lundqvist's career high.
Beginning with his first 30-win season, Brodeur went on to win at least 30 games in 12 consecutive seasons, including 40 or more in seven of them. He also set the record for wins in a season in the 2006-2007 season with 48.
Lundvist, conversely, played 53 games in his first season, notching exactly 30 wins.
It's an impressive mark, no doubt, but keep in mind that in Marty's first full season, he only played 47 games, but won 27 games.
Considering his record was more than .500, it's not at all a stretch to propose that had Marty played the six extra games that Lundqvist had, he would have gotten those 30 wins that year.
It's also notable that Lundqvist has played his entire career in the shootout era. Had shootouts not been implemented by his rookie year, Lundqvist would not have reached his 30 wins that season.
When Lundqvist can piece together a single 40-win season, maybe we can start talking; when Lundvist stretches his current streak of four seasons to twelve, maybe he can enter the conversation.
Until then, it's a nice record, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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