The statue is going to be designed around Brodeur’s stick salute “at his last game” -unveiling Feb. 8

The statue is currently being built by renowned sculptor Jon Krawczyk, who designed the hockey figure that currently sits on Championship Plaza.

Let us now rattle off the achievements of the greatest goalie of all time.

3 Cups

5 Eastern Conference Titles

4 Vezina’s

2 Gold medals

5 Jennings Trophy’s

Ten-time All Star

Calder Memorial Trophy

One of only two NHL goaltenders to score a goal in both the regular season and the playoffs

691 All time wins

125 Shutouts – (149 combined season and playoffs)

1,266 Games played

1,024 Games Started

Only goalie in NHL history with eight 40-win seasons

397 losses

I think that Marty’s 3 shutouts against he Ducks in the ’02-’03 Stanley Cup finals is his greatest achievement even though they somehow awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, for playoff MVP, to Jean-Sébastien Giguère. Brodeur broke the record for shutouts in the playoffs that year with 7 but still lost. Still kind of upset about that. The Ducks did not score in games 1, 2 or 7. Remarkable when you think about it. My favorite save of Marty’s would be the “Scorpion” against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals. That save tells you all you need to know about Marty. Guy never cared for the fundamentals. He often found himself out of position, taking chances, but he seemed to always make the save no matter the scenario. He wore the smallest pads in the league and always was good for a couple of remarkable plays a night. Most goalies now a days are machines and are religiously taught the butterfly but Marty had his own stand-up style. Always baiting glove side only to rip opponents hearts out by flashing the leather. He we definitely have the record for stacking the pads if they somehow kept that stat. He had better hands than most forwards in the league. He was so good with the puck they had to create a rule to even the playing field. Trying to dump and change? Whoops, Marty just dug it out of the corner and broke out tape-to-tape before you were even over the boards sucking on some Gatorade. I always felt confident with Marty between the pipes. He was the cornerstone of our franchise and deserves to be immortalized. That is why I have an enormous fat head of him in my room. He saves me from ghosts and ghouls. Sometimes I can hear faint calls of Chico Resch when I’m laying in bed.

As for the statue itself, I like it. It would have been cool to have an action piece but the salute pays tribute to the winning culture, fans, and man himself. The same guy who designed the iron giant outside of the Rock right now (who I believe is a depiction of Eric Lindros before the Stevens Hit) is in charge of the Marty statue so that is good. The statue is classy and prestigious but I was hoping they would go bold and maybe just erect a Brick Wall with Marty being part of the wall with pucks molded into it. Then we could have put Lou Lamoriello future statue on top of the wall overseeing all like a gargoyle. Stevens and Niedermayer statutes in front of the wall maybe? Have it become a monument park of NJD greatness. I am getting ahead of myself. I am just glad that this is happening for Marty because he deserves it dammit. No man has meant so much to a franchise in my lifetime.