Roberto Luongo has been the best player on the Vancouver Canucks for some time now.Without his stellar play in the nets, there's likely no way his team ever would have advanced 13 games into the post season both this year and last.
He's quickly made a positive name for himself in just about every aspect of the game. He's also media friendly which looks good and his teammates in Vancouver seem to have a lot of respect for him.
Allthough the past two playoff exits were very disappointing for both him and his teammates, he seems to be able to remain somewhat calm and collected.
There is a side of him that came through crystal clear immediately following Chicago's 5-1 win at GM Place recently and happened right inside Luongo's dressing room stall.Commentators on Roger's Sportsnet including Nick Kypreos expressed disgust in Luongo "dodging every bullet but his own," adding that he's not taking responsibility for allowing several soft goals.
He will say that he is his harshest critic, but somewhere along the way, he only began acknowledging his most blatant gaffes, the indefensible goals and performances. That hesitancy to take full responsibility each and every time hurts Luongo's credibility on two fronts: when he's telling the plain truth about poor play in front of him and when he feigns humility.
There were two examples Tuesday, after a 5-1 loss to Chicago that ended Vancouver's season.
He pointed out turnovers, but not soft goals.
He joked that "improvement was made" because he didn't allow seven goals, a reference to a 7-5 playoff knockout last spring. The sarcasm came off as disingenuous because confidence is Luongo's defining characteristic.
Canucks management has much invested in Luongo, including a 12-year, $64-million U.S. contract extension that triggers next autumn. If a change is made, it is less likely to be a top-down directive, and more likely because Luongo surrenders the "C."
He also said that night following his team's playoff exit that the immediate moment was not the time to be thinking about what he should or should not do regarding his captaincy. That's completely understandable. Nobody should ever expect an athlete to make a decision like that following their most disappointing loss since the team signed Luongo.
It's only a little more surprising that he's thinking about handing in the 'C' that he doesn't even officially wear, back to the team.
Ryan Kessler might make a good captain.
The Canucks drew criticism when they made Luongo an unusual choice for captain in September, 2008, and now the goaltender is questioning his anointed role after another playoff disappointment.
Luongo says he will review his captaincy later this summer as calls heighten for the NHL team to strip the "C" off its goalie. The issue of who can/should be named captain of a hockey team will likely flare up especially if the 31-year-old Olympic gold medal winner decides in fact that it is time to give up the unofficial 'C'.
Luongo's captaincy touched a nerve with Vancouver fans this week after a second successive loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It will no doubt be raised Friday when general manager Mike Gillis and head coach Alain Vigneault take the stage - in the Captains Room at GM Place no less - to explain what went wrong, and how they propose to fix a team that has failed to advance beyond the second round in three of the past four postseasons.
The Canucks became the first NHL organization in 60 years to appoint a goaltender as team captain. League rules forbid goalies from wearing a letter, and being the designated communicator with on-ice officials, so Luongo is a captain in name only.
Going back to the year 1948, the National Hockey League set a rule that goaltenders would not be permitted to officially be named captain. During a game that year, opposing teams complained the Montreal goaltender Bill Durnan took too long to skate to officials and then return to his goal crease. Currently, the league does not allow Luongo to serve as the captain on the ice.
The argument for Luongo to stay team captain is simple: he's the emotional leader and without him, they aren't going very far.
Surprisingly to myself, there are a few pretty good reasons why he shouldn't be captain.Goaltending is a lot of pressure as it is. Why throw leadership of the entire team on top of that?
The captain should be on the ice game in and game out for all 82 games. Nobody else on the team gets a rest or break, why would the captain even want one? Most of the top goalies in the world thrive on playing maximum minutes (Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Curtis Joseph).Finally, the team captain shouldn't be a player the coach can pull if he's not playing well. If that was the case, Luongo would've gotten yanked in each of his team's last playoff games both this year and last.
It was the brainchild of Vigneault, and backed by Gillis. The team wanted a player who was accomplished, inspirational, respected and an example of the organization's core values.But as Luongo's play sagged this season, especially after the February Olympic break and into the playoffs, his critics grew louder. This week, Don Cherry joined a Vancouver radio station and crowed that Luongo's captaincy was a stupid idea because the solitary nature of the position does not give goalies the credibility to lead a group.
Clearly, there are elements of Luongo that fit the captaincy neatly.
He is one of the biggest rink rats on the team, religiously working on his craft.
He commands respect from his teammates. When Alex Burrows was going too far in his famous rant against referee Stéphane Auger earlier this season, the goaltender shushed him with a stern word.
By most accounts, Luongo's off-ice vices can be reduced to fantasy sports and poker. While some of his teammates celebrated Canada's gold-medal victory in private hospitality suites, sheltered from the public glare, Luongo took his family to dinner, posing for pictures with admirers.
Last year, a source said that Luongo was so touched by the captaincy, that it prompted his Floridian wife, Gina, to become more active with the Canucks, organizing events for wives and girlfriends. Gillis is trying to foster an environment where families feel welcome at GM Place, and the Luongo's participation is viewed as an important endorsement.
Head coach Alain Vigneault will have a decision to make in the off-season. He either has to stand by a popular player who seems to have trouble keeping his head in the game after he lets in a few goals, or give the 'C' - an actual 'C' no less - to a player such as Ryan Kesler or scoring leader Henrik Sedin.
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