Braden Holtby inched closer to history tonight. After making 22 saves against the Devils, Holtby earned his third shutout and 45th victory of the season. The 1-0 win brings the Holtbeast three victories away from tying Martin Brodeur’s NHL record for most wins in a season (48 in 2006-07).
But if you were expecting the zen Holtby to dance a jig or pop some bottles, you’d be mistaken.
The dude looked straight bored tonight.
GIF by Hana
Holtby endured two stretches of ten-plus minutes without a Devils shot on net. Was that tricky?
“Yes and no,” Holtby said after the game. “You kind of know New Jersey plays like that sometimes. They are a very patient team. They usually wait for you to turn the puck over and come down on an odd-man rush and something like that. They try to build the game that way.”
“We played their odd-man rushes really well, which was a big thing,” Holtby continued. “They came with a hard push in the third and we held them off. We stuck to our game plan all night which was good.”
With games on back-to-back nights, it’d make sense for Philipp Grubauer to get the start Saturday night against the Blues. But with such an easy workload, Holtby may play again tomorrow night and inch closer to Brodeur’s record.
