Here's A Goalie For A Thought

[dontstresskes]

June 23, 2006- Roberto Luongo was packaged with defenceman Lukáš Krajíček and a sixth round draft pick (Sergei Shirokov) in exchange for forward Todd Bertuzzi, defenceman Bryan Allen and goaltender Alex Auld.

I remember it clearly, the fans were happy that Vancouver Canucks finally got someone who they believed could change the misfortunes of all the previous goal-tenders("goalie-graveyard" dubbed by Burke) we had. Luongo came, he saw and he conquered. I remember the 2007 playoffs and he was terrific. I remember him in 2008 missing the playoffs he cried. I remember this man being someone who showed passion and emotion, he clearly wanted to win. He was named Captain of our team and we encountered the Blackhawks. Yes we lost two years straight to them. During this time we changed. We started pointing the finger. We started to criticize the man ridiculously. We thought we could get someone better than him. Gillis changed his coach to Roland Melanson and he pretty much changed his style to suit the way we had become. We went from a defensive system to a pure offensive system. The change wasn't that much of a difference. He and the team took us to the Stanley Cup Final. We lost game 7. AV is the coach, he could of "put Schneider in" after goal 2 to give us some sort of different look for all those we "could of won with Schneider fans". "The Sedins could of stepped up" for those who like to bash the Sedins. We could of done a lot of things. We came one win away and that's the fact. Fans don't play the game, but yes we act like these players suck and so forth. Luongo is not a bad goalie. Yes he's inconsistent at times, but so is the rest of the team infront of him. People make the argument "he's getting old." Thomas didn't win a cup till he was 37 and the only time he started to play lights out again was when he lost his job to Rask(Luongo might realize this season that he could be replaced and come out lights out next year).

I blame management and coaching for not making it a competitive nature for both Luongo and Schneider this year. For all we know, things could of been different. We could of been up 3-1 on LA instead of being down 3-1. Cory has been mentored by Luongo and he's prepared for anything(the kid is great infront of media) He's smart too, he knows how quickly the fans and media will turn on him. The same people giving him praises are going to be the ones saying replace him with Lack if he messes up. That's fact. For all we know, Cory could be one of those guys where he plays good less games and might not manage well handling the full load. We don't know anything until it happens. We also won't know what's going to happen with this situation. Management could be playing Schneider so if he loses he takes the rap or Luongo's days might be over. I just want you to realize being a goaltender in a Canadian market is never easy. We get greedy. We want cups right away, but be patient. We just had two great seasons, a trip to SCF game 7. We could make it there again if you believe so. I just thought I'd write this so people would understand appreciate what we have because for all we know Luongo and Cory could both not want to play here next year and good luck we're back to where we started. Goodbye!

[Merci]

Have a feeling Schneider likes Vancouver and will probably stay.

Takes over a Stanley Cup contender team from a franchise goalie and doesn't afraid of anything.

[j3ff]

Your post was hard to read, and there's a lot of speculation involved.

tl;dr - its management's fault we're down 3-1 in this series. be patient, luongo will bring us the cup. we don't know yet whether cory can handle the full load of being a starter, maybe he's one of those goalies that plays better with less games.

I disagree with almost everything you said, except for that i hope people do appreciate what we have in our goalie tandem.

[Guest BuckFoston]

Plenty of people say what you've said (and in a much better compressed manner) every day here. And it still doesn't change a thing, doesn't convert anyone, doesn't cut down on the haters or those who generally dislike Luongo for whatever reason.

Trying to preach it over and over is pretty useless.

[hdcanucks]

The difference between those 2 goalie is Luongo need 1 defensemen to make saves and Schneider 2.

[Jagori]

The difference between those 2 goalie is Luongo need 1 defensemen to make saves and Schneider 2.

[kmotamed]

Patience is key. But keeping both goalies is unlikely!

[DownUndaCanuck]

Schneider won't play like this forever. The kid only played in 30-something regular season games, of course his stats are going to look great.

Just wait till he gets 50-60 games and fatigue starts to become an issue. He'll start letting in the occasional bad goal, the pressure will really hit him and the media will get to him (it already has and he's already made a few blunders, criticizing the entire Edmonton organization and announcing that he doesn't like being called a "ginger" - great chirping material).

Be careful what you wish for CDC, Schneider may be good now but don't get blinded by the situation he's in.

[krazysl]

Schneider won't play like this forever. The kid only played in 30-something regular season games, of course his stats are going to look great.

Just wait till he gets 50-60 games and fatigue starts to become an issue. He'll start letting in the occasional bad goal, the pressure will really hit him and the media will get to him (it already has and he's already made a few blunders, criticizing the entire Edmonton organization and announcing that he doesn't like being called a "ginger" - great chirping material).

Be careful what you wish for CDC, Schneider may be good now but don't get blinded by the situation he's in.

[uber_pwnzor]

I loved Lou, I love Scheider and I'll probably love Läck aswell.

[Hobbes71]

this is a tough situation for the team and AV to be put into. On one side you have a all star goalie in Lou. On the other side you have a young All Star Poised Goalie. Nucks are blessed this way, two world class goalies on one team.

However, and as much as i love watching Lou play, because in the end he has more skill in his pinky finger than all the players of the Oilers put togethor. (No offense ment to the Oilers, but they have been very absent the last few years) but i think very sadly that it is time for Lou and the Nucks to part ways while the feelings are still good. I would say trade him to an eastern team, i am sure the PENS would love to have him, and i bet you that the fans would fall in love with him pretty fast, and appriciate him better than how he is getting treated in Vancouver by the fans. In return we could get a good power forward and maybe a draft pick and a good force of nature defenseman (by this i mean a physical player that when he hits players know it).

This would put Cory in the numero uno goalie position for the nucks. This is a good thing, Cory is poised to be an all star goalie. he is solid in net. ANd the nucks for what ever reason of nature seem to play awesome in front of him. This idea leaves a hole in the goalie space, enter Eddy Lack. A young and poised goalie whom i believe is NHL ready.

so it boils down to this, play Cory in Net till the bitter end. I love Lou, i love watching him play he is a fantastic goalie. But it is time for the betterment of his carreer to let him go, let him have a chance to play for a club with a fan base that will support him no matter what. Which is something he is not getting with the Canucks.

[Nate Dogg]

The difference between those 2 goalie is Luongo need 1 defensemen to make saves and Schneider 2.

[SukhKular]

sure schneid might not be able to handle 50- 60 games, lots of what if's. What if schneid is that allstar goalie. One thing we do know is Lou epic failes. If it was only one time i could look at it as a blunder, twice he has an issue he needs to work out, 3 times the guy is an Epic failur. Even in gold medal game let in a week back hander from kesler with a couple minuts to force over time. He won Gold because Canada is just that good. With Schneid sure he might be a bust but with Lou we already know he is a 6 mill a year bust.

[tjkaemingh]

not goodbye to both OP if they do not like it here. CS is an RFA so we still control him and RL has many years left on a contract, if the team wants him in net next year, he cant/wont go anywhere.

I am torn about next year too. Trading either has potential risks that will never be known til the deal is done.

CS is younger, cheaper, more stable?, unproven in a 60 games started season, less experience, may fetch more in a trade.

RL is experienced, top notch, prone to the odd bad goal, longer contract, not a horrible cap hit of 5.3, has NTC....

of course it all depends on what we get back in return. moving RL will require us to take on somebody elses fat contract and cap hit probably. CS might get you more in return. Pros and cons.....

[NUCKS4CUP 28]

sure schneid might not be able to handle 50- 60 games, lots of what if's. What if schneid is that allstar goalie. One thing we do know is Lou epic failes. If it was only one time i could look at it as a blunder, twice he has an issue he needs to work out, 3 times the guy is an Epic failur. Even in gold medal game let in a week back hander from kesler with a couple minuts to force over time. He won Gold because Canada is just that good. With Schneid sure he might be a bust but with Lou we already know he is a 6 mill a year bust.

[smurf47]

...and then theres blind faith nucks !!

[KingKes17]

June 23, 2006- Roberto Luongo was packaged with defenceman Lukáš Krajíček and a sixth round draft pick (Sergei Shirokov) in exchange for forward Todd Bertuzzi, defenceman Bryan Allen and goaltender Alex Auld.

I remember it clearly, the fans were happy that Vancouver Canucks finally got someone who they believed could change the misfortunes of all the previous goal-tenders("goalie-graveyard" dubbed by Burke) we had. Luongo came, he saw and he conquered. I remember the 2007 playoffs and he was terrific. I remember him in 2008 missing the playoffs he cried. I remember this man being someone who showed passion and emotion, he clearly wanted to win. He was named Captain of our team and we encountered the Blackhawks. Yes we lost two years straight to them. During this time we changed. We started pointing the finger. We started to criticize the man ridiculously. We thought we could get someone better than him. Gillis changed his coach to Roland Melanson and he pretty much changed his style to suit the way we had become. We went from a defensive system to a pure offensive system. The change wasn't that much of a difference. He and the team took us to the Stanley Cup Final. We lost game 7. AV is the coach, he could of "put Schneider in" after goal 2 to give us some sort of different look for all those we "could of won with Schneider fans". "The Sedins could of stepped up" for those who like to bash the Sedins. We could of done a lot of things. We came one win away and that's the fact. Fans don't play the game, but yes we act like these players suck and so forth. Luongo is not a bad goalie. Yes he's inconsistent at times, but so is the rest of the team infront of him. People make the argument "he's getting old." Thomas didn't win a cup till he was 37 and the only time he started to play lights out again was when he lost his job to Rask(Luongo might realize this season that he could be replaced and come out lights out next year).

I blame management and coaching for not making it a competitive nature for both Luongo and Schneider this year. For all we know, things could of been different. We could of been up 3-1 on LA instead of being down 3-1. Cory has been mentored by Luongo and he's prepared for anything(the kid is great infront of media) He's smart too, he knows how quickly the fans and media will turn on him. The same people giving him praises are going to be the ones saying replace him with Lack if he messes up. That's fact. For all we know, Cory could be one of those guys where he plays good less games and might not manage well handling the full load. We don't know anything until it happens. We also won't know what's going to happen with this situation. Management could be playing Schneider so if he loses he takes the rap or Luongo's days might be over. I just want you to realize being a goaltender in a Canadian market is never easy. We get greedy. We want cups right away, but be patient. We just had two great seasons, a trip to SCF game 7. We could make it there again if you believe so. I just thought I'd write this so people would understand appreciate what we have because for all we know Luongo and Cory could both not want to play here next year and good luck we're back to where we started. Goodbye!

[the boards]

"Here's a goalie for a thought" ...?

Fewer games, not less.

I would love for us to have Schneider as the #1. But that NTC means that Lou is the one who decides this situation, to a great degree. I just don't see GMMG brokering a deal unless Lou asks him to.

I'd give a lot to be inside Luongo's head this summer...

And if it's Schneider that goes, we had better get something juicy back. Or several juicy somethings.

[bluesman60]

Luongo has led us out of the basement to the penthouse. For that we can thank him forever but now we have a younger goalie who is faster, stays on his feet, is more technically sound and controls the rebounds better plus he is cool under pressure (better on breakaways and shootouts). It happens to everyone....sooner or later someone is going to pass you in a competitive enviroment.

Can Schneider handle 50-60 games? The question should be, can Schneider handle 50-60 games and then have an outstanding playoff season? The same should be asked about Luongo. He has a great regular season but when the playoffs start, he is Jeckl and Hyde. Maybe Luongo AND Schneider need each other to play at their peak when called upon whether in the regular or playoffs?

How good is Lack? We don't really know until he gets a chance. If he is good enough to back up either Luongo or Schneider then most of us would be a lot more comfortable with a trade of either Luongo or Schneider. From my armchair, it makes more sense to keep Scheids because I believe that he is the best goalie of the two.

As far as this LA series, play Scheider because he has beaten LA....Luongo has not. It doesn't matter whether Luongo stood on his head or not in those 3 games, what matters is how Scheider is in LA's players heads. If Luongo comes back in, it gives LA confidence to finish what they started, if Scheids plays....it's a whole new ballgame. If we get by LA, in the next round it may be Luongo who is the gamebreaker. We have two good goalies, lets use them both in the most effective way and win the Cup finally!

[E-ROD]

Dear OP,

could of been