With Brady out, are the Patriots doomed?

In light of Tom Brady's devastating knee injury, there is now a question going around: Is a top-flight goalie more important to a hockey team's ongoing success than a quarterback to a football squad?In order to answer this question, I feel that we must look back at recent history, both in hockey and in football.

1990-1991 NFL Season: The New York Giants looked to be on a hot run to the playoffs, until starting quarterback Phil Simms broke his foot on Dec. 15, 1990, setting off a raging debate on whether or not the Giants' season was over. In comes backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler. Hostetler leads the Giants to Super Bowl XXV, defeating the Buffalo Bills to win their second ever Super Bowl Championship. The New York Giants win the Super Bowl with a backup quarterback.

2001-2002 NFL Season: In an example that we all can remember, because anyone writing on Bleacher Report is old enough to remember this brilliant season where we discovered one of the best quarterbacks of all-time (in my humble opinion).

The New England Patriots were an okay team, looking to squeeze into the postseason, and perhaps capture their first Super Bowl Championship. Starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe injures himself in the first week, and now comes in this pathetic, former 199th overall draft pick. Some crappy kid named Tom Brady.

The Patriots are doomed, right? They go on to a 9-7 season and win their first of three Super Bowls, and Tom Brady is finally discovered as an NFL superstar.

Now we look at the NHL. Based on modern history (modern history in my mind is any time after 1970), there is NO team that won the Stanley Cup by riding their backup goalie for the entire season and the playoffs. Note: I am not counting the 2008 Detroit Red Wings, because even though Chris Osgood was a backup, he is still a great goalie.

There were teams that won the Stanley Cup with unproven goalies (at the time), such as the Carolina Hurricanes with Cam Ward in 2006, or the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 (Nikolai Khabibulin was not very known at that time, yet). However, these goalies came up big when they needed to.

An NFL team does not get to the Super Bowl because its quarterback gets hot. The New York Giants of 2007-2008 did not get to the Super Bowl because Eli Manning had a hot streak. He indeed did very well, but it was the entire team that helped the Giants move on to defeat the mighty Patriots in the Championship game.

However, an NHL team can indeed succeed because of a goalie on a hot streak. The Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks of 2003 got to the finals because of J.S. Giguere's hot streak. They did have a pretty good team, but it is hard to argue with the fact that without Giguere, the Ducks would not have gotten that far. Helping to support my point is his Conn Smythe Trophy.

The Edmonton Oilers in 2006 surprised the heck out of the entire hockey world and got to the finals. Why? Well, they had phenomenal goaltending by Dwayne Roloson. Unfortunately, he got injured in the finals, and Ty Conklin was unable to back up the team to victory. Therefore, they ultimately lost in seven games to the Hurricanes.

The 2008 Philadelphia Flyers were only supposed to barely make the playoffs, and exit in the first round. However, they wound up making it to the Conference Finals and coming within three games of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Why is it? Because goaltender Martin Biron played like Bernie Parent did in the 1970s. Biron stood on his head, making saves he had no business making. Because of his stellar play in the net, the Flyers were able to succeed in the postseason, more so than anyone ever expected them to.

In football, you can have a bad quarterback and a great team. If you have a quarterback as unproven as David Carr was with the Houston Texans, you can still have a great team if you surround him with Chad Johnson, Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, and Dion Branch, give him a running back of Ladanian Tomlinson's status, and perhaps an Alge Crumpler at tight end. Throw in a pro bowl offensive line, and you will easily crush the other team's defense. Even with David Carr as your quarterback.

However, even if you have a team like the Red Wings had this year, with Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, along with an offensive line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Johan Franzen, you indeed have a better chance of winning a game or two or fifty.

However, if your goalie is Corey Schwab, who will not get anywhere near a .900 save percentage, you will still lose the majority of your games. A goalie can make or break a team.

You see the New Jersey Devils of a few years ago. They were not nearly as talented as they were before the lockout when they won their three Stanley Cups. However, with legendary Martin Brodeur in net, he was able to win 8-10 games simply because of his amazing acrobatics in net and his unbelievable ability to stop the puck.

A save percentage difference of .950 and .850 will be the difference of perhaps 40-50 games in the standings in the NHL.

A completion difference of 70 percent and 60 percent in the NFL will result in maybe one or two games. Maybe.

An NHL goaltender is much more vital to the success of his team than an NFL quarterback is to his.