If only this was enough. (Credit: Ed Mulholland, US PRESSWIRE)

Martin Brodeur isn’t using his goalie stick as a cane quite yet.

The 39-year-old did it all Tuesday night, making 37 saves and four more in the shootout as the Blackhawks fell 2-1 in New Jersey. Brodeur gets most of the credit for this one, and it’s well-deserved.

Save for the first 10 minutes when Corey Crawford withstood a barrage from the Devils, the ‘Hawks were the better team for roughly 55 minutes. It took a big screen from Bryan Bickell and a point shot from Brent Seabrook to finally get one past Brodeur in the third period to tie the game.

The Blackhawks blew two key power play chances that could’ve ended up swinging the game in their favor, but the Devils got an extra one past Crawford in the shootout and the ‘Hawks ended up taking only one point.

The 5-on-3 for roughly 1:20 in the second period created a couple chances that Brodeur snuffed out, then another missed chance game at the end of regulation which yielded nothing. To the Blackhawks’ credit, they were able to kill off a 4-on-3 to start overtime when Marian Hossa went into the box with under a minute in regulation.

One quick thing before Boxing…

If Ray Emery was healthy enough to play tonight, would Coach Q have started him over Crawford? Emery didn’t exactly set the world on fire when he came on in relief of Crawford in the 6-1 loss to Nashville on Sunday, but Q has been known to ride the man who relieved the other for at least a couple starts. Nonetheless, Crawford likely earned himself a start no matter how Emery feels for Thursday’s home tilt against league-leading St. Louis.

Crawford was one of the big reasons why the ‘Hawks came away with even a point tonight given the performance of Brodeur at the other end. Hopefully that carries over to Thursday.

Boxing coming up…