- Reaction score
- 10,344
- Points
- 1,260
Since the Canucks are still on my brain....
The Canucks forums have some interesting discussions going on following this collapse. The knives are out against Luongo and there are some pretty vocal fans calling for work-arounds to his no-trade clause or to send him to the minors. I can't put the blame on this loss on Luongo - not at all. He shares an equal bit of the blame as the rest of the team. The following anecdote puts it into perspective.
Tim Thomas let in more goals against Tampa Bay (21) then Luongo let in against Boston (20). Tim Thomas had 4 (!) games where he let 5 or more goals in against the Lightening, but in the other 3 he was stellar with 2 shutouts. Sound familiar?
The difference is that one of those games where Timmy let 5 in, his team scored 6. When your Vezina-winning, Conn Smyth-winning Goalie has a run on his luck and is not on his game, your team comes in to support him by blasting goals in net.
Vancouver didn't do this - it failed to adjust, had a brutal power play and only got 8 goals in support of their goalie, who has just as much potential to be a Vezina-winning, Conn Smythe-winning champion as well. Now we are number 2. Hopefully, the Canucks will, like the 2008 Penguins, learn from this loss. Boston certainly learned from their mother-of-all-chokes in 2010 and now they are, rightfully, champions. Hopefully Luongo will learn from this and leave the "play the paint and pump the tires" talk for the commentators, doing what Thomas did and coming back from a disappointing season to break records.
If he does and they do, its 2012 Baby!
The Canucks forums have some interesting discussions going on following this collapse. The knives are out against Luongo and there are some pretty vocal fans calling for work-arounds to his no-trade clause or to send him to the minors. I can't put the blame on this loss on Luongo - not at all. He shares an equal bit of the blame as the rest of the team. The following anecdote puts it into perspective.
Tim Thomas let in more goals against Tampa Bay (21) then Luongo let in against Boston (20). Tim Thomas had 4 (!) games where he let 5 or more goals in against the Lightening, but in the other 3 he was stellar with 2 shutouts. Sound familiar?
The difference is that one of those games where Timmy let 5 in, his team scored 6. When your Vezina-winning, Conn Smyth-winning Goalie has a run on his luck and is not on his game, your team comes in to support him by blasting goals in net.
Vancouver didn't do this - it failed to adjust, had a brutal power play and only got 8 goals in support of their goalie, who has just as much potential to be a Vezina-winning, Conn Smythe-winning champion as well. Now we are number 2. Hopefully, the Canucks will, like the 2008 Penguins, learn from this loss. Boston certainly learned from their mother-of-all-chokes in 2010 and now they are, rightfully, champions. Hopefully Luongo will learn from this and leave the "play the paint and pump the tires" talk for the commentators, doing what Thomas did and coming back from a disappointing season to break records.
If he does and they do, its 2012 Baby!