No one says Roy played bad, but Brodeur did backstop a medal winning team, and he did follow that up with a stellar world cup performance. Take for it what you will, but Brodeur has had more success in international tournaments.
I will take it for what it's worth - something, but very, very little.
A few things; one, Brodeur playing more games is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. It proves his durability, which is second to no goalie ever save perhaps Glenn Hall. Secondly, on statistics, the years Roy lead the league in save percentage, only once did he play over 60 games. I am sorry, but leading the league in save percentage while playing only 45 games is not impressive when guys like Grant Fuhr played 70+ games that year. Finally, as all Brodeur critics inevitably mention the team that played in front of him, I have to point out that Roy can have no complaints about the quality of players he has had in front of him; do you want me to name all the Hall of Fame players who played with him, especially Hall of Fame defensemen? I mean if you want to get nit-picky about it, for all the talk about Roy being the greatest big game goalie ever, his record in games 7s is hardly stellar. Like I said, Brodeur at this point is not as great as Roy, however I think at the same point in careers, they were about equal.
Brodeur playing more games is not a good thing or a bad thing - it's just a symptom of the league he played in. Roy played that many games too, once the league had evolved to that point. If Brodeur was in the 80's, in all likelihood he would not have played 70+ games, probably not even 60+. That's just how it was. And I don't see what you mean about Fuhr. In his heyday, his regular season GP totals were 45, 46, 40, 44, 75, 59, 21, 13, 65, and 58. It was about right then that the league had evolved to the point where starters would play 65+ games consistently. So it is not Roy's fault he didn't play that many per season. If you're implying that his save% would have gone down had he played more games, that is just foolishness. And quality of players has nothing to do with it. Quality of team has everything to do with it. Look where Roy's teams finished in the overall standings in his career, and look where Brodeur's teams finished.
Roy: 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 17th, (half season on 9th and half on 2nd), 1st, 7th, 4th, 9th, 1st, 4th, 6th. Avg: 5.63
Brodeur: 2nd, 9th, 13th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 3rd, 10th, 4th, 9th, 8th. Avg. 5.75.
Which means that the quality of TEAM they have had has been equal. until you consider that the leagues that Roy played in had 21 teams for half his career. 8th in a 21 team league is like 13th in a 30 team league. Using a simple normalizing formula, Normlaizing these results to a 30-team league, Roy's average becomes 6.80 and Brodeur's becomes 6.18, (Because Roy played in time when there was an average of 24.83 teams in the league and Brodeur has had 27.92 in his league) showing that based on league competition, Brodeur has had a team that has been on average, a half-place better in the league standings than Roy has had. I could be a jerk and say that you're wrong and Brodeur has had far better teams than Roy, but based on that evidence, I consider that insignificant. Let's say it's equal. You'd rather talk about players? Well sure, Roy has had some great forwards, but who cares? He had Chelios and Robinson (although at age 34-37) on D for a few seasons, and then no one of significance for 6 more seasons, and then Foote in his prime for 8 seasons in Colorado. (Foote will never be a hall of famer, but he was very solid) And he also had Bourque (age 40) for one season. Blake doesn't matter as he was not a defensive defenseman by any stretch. Brodeur played his ENTIRE career behind two of the best defensemen of our generation, and two guys who are top 20 all-time, Stevens and Niedermayer. Daneyko was no slouch back there either. I'd say it's clear Brodeur has had an easier time. Lastly, as for game 7's, I don't know where you got this from. I don't have the time to verify this, but i will. I did research before however, their OT records. Roy's is 42-19 (.689) and Brodeur's is 9-18 (.333) prior to this season, but I don't think he played any OT this year. Just to throw another all-time great in there for comparison, Hasek's record in OT is 14-12 (.538)
I will be back to post their game 7 records tomorrow.
Update: Game 7 records:
Roy: 14 GP, 7-7, 2.49, 2 SO, 1-1 in OT
Brodeur: 8 GP, 5-3, 1.67, 1 SO, 0-1 in OT
Hasek: 4 GP, 2-2, 1.63, 1 SO, 0-2 in OT
Roy has beaten Brodeur in their only meeting (with the cup on the line), Brodeur has beaten Hasek in their only meeting, and Hasek beat Roy in their only meeting. Conclusion: All three goalies have been at least average in game 7's. However: Given the fact that some of Roy's higher GAA can be attributed to his higher scoring era, and the fact that this really represents a very small sample size, (4-14 pieces of data for each goalie) I call it irrelevant. I should also mention that any playoff game is a big game, especially games where you have to win to stay alive, or win to take the series, or any game that goes into OT. I won't research the former two, but I already mentioned the latter, OT records. At least looking at OT records, we have enough instances for all three goalies to make the results more credible, and, big surprise, their win percentages differ hugely enough to conclude that Roy dominated Hasek and Hasek dominated Brodeur, in that area.
Remember, I am definitely not a Brodeur critic. I can defend his place on a top-10 list to actual Brodeur critics. But at the same time I know where he can realistically be placed, and as such I must downplay him to the Brodeur overraters