Not Starting Lou Classless & embarrassing to the Player and Organization another big black eye

[JiffyPB]

could Lack have backed down and give the start to Luongo if he really wanted to?

Coach's call. Unless he faked an injury there would have been no way Lu would have started once Torts made up his mind.

Sad thing is after getting jeered I bet Lack wished he didn't start.

[canucksnihilist]

I said it before the game

The GM and coach have no class. This taints everything else they do and say to some extent ... They are clueless

[Butters Stoch]

Jesus f*king Christ! How about getting a damn clue buddy? We are not in this mess because of Torts! Worst losing streak in 10 years? What, you already forgot that 9-game losing streak in 2009 under AV? AV was sucking pretty hard with this same group too, genius. AV would also go with Schneider over Luongo. THE CORE IS THE PROBLEM! So is management for thinking this declining core can do anything. Torts is NOT the one at fault for this team's mediocrity. Maybe if you haters weren't blind, you'd see this as a continuation of the last two seasons. We were on the decline since the finals.

Sorry, I meant the longest pointless streak in 15 years if that's any better. I'm not so delusional that I can't see that this team has been on a decline. The team was on a steady decline after 2011 but when Torts came in, I'd call it more of a complete disaster than another decline. We're sitting in the league's bottom 10 with less games in hand than almost every team right now with almost the same roster that managed to finish 3rd in the conference just last season. Torts is not the only problem but he sure as hell is not the solution or even helping in any way so far. All he's managed to do so far is stir sh** up in the media while the team looks completely lost.

[Canuck or Die]

Sorry, I meant the longest pointless streak in 15 years if that's any better. I'm not so delusional that I can't see that this team has been on a decline. The team was on a steady decline after 2011 but when Torts came in, I'd call it more of a complete disaster than another decline. We're sitting in the league's bottom 10 with more games in hand than almost every team right now with almost the same roster that managed to finish 3rd in the conference just last season. Torts is not the only problem but he sure as hell is not the solution or even helping in any way so far. All he's managed to do so far is stir sh** up in the media while the team looks completely lost.

Last year's 3rd place finish meant nothing since we were still playing in a crap division and it was a shortened season with no games against the East. We still played badly. Going by point totals, we certainly were not in 3rd place. We only got that position by virtue of being in a crap division. Our powerplay was already going to sh!t, and everything else went downhill. This season is a continuation of that. The team was already lost. This is way beyond Torts, and people could see that if they weren't in denial about what this team had become.

[Gerg]

A series of tweets from @GregBallochST :

Lu has had some differences with the coaching staff since the start of the season. Doesn't agree with certain technical adjustments.

He's finally standing up for himself because he knows he's not in the #Canucks long term plans.

Lack, on the other hand, is a wide-eyed rook

Lack gives the team a better chance to win" is an excuse. He has 9 career wins. This whole situation is a punishment for Luongo.ie. He's still developing as a goaltender and will do whatever is asked of him.

Lu has lost respect and is simply playing for his teammates. Lack is being rewarded with more starts. It is a slap in the face of Luongo.

And worst of all, Lack is caught in the middle of a situation that he wants no part of. Fans are now divided again and there is controversy.

So, basically, because Lack is being more agreeable (since he's a rookie), Luongo is being 'punished' by having his starts reduced according to this guy. I dunno if that's a stretch what he's reporting, but again, where there's smoke...

[37yrsncounting]

I have been pretty happy with the moves Torts has made this year but not starting Louie in such an important game as you said was both classless and stupid. Twice this year you have started Lack over Louie in supposed big games both times we have lost. I have to ask what are you thinking.Lack is the backup whether we go 7 rounds in the shootout or has 2 back to back solid efforts. He is not your bread and butter guy. Now you've put Luongo in a very embarrassing spot that a veteran proven classy guy does not deserve to be. Again the Canuck organization has crap the bed with a classless move that will be the laugh of all the league. Good luck trying to get in the playoffs this last move will serve as the last straw for this team making to the post season.U guys might as well trade Kesler and give Luongo away and any other guys we have that have served us for so many years well. You continue to embarrass players publicly it is embarrassing to have an ownership group who treats its players as such. Come on Gillis Torts give your egos and heads a shake. I have been a Canuck fan since day one and this is almost as bad as the Bill Laforge and Mike Keenan eras. Disgusted long time fan

stanley cup finals, bill laforge, stanley cup finals, mike keenan, stanley cup finals, and now tort and gillis. The cycle continues...

what most amazing is how quickly we fall after each stanley cup finals. I thought this time would be different but really poor management has done us in.

the year we missed the playoffs with nonis, he was fired because average was not acceptable to our current owners. Well I would like to know what they call whats happening now. The way the Canucks are being manage with all these soap operas surrounding players is not just unacceptable, its completely embarassing

[BI3KSA-]

could Lack have backed down and give the start to Luongo if he really wanted to?

No

[kazin!]

A series of tweets from @GregBallochST :

Lu has had some differences with the coaching staff since the start of the season. Doesn't agree with certain technical adjustments.

He's finally standing up for himself because he knows he's not in the #Canucks long term plans.

Lack, on the other hand, is a wide-eyed rook

Lack gives the team a better chance to win" is an excuse. He has 9 career wins. This whole situation is a punishment for Luongo.ie. He's still developing as a goaltender and will do whatever is asked of him.

Lu has lost respect and is simply playing for his teammates. Lack is being rewarded with more starts. It is a slap in the face of Luongo.

And worst of all, Lack is caught in the middle of a situation that he wants no part of. Fans are now divided again and there is controversy.

So, basically, because Lack is being more agreeable (since he's a rookie), Luongo is being 'punished' by having his starts reduced according to this guy. I dunno if that's a stretch what he's reporting, but again, where there's smoke...

Scary if true...

[37yrsncounting]

Scary if true...

how bout some conspiracy theories like may Lu was the one who leaked the Kesler trade news or maybe Lu declined a trade to somewhere and pissed off the nucks management.

Whatever the reason, the way the Canucks management has handled all this is nothing but awful

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

Last year's 3rd place finish meant nothing since we were still playing in a crap division and it was a shortened season with no games against the East. We still played badly. Going by point totals, we certainly were not in 3rd place. We only got that position by virtue of being in a crap division. Our powerplay was already going to sh!t, and everything else went downhill. This season is a continuation of that. The team was already lost. This is way beyond Torts, and people could see that if they weren't in denial about what this team had become.

Doesn't explain the massive scoring droughts from our former top line of Burr-Twins. All three players are struggling.

I also think that playing against the East is supposed to be easier. More games in an intense Western conference and we ended up third. True, we crashed out in 4 games, but from third to ninth is a huge dropoff.

[yes we can nucks]

I want Torts gone in the offseason. I know he hasn't even been here for that long but the most notable things he's done here so far are trying to fight another team's coach, leading the Canucks to the worst losing streak we've seen in over 10 years, and try to kill the confidence of our supposed #1 goalie. The way this season has been going could not possibly be any worse. I don't see how any other coach could be doing worse than what Torts is doing to our team right now.

How do you measure the best December in club history and also playing with more injuries to star players then any other time in our history?

Brick, this is actually a great question to ask those Lu haters who criticise his 'poor recent play'. How do they explain how Lu could have an incredible winning month of December... peaking at an impressive save % of .924... but suddenly lose 5 in a row in January? Did he suddenly become a bad goalie? Jeez, could it BE that having a depleted, error-prone team missing core players like Henrik, Hamhuis, Bieksa, Tanev (sometimes all the same time) playing in front of Lu might have something to do with it? Get a clue, people. If you don't think that number of injuries affects the performance of a team and a goalie, then you ARE clueless. Name another NHL team that has had to play without its top scorer and 3 of their top 4 dmen AND win.

Lack didn't fare much better. He lost too ... even when the team was relatively healthy, except for Lu.

So it's a crock for some people here to suggest that Lu wasn't playing well, and that's why he lost his starting job to Lack. He hasn't been given the opportunity to play since the team has gotten healthy again.

And what a joke with Torts saying he played Lack because he gave the team the best chance to get the win. So Luongo, who was good enough to play for Team Canada is not good enough for the Vancouver Canucks? Torts had to know too that eventually Lack would have a bad game and he'd have to go back to Lu. How good would Lu be after playing just one game in a month? It's just setting him up for failure and adding fuel to the fire.

The worst part of it is Torts admitted in his post game interview that he knew his decision to start Lack would cause a controversy. He did it anyway and he said he would do it again. What an insensitive moron. He obviously doesn't care about cultivating a stable and harmonious environment within the team. And this is going to be his downfall eventually.

[Canuck or Die]

Doesn't explain the massive scoring droughts from our former top line of Burr-Twins. All three players are struggling.

I also think that playing against the East is supposed to be easier. More games in an intense Western conference and we ended up third. True, we crashed out in 4 games, but from third to ninth is a huge dropoff.

Blaming Torts doesn't actually explain why Burrows is struggling either.

Again, we were third because of our crappy division. Quit denying that. By point totals alone, we were NOT in third. We were much lower than that actually.

[dubldigit]

Lack earned this start Luongo did not

just because Luongo somehow deserves this for having a rough time battling his back up in previous seasons for the net doesn't make it true

Luongo will play next game end of story but hey lets spin this into another poor Luongo story his feelings must be hurt

You're an idiot. The guy who almost single handedly brought this team out of the slums and has been nothing but a team player and the true heart of this team and the reason they have almost always been a lock to make the playoffs since he has been here did not deserve the start in one of the most highly touted and anticipated games in Canucks history?

Lu deserved to play this game as much or more so than any other player on the team. To think otherwise is pure idiocy. But it true Canucks fashion the management contiues to crap all over their players. No wonder why no big names want to play for this team.

Lu has been the true heart of this team for nearly a decade now and all half the fans and managment do is treat him like a piece of dirt. When Lu leaves this team it will be a sad day in Canuck history. He deserved this start don't kid yourself. Moron....

[dubldigit]

Lack earned this start Luongo did not

just because Luongo somehow deserves this for having a rough time battling his back up in previous seasons for the net doesn't make it true

Luongo will play next game end of story but hey lets spin this into another poor Luongo story his feelings must be hurt

You're an idiot. The guy who almost single handedly brought this team out of the slums and has been nothing but a team player and the true heart of this team and the reason they have almost always been a lock to make the playoffs since he has been here did not deserve the start in one of the most highly touted and anticipated games in Canucks history?

Lu deserved to play this game as much or more so than any other player on the team. To think otherwise is pure idiocy. But it true Canucks fashion the management contiues to crap all over their players. No wonder why no big names want to play for this team.

Lu has been the true heart of this team for nearly a decade now and all half the fans and managment do is treat him like a piece of dirt. When Lu leaves this team it will be a sad day in Canuck history. He deserved this start don't kid yourself. Moron....

[canuck73_3]

Why didnt u guys start the chant at the very begining of the game then? The chant wasnt started until lack let in a few goals, so its obvious its not only for the coaching staff or the management

Say whatever makes u sleep better, its ppl like u that made vancouver a goalie geave yard, and its also ppl like u that made the canucks fans a group of igonrant cry babies.

This. I was disgusted at the fans treatment towards Lack. Made me embarrassed to be a fan if I'm honest.

[Milk Hot Dog]

LOL Torts really wants to make his short coaching career in Vancouver unforgettable

They're also recycling the tired old "the team plays more confidently with _____ in the net" line from the last goalie controversy

[kassians_fist]

Completely agree with the original post. I was furious that Luo didn't start, and didnt even want to watch. Way to suck the life out of a unique game by creating more goalie controversy, 'tards.

[Horny Manatee]

The organization did this to deflect attention from the Kesler situation. It worked.

[TheDominator]

Classless move by classless management.

Enjoy having goalie with 9 career wins as your starter.

[Kooly89]

hahahaha.. as a Canucks fan it's quite funny and hilarious because I really hate seeing all these garbage piling up. I think the last time I posted was telling everyone that they are bumping Cory's value before they trade him away cause Lu wasn't going anywhere and had people lashing out at me that no that is not going to happen and Cory is going to stay and such as. Anyways back to topic, I don't post much here and I am not here to write a novel so excuse my bad internet grammars and so on.

As for the Heritage game, like honestly WTF? Are the people behind the coaching bench and upstairs making way too much money to think properly and had a few drinks too many? If Forest Gump is an actual person, he would probably made a more logical and better decision in who's going between the pipes for this game. Did the Lu-Cory soap opera wasn't a good learning curve in how to properly and efficiently buildup the players moral? Look, I am not frustrated on who's going to play which game or between the pipes, but this is a Heritage game which only happen so often at home ice (what once every 5-10 years if that?). Great that Lack is performing better then Lu (by the way I am not a Lu fan fanatic) and great that the coaching stuff or GM is letting him play more games, but this is the freaking Heritage game and honestly whether we win or lose it will not make that much of a difference on what place the team is in now cause the overall players moral just isn't around.

Here's your so called #1 goaltender (Lu) who has been with the team for quite some time now and been with some of the players thru thick and think over the years and like it or not, he was one of the key players along with others who took the team to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and regular season conference champs. I am not saying he is deserving or not but he earned his place to be between the pipes for this game. Yes sure all the players are paid to play their game, but does the coaching staff or whoever even think for a second? This game is not about wining or losing to be honest, this game should be used as a golden opportunity for the boneheads making all the wrong decisions so far to cleanup abit get the players back into playing for the coach or whoever.

After this, who the heck is really going to respect and play with their heart for the coach or the team if that's what you want to call it? It takes heart to win games and I don't see many 'Nucks players putting their heart out there for this 'Nucks coach now. For some of you who don't have the faintest idea of what I am talking about, watch some little leagues and see how they coach and play. Or if you look back at the days when you are playing for your high school team. You play harder and really put yourself out there when you have respect for your coach or have a better bond with him/her.

Anyways, I am just blabbling away again and some of you probably lash out at me again or don't understand what I am trying to say or point out, but let my words speak for itself at the end of this season. hahahahaha.. P.S. 'Nucks coaching staff, get your head out of your arses and get your players hearts playing for you or start passing out the VIP discount cards to the players and yourself at the Vancouver golf course. (eye rolling) take notes you boneheads or feel free to call me up for psychology 101, but don't expect me to answer because I don't always have time for ignorance in this world.

PSS. These are the decisions they paid the so called decision makers for, millions of dollars? Decisions that my pet turtle can draft out better? BTW don't go trading Lu away now unless you boneheads planning to rebuild the team now because trading Lu away means hitting the golf course early for the next couple of years but that shouldn't really happen cause you guys just signed the Sedins, so I say how about wake the heck up or do some management change instead I expect a cheque in the mail for this advice