Is This The End Of The Luongo Era?

[L'Orange]

To win hockey games, the PP must score more often than what it did. Lou held the team up in all those games but he got little support from the rest of the team. With their play last night, they proved they really missed Daniel in the first three games.

I feel it is just too easy to blame Luongo every time the team loses. I am a Schneider fan as well but I hope that I can stray away from that superficial thinking when I know there are others on the ice leaving Luongo out to dry for no other reason then their stupid play. If you really want to know who choked out there and has choked on many occassions this year, look towards Edler. Yes he scored a goal last night but that does not give him a reprieve on all his stupid mistakes. He has been playing like his head has been up his butt all year Let's direct blame where it should really go rather than just jump on a player who has been painted the team scape goat by fans who don't know the difference between a hockey and tiddlywinks.

I laugh when I hear people suggest Luongo "choked" when he looses a game yet when Schneider unfortunately loses, he is still held in the highest esteem. I am not standing up for either goalie in this case, but I am not so narrow minded and ready to blame Roberto Luongo for every loss the team suffers because I know other players are making terrible plays out there as well.

[soshified]

Either way, I'll always support Luongo. Hope he wins a damn Cup one day.

I say, give Luongo a fresh start and start him in the second round. Give Schneider the rest of the games in the first round.

[foskco87]

Well based on the fact that the media and fanbase have basically all but run Luongo out of town it seems as though it would be awkward for him to stay here. Personally, I think people are wrong about him though. Luongo is the best goalie this team has ever had, period. I think if you cant win a cup with Luongo backing you then obviously the rest of the team needs to be better. I agree, he blows the odd game, but I have yet to see it yet this year in the playoffs. People need to realize how EASY it is to like Schneider. He is a backup. People love him when he steps in and wins and no one really cares when he loses because hes a back up. He has virtually NO pressure and he has only played on good teams (calder cup finalists with the moose and stanley cup finalists with the nucks). Put him on a team like toronto or montreal and he may look completely different. Personally I feel he is legitimitely a great goaltender as he is great positionaly and has great composure, how do we really KNOW. Remember when Luongo was Schneider's age and played on Florida? They were one of the WORST teams in the league and luongo had a STAGGERING goals against and save %, one of the best in the league, on a horrible team. Can you say honestly say that Schneider could do the same? Im not so sure of that. Im not saying we have to keep Lu. Im just saying he still deserves to stay here if he wants to and we should be damn happy to have him.

[RGC]

You hit the nail on the head, Simply Hockey. The defence has been less than stellar with Bieksa and Edler crapping the bed the most. Bieksa's giveaway's are far too common lately. Edler's blind drop passes are also inexcusable.

They both did well with their goals yesterday. Still Bieksa got his pocket picked by Brown and drew some stupid penalties. Meanwhile, I liked the brutality Edler displayed on Fraser. He looked scary.

Blaming Luongo for Vancouver's present predicament shows a clear lack of knowledge for the game. Yes he has let in soft goals, but this has usually been predicated by a defensive zone breakdown.

Whatever it takes, I hope Vancouver does the right thing and acquires a solid, stay at home, massive, brutal (but clean) defenseman. They need an anchor on defense.

[Thirteen]

Whats with the drama people? Who really cares?

Canucks are rolling with the HOT HAND. Didn't AV make it clear before Game 3? He had NO other option to switch up the team so changes to the goalie was needed. They still lost and didn't score a single goal making it clear no matter what if we cant score our goalie wont always save the day or game.

Right now Vancouver won, why? Cory Schneider being a hot goaltender right now, he is also more fresh and you know that Luongo had that 7 game winning streak then well into a funk where to me personally he should of made some saves but let in a goal. What do you do when your VETS start to sink and your offense plus your leading defender starts coughing up the puck? Change who is in net.

This is not the mark of the "Luongo" ERA done. We plan on going far into these playoffs and let me tell you he will play. You know he'll play! Okay so I went to far right there but who cares we all know if this goes to the stanley cup finals Luongo will play some games. Anyways we don't know whats going on in MGs head or what will happen... I can tell you know one thing they know it wasn't Luongo who didn't show up in Games 1-2 and this isn't the end. Vancouver needed offense and they got that back with Daniel Sedin, and now its off to the races! Not because of Luongo.

If anything he is going to try keep both. You don't let a good thing go and if this team achieves greatness together! Right now any GM in the NHL would play Cory Schneider over there #1's. Heck even Boston played Rask but who won them the cup? Exactly. Veteran goalies always get the blame when the going gets tough. These goalies though when out shined by younger guys will always turn it up also which makes our situation in Vancouver very good for our a deep run in the playoffs. Keep teams guessing who will play! What brick wall they'll face because LA prepared for Luongo not the Schneidz. Next round teams will prepare for Schneidz, hey maybe then Luo gets the home start and we start Schneidz back on the road again where he dominates! They both have upsides and you just have to play them right and Schneidz very good against the Queens.

[SimplyHockey]

I guess you need this repeated:

Roberto Luongo

3.59 GAA

.890 Save %

Cory Schneider

1.01 GAA

.970 Save %

Because that says it all in double bold, huge font, italics. Those numbers are inescapable, when your offence is offensive, your goalie has to come up big. Schneider did, Luo didn't. I like this version of Luo as a person, but I also like the Canucks to win.

[Phil_314]

I'd like to see (at least for the duration of this series) if Cory is consistently the real deal even in the pressure cooker that is the playoffs. If the team has a Ryan Miller or Cam Ward in Cory then, sorry Lu.

P.S. just realized that Cory has a better SV% and G.A.A. than Quick does in the two games that Cory was in. Hope he can keep it up!

[Hobbes71]

Cory bailed us out in game 4, played very very solid in net in game 3.

I love Lou as a canuck, without him van would not be where they are. However i also feel that if AV had played Lou in net for Game 4, Van would be playing golf right now.

it was said already in this thread but i will repeat it. And not because i WANT to see Lou traded, because i don't. But for the betterment of his carreer and because of the way most fans and media have treated him i think that Lou's and Van's relationship has come to an empass. We need to let Lou go, let him have a chance at playing for a team and fan base that will not shred him appart on every lose or bad goal. we have a solid #1 goalie in Cory. I think he has proven that, that plus the fact that Van plays like Van can and should when he is in net.

[53N51T1V1TY]

I don't think this is a good time to say Cory is better than Lu.

The Kings have not figure out Cory goaltending tendency yet... and this is why I think Cory would be the best choice as the starting goalie for the remainder of games agains the Kings.

If we can manage to get to the second round, I think Lu should be the starting goalie again.

[peetles]

if we get out of this round, you can't not start schneider. the ball is his until he drops it.

[Get real canuck fans]

I don't think this is a good time to say Cory is better than Lu.

The Kings have not figure out Cory goaltending tendency yet... and this is why I think Cory would be the best choice as the starting goalie for the remainder of games agains the Kings.

If we can manage to get to the second round, I think Lu should be the starting goalie again.

[canuck_fan11]

Luongo was the best player in the first two games and Schneider was good in both his games. The big difference is that Cory actually had a team playing in front of him... Luongo had almost zero help and had to bail out the defencemen on more then one occasion and is no way to blame for those losses.... I still think they move Schneider in the off season, the first reason is that Luongo is gonna be around for a while because of his contract but even if you keep Schneider and sign him to a 1 or 2 year contract your only guaranteed for the remainder of that contract, when the contract is over he will be a UFA and will have a lot of teams with alot more cap room then the canucks who will be looking to pay him whatever they need to, to get him to sign elsewhere. The canucks don't have the cap room to compete with other teams for Cory's services a couple years down the road when he will be an even hotter comodity. Of course all this is assuming he can even keep up at a pace close to what he did this year while playing an extra 25-35 games a year on top of what he already does i personally think his numbers this year are as good as they will get in his career and also think it's a big risk to get rid of a guy who is already guaranteed to be here until he or the team don't want him to be, for someone who could decide a year from now to go somewhere else where he can make more money and not have to worry about getting the kind of treatment he gets here when he inevitably has a couple bad games.

[xereau]

If it is indeed the end:

Thanks Lu.

[SimplyHockey]

if we get out of this round, you can't not start schneider. the ball is his until he drops it.

[BigUncle16]

Luongo was the best player in the first two games and Schneider was good in both his games. The big difference is that Cory actually had a team playing in front of him... Luongo had almost zero help and had to bail out the defencemen on more then one occasion and is no way to blame for those losses.... I still think they move Schneider in the off season, the first reason is that Luongo is gonna be around for a while because of his contract but even if you keep Schneider and sign him to a 1 or 2 year contract your only guaranteed for the remainder of that contract, when the contract is over he will be a UFA and will have a lot of teams with alot more cap room then the canucks who will be looking to pay him whatever they need to, to get him to sign elsewhere. The canucks don't have the cap room to compete with other teams for Cory's services a couple years down the road when he will be an even hotter comodity. Of course all this is assuming he can even keep up at a pace close to what he did this year while playing an extra 25-35 games a year on top of what he already does i personally think his numbers this year are as good as they will get in his career and also think it's a big risk to get rid of a guy who is already guaranteed to be here until he or the team don't want him to be, for someone who could decide a year from now to go somewhere else where he can make more money and not have to worry about getting the kind of treatment he gets here when he inevitably has a couple bad games.