BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
IT’S MEDIA DAY AT the 2004 All-Star Game in Saint Paul, and one of the hot topics is no-shows. The NHL is in a period of All-Star Game-itis, one in which an irritating number of players who are selected to participate find an escape hatch. It’s a trend that eventually prompts the league to suspend players for one game if they pull a Houdini. Martin Brodeur is not one of those players. The Devils superstar is making his eighth appearance in a nine-year stretch and tells reporters he relishes the weekend. He says he knows his time in the spotlight is finite, and he wants to absorb the rays as long as possible. It’s a moment of self-awareness as resonant as the Arctic winds howling outside the Xcel Energy Center. Typically, that…