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Brodeur’s comments were “off the cuff,” doesn’t really think Devils should shoot at Rangers’ heads

Philadelphia Flyers v New Jersey Devils - Game Three

NEWARK, NJ - MAY 03: Martin Brodeur #30 of the New Jersey Devils looks on against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Prudential Center on May 3, 2012 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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First off, Martin Brodeur was joking.

Through a team spokesman, he said his comments were “off the cuff.”

And according to the Toronto Star’s Damien Cox, whose dateline says New York, “Anybody who was actually there listening would know” Brodeur wasn’t being serious.

So now that you know Brodeur was kidding, you probably want to know what he said.

When asked Monday about the Rangers’ effective shot-blocking, Brodeur remarked, “We might be able to hurt a few guys [by] hitting one-timers in the foot and their head or something.”

Gasp.

Not surprisingly, Devils skaters denied they’d ever do such a thing.

“That’s a little hard-core,” Dainius Zubrus said, as reported by the New York Post, the paper that took Brodeur’s comment and ran with it. “I haven’t done that yet in my career, actually shoot at anybody’s face. I’m not really planning on it. I think there are still lanes to get it through. Sometimes the puck gets away, and people get hit. But honestly, I’ve never aimed at anybody’s head.”

Of course, the Post never bothered to follow up with Brodeur, despite ample opportunity to do so, says The Record’s Tom Gulitti.

So it sounds like this was just The Post being The Post.

But we might as well ask it anyway – would you do what Brodeur was joking about? Not shooting at somebody’s head; that’s dumb. But how about their foot? Jay Beagle broke his foot blocking a shot in Game 5 of the Capitals-Rangers series, and a Dale Hunter-coached team can’t be expected to win without Jay Beagle. And hey, if a guy’s going to willfully put himself in the way of your shot…

For the record, I’d probably just try to get the shot through. Don’t need it bouncing off a foot and starting a counterattack the other way.

Oh, and you shouldn’t intentionally injure someone. That too.