Eddie Lack feeling the heat in Vancouver - responding to trolls

[thad]

I wanna fight this guy

[Down by the River]

It's not just this guy on Twitter, there are quite a few posters on CDC who have been critical of Lack.

There is a big difference between saying "Lack sucks... he is not a good goalie... etc." and saying "Lack sucked last game... he didn't play well against the Islanders... etc." If he didn't play well in a particular game and you feel the need to bring it up, fine. But don't talk as if this kid is some bust or some guy who undeservedly threw himself into the starting role.

Lack didn't ask to be the starter as a rookie. He didn't ask for Lu to be traded. He didn't come out in the media and say that he's better than Lu and deserves more starts. I don't know what good publicly trashing a guy from the team you are a fan of does.

[Raspberries]

Sorry but vancouvers fans really do irk the rest of the league. What city has had two riots after championship games?

let's see...Detroit, Montreal, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston and San Francisco. You really think Vancouver is the only city that has ever rioted after a sporting event??

[viking mama]

I will forever hate Burke for making up the phrase "goalie graveyard".

Or being one of the chief engineers of the make-whole provision or penalties that changed the status of players having front-loaded LT contracts, without grand-fathering theose changes in. And - for Burke helping to push through that ridiculously low cap for this season. All of teose things conspired to forced VAN to part with our premiere goalies. Seeing as Burke was the GM of Toronto at that time...& that he had been making offers for those goalies....therre was clearly a lot of "conflict of interests" here from the get go.

[Neversummer]

Guess Torts was right about Twitter

[-DLC-]

Sorry but vancouvers fans really do irk the rest of the league. What city has had two riots after championship games? And to make it worse, people in this city were blaming non Canuck fans for causing the riot. As if somehow, these rioters were bussed in from afar to make our city look bad. And I've never seen a fan base complain about the refs more. Look, I'll cheer for the canucks but if they lose, then they lose. No need to get upset over it or blame the refs for every little loss or to want to drive a player out of town for having a few bad games. It's embarrassing sometimes.

You're the rest of the league? Awesome, how do you do that?

As a fan of this team from the start who had a nephew caught down there in the hoopla....the rioters were not "fans of the game" and I truly resent being lumped in with them. They were troublemakers. They use the jersey/game as an excuse to practice their craft but, by no means, represent the rest of us. "The fans". Mostly they were drunks who likely couldn't remember much of the game...fans do. And people continually referring to that to slam this fanbase need to assess their own lives in doing so...it's "reaching" at the very least. A little desperate and proves nothing.

But I'm glad you took time to consult with the entire NHL in order to speak on their behalf, must have taken quite a bit of time out of your day?

I don't like to engage in hurling insults, so won't....but I found your comment offensive. I know hundreds of "Vancouver fans"...they're a great bunch of people overall. As part of the "they" you've stereotyped us as, you've missed the mark. I find it embarrassing that people still use the riot(s) as a reference point in trying to connect to the fanbase.

I didn't ever riot. I'd never slam my goaltender, especially publicly in an attempt to humiliate him and thereby making myself feel special. I do criticize the refs - at times, it's warranted (Stephane Auger has repeatedly given reason for fans to do so in this league).

But let's get back to the topic at hand.

[McBackup]

I'm getting really sick of being guilty by association and told I'm a bad fan because of the team I cheer for. There is no inherent difference between Canucks fans and the rest of Canada.

It seems that way for 2 reasons

1. We have been a very good team over the past few years. Naturally this has caused a lot of band wagoners to jump on. This happens to every team. We're also starting our decline, and we're doing it quite rapidly at that. This is causing many of the fairweathers to jump off. Again, this happens to every team.

2. Confirmation bias. You're in the thick of the Canucks market. You follow the team too, so you're going to be exposed to fans of all sorts, good and bad. Bad stuff also has the tendency to steal the spotlight from the good. Just look how everyone talks about the riot and no one talks about how more fans showed up afterwards to clean up the city.

"But they DID riot! Canucks fans are the worst." When you have a hundred thousand liquored up people downtown, combined with a minimal police presence and people there with the specific intention to start a riot, bad stuff is going to happen. Look at Calgary and Edmonton during their cup runs. They had a much larger police presence during their celebrations.

I'm not trying to shirk the blame on to the city or police or anything, I'm just saying you need to take a deeper look than just saying "hurr, Canucks fanz r bad." If you're one of those people that likes to bitch about how terrible the fanbase is as if you're somehow exempt, you should jump ship now. No ones going to notice with the current mass exodus of fans. And you'll no longer have to be associated with such an evil, despicable group of people.

[mpt]

Most Vancouver fans are terrible. You've got hockey fans and Canuck fans. Hockey fans support the team irregardless. Canuck fans hop on and off the bandwagon, they don't care about the game, they care about what's popular in the city they live in. There's a big difference.

[spliced]

It's so completely bizarre how having the best goalie in team history has lead to the fanbase being hyper critical of the team's goaltending.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

[King Heffy]

It's not like Lack has been unwilling to take his share of the blame. I see a guy who's maturely taking ownership of his bad games, which makes him a pretty easily coachable guy. Fortunately, the weaker parts of his game ARE possible to fix with good coaching, which he is fortunate to have. The kid's going to be a stud; he just needs time and patience.

[Baka]

Probably not the best sign when a player gets that irritated over something a stranger on twitter said. We have seen it blow up and affect the play of players who can't brush off negative media/fan attention. Ether way not everyone will be a fan even of players who play great.

His reaction is more concerning than the other guys comments.

[CanuckGAME]

It's so completely bizarre how having the best goalie in team history has lead to the fanbase being hyper critical of the team's goaltending.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

you think canucks fans started being critical, since Luongo?

LOL OKKKKKK

[thad]

Vancouver has a lot of great fans like Deb who support the ups and downs of any individual who laces up for the canucks... But for every beauty fan like Deb, there's 100 little pricks like Tre who love to see a player struggle just so they exercise their burning desire to kick a man while he's down.

Man has the internet ever changed the respect game. Once upon a time you had to be respectful or someone would just beat you up. Nowadays you can tell Chuck Norris his girlfriend is fat and not worry about the consequences.

[PhillipBlunt]

Lack is a BOSS!

[cowboy644]

send this to trey:over breakie u'r wife said I was awesome.not sure she was talking hockey tho.

hashtag:better lover

[clutesi]

Lack, Markstrom and Erickson could be the best trio of goalie prospects in the league. Let's develop them and go forward, stop crapping on our future.

[Kelly Green]

don't feed the trolls eddie

[higgyfan]

A few idiot twitters don't make a fan base. These guys just sound like angry and frustrated young men, who enjoy seeing other people struggle.

As for Eddie; he's a rookie goalie who has some great skills. Expecting him to perform and deal with the consequences of being a #1 goalie is asking a lot.

This season is a write off, so he needs to just play the remainder of games and then forget about it.

Next year will be better for all of us.

[yes we can nucks]

In 6 of Luongo's last 10 starts, he has a SV% lower than 900, has let in 31 goals, and let in 4 goals in 3 of those games.

Yup, Lack has played poorly from time to time, but uh, let's not pretend Luongo has done a damn thing worth mentioning recently. Except a shutout against the mighty Buffalo Sabres

You conveniently left out the fact that 5 of Lu's last 10 starts, all losses, were before the Olympics when the Canucks were missing not only Henrik, but 3 of their top 4 dmen Hamhuis, Bieksa, and Tanev at times. It would've impossible for any goalie to win with the depleted lineup at that time. Lu gave up 17 goals in those 5 games.

Compare that with Lack's last 5 games, when the team has also been missing core players: Daniel, Kesler, Stanton, Kassian.

Lack has given up 18 goals in those 5 games, including 4, 5, and 6 in 3 games, with a save % of .810, .706, and .778 respectively in those games. He lost 4 of those 5 games.

Common sense says injuries played a big part in those losses for both goalies, and neither should take the blame for them. And those losses skew the goalie's stats to look way worse than they are. Speaking of stats, last time I checked, Lu's save % (.917) is still better than Lack's (.914)... despite not doing a damn thing worth mentioning. Now that's worth mentioning!

See... I can play this game too.

You can play the game too but you didn't watch the games if that's the argument you're making.

I did watch ALL the games. You must've missed my 'argument'.

The guy I responded to used Lu's stats in his last 10 games to suggest he hasn't been playing well. I thought I had a valid point that in his last 5 games in Vancouver, he had to play with a seriously depleted lineup. His goals against in those 5 games brought down his sparkling .924 save % prior to that. I recall that he actually played well in those games despite the bad stats. Many of those goals were unstoppable... ie. deflections, own goals... and the result of poor defensive coverage.

I compared that losing streak with Lack's recent losses, where he played reasonably well, but injuries to key players affected his results. My point is both goalies' poor stats don't tell the whole story. It shouldn't be assumed that they played badly.

The guy also suggested Lu hasn't done much lately. He's 2-2 since joining the Panthers. He played great in his first two games... a 2-0 shutout, and a loss to Boston when he saved 37 of 41 shots. He did play average in the last two games... a 1-3 loss, and a 5-3 win (over Schneider). But his save % was under .900 in only one of those games. Let's not forget he's playing on one of the worst teams in the league now... much worse than the Canucks. So contrary to what Glassjaw said, Lu's last 10 games weren't as bad as he made them out to be.

[VegasCanuck]

If we put a brick wall in net and absolutely nothing was getting through, pucks just bouncing off it, there is a group of fans that would complain that the brick wall was useless because it always gives up rebounds!