June 16, 2011, what does the future hold for Vancouver Canucks and Roberto Luongo for HockeyPrimeTime.com
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| What's next for Canucks, Luongo? |  |
| Columns | |
| Written by Denis Gorman | |
| Thursday, June 16, 2011 11:56 | |
The goaltender's underwhelming performance in the Stanley Cup Finals will lead to plenty of second-guessing in Vancouver. After the Canucks' Game 7 loss, is it harder to trade or keep Luongo?  The look on Roberto Luongo’s face was one that has become all too familiar to Vancouver Canucks fans. His head was tilted back, eyes focused skyward, crouching as a puck lay behind him in the net. It was countenance of confusion, despair and defeat shared by 18,860 worshipers and an organization of supporters. It was 7:47 into the second period and a Boston Bruins rookie named Brad Marchand had skated behind Luongo’s net, right to left, before throwing a backhand shot that pinballed off the netminder’s body. Boston doubled its lead as Vancouver’s anguish deepened. The Stanley Cup will not vacation in Vancouver for the 40th straight summer after the Canucks were shut out by Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas in Game 7, 4-0, to give the Bruins their first championship since Johnny Bucyk skated the silver chalice around Madison Square Garden on May 11, 1972. Vancouver entered the season as the odds-on favorite to win the Cup and save for two-and-a-half weeks in June, they were the NHL’s best team. Their 117 regular season points earned Vancouver the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. The Canucks’ 27-9-5 home mark and 27-10-4 road record led the league in both categories, as did their 262 goals scored and 185 goals against. The Bruins finished third in the Eastern Conference with 103 points and had beaten the Canucks in the only regular-season meeting between the teams, 3-1, on Feb. 26 at Rogers Arena. Yet the Bruins were viewed as a young team on the ascent; one that had to learn yet a painful playoff lesson. It was Vancouver’s time. They had absorbed the lessons after years of playoff defeats. What the hockey world witnessed over seven games was a Vancouver team that still needs to mature, a group whose stars were either unwilling or incapable of making the physical, mental and statistical sacrifices Cup-winning teams make. Like the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, the Bruins did not back down from the star-laden and, presumably, more formidable opponent throughout the course of the series. And, as the criticism will surely go, the goaltender was not the spine for a team that was falling apart. Luongo finished the series with 12 goals allowed on 181 shots. That comes out to a great 1.71 goals-against average, and a not-so-hot .884 save percentage. Luongo was not the only underperformer wearing blue, white and green. The Sedin twins were rendered invisible by Boston’s top defense pair of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg. Hart Trophy candidate Daniel Sedin recorded one goal, three assists, four points, were minus-5 and took 24 minutes worth of penalties. Reigning Hart Trophy winner Henrik Sedin had a goal, a point, six penalty minutes and was minus-7. Selke Trophy finalist Ryan Kesler finished the series with an assist, a point, a minus-6 rating and 35 penalty minutes. The skaters were just as culpable as the goaltender, but the franchise will spend a summer embroiled in painful introspection. Management, coaches, players, and, yes, the goaltender, will all come under scrutiny. Luongo’s play was schizophrenic over the course of the seven games. He yielded two goals on 97 shots in Vancouver’s three wins. But he was also perforated 10 times on 84 shots in the four losses, and had to be pulled for backup Cory Schneider in Games 4 and 6. It was not the first time this playoff season that Alain Vigneault determined that the Canucks would be better off without Luongo. Schneider started Game 6 of the first-round series against Chicago; Luongo replaced Schneider in the 4-3 overtime loss when the backup left due to injury. It was a damning statement. For Vancouver, the key questions are where do the organization and the goaltender go from here? Luongo has 11 years and $54 million remaining on his contract. It will be a challenge to move him in a deal – there is no chance that the Canucks could receive equal value in the short term – but could a permanent divorce be best for player and franchise?
He is a lynchpin for praise and criticism as the public face of the franchise. Those Canucks fans who cheered him wildly for his shutouts in Games 1 and 5 also celebrated when Vigneault pulled him in Game 4. Moreover, his words are dissected and psychoanalyzed for meaning. Luongo raised eyebrows after offering the following critique of Thomas’ play after the Canucks’ 1-0 win in Game 5: “It's not hard if you're playing in the paint. It's an easy save for me, but if you're wandering out and aggressive like he does, that's going to happen. He might make some saves that I won't, but in a case like that, we want to take advantage of a bounce like that and make sure we're in a good position to bury those.” He later complained that Thomas had not said anything “nice” about his play. Were his words a glimpse into a tortured psyche? An admission that he needs public acknowledgement of his greatness? Why would he need a rival to praise him? His resume is comparable to any in the sport. Luongo is a former No. 1 overall pick. He has won 308 games in 672 regular-season games, including 55 shutouts. He has backstopped Canada to World Cup and World Championship titles. Oh, there was that little matter of having replaced Martin Brodeur as Team Canada’s No.1 goaltender during the 2010 Winter Olympics and winning the gold medal on home ice. Meanwhile, his counterpart Thomas was a ninth-round draft pick by the Quebec Nordiques in 1994 before plying his trade in the East Coast Hockey League, International Hockey League, Finnish League, American Hockey League and Swedish Elite League before signing with the Bruins. He backed up Ryan Miller on Team USA last February, although it could have been argued that he made the team based on his Vezina-winning 2008-09 campaign (36-11-4, .933 save percentage, 2.10 goals against average, five shutouts) instead of what he accomplished in 2009-10 (17-18-0, .915, 2.56, five shutouts). Thomas played less than one period in goal for the silver-medal winning Team USA in those Vancouver Games. It is historical fact. As is the actuality that while Luongo is a gold medalist, Thomas’ name is etched on the Cup. On Twitter: @HockeyPrimeTime and @DenisGorman |
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posted by Denis P. Gorman at 1:31 PM
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