Luongo finds silver lining in Stanley Cup Collapse

[dh1333]

VANCOUVER — Roberto Luongo’s body language and tone of voice suggested the guy behind the bench might be on to something if faced with a similar circumstance.

Instead of agonizing over the prolonged process to get to opening night of the NHL regular season, the Vancouver Canucks goaltender spoke in anticipation of his first pre-season start on Wednesday in Anaheim. With coach Alain Vigneault purposely holding back the majority of the team’s veterans until the final three exhibition games following a marathon 107-game season and short summer, an accent on skating and systems has been replaced by an itch to play.

“Even though it’s pre-season, you still get a little nervous, which is kind of weird if you think what we went through last year,” Luongo said. “I’m just excited to play and just get a feel for game action. That was the whole point of the way we set it up. We wanted to make sure we got some good work in and obviously these next couple of games for me are going to be very important.

“The work that has been done so far will get me ready. It doesn’t really matter what the formula is, it all begins in practice and making sure that you treat it like a game and play out every shot and every situation. That’s where you get most of your reps done anyway, so a game situation is more of a feel for rhythm and flow and making sure you get in that zone.”

Sounds simple enough, but the physical and mental strain of last spring may make Luongo better this fall.

What Luongo learned and endured in the Stanley Cup final after combining with Cory Schneider to capture the Jennings Trophy can’t be found in a manual or roll off goalie coach Rollie Melanson’s lips. Luongo surrendered 15 goals in less than seven periods in Boston and was yanked in Game 6 after the Bruins scored three goals on eight shots. A pop-gun offence that managed just eight goals in the sour seven-game setback didn’t help and the roller-coaster ride that Luongo was subjected to has come back into focus.

NHL networks are showing promotional images of Tim Thomas confounding the Canucks. They come complete with clips of gamesmanship during a goalie war that escalated after Luongo blanked the Bruins in Game 5 to put the Canucks within a win of the franchise’s first championship. When asked to explain Maxim Lapierre’s weird-angle goal in a 1-0 triumph, Luongo was comparing styles, but it became bulletin-board material.

“It’s not hard if you’re playing in the paint,” Luongo said. “It’s an easy save for me, but if you’re wandering out and aggressive, that’s going to happen.”

The Bruins ran with it, and although Luongo stressed he had plenty of positives to say about Thomas and wasn’t receiving any in return, the stopper suggested: “I didn’t realize it was my job to pump him tires.” It might not have meant much at the time, but in the end Thomas also won the psychological battle.

“When I think about it, I probably wouldn’t have said it if I knew it was going to have that type of reaction,” recalled Luongo. “The last thing you want to do is to draw attention to yourself. It was an emotional win for me and sometimes your emotions get carried away and we all go through that stuff. I didn’t mean it in a bad way, but it didn’t come out the way I wanted it do.

“It’s about learning and growing. First of all, it was a hell of an experience and you can’t take that away, whether you win or lose. Just the fact we’ve been through it once, if we have the opportunity to go again I know a lot of the guys will be comfortable in that situation in knowing what to expect — making sure to know that there a lot of things that go on in the final.”

It wasn’t just Luongo. It was Brad Marchand using Daniel Sedin as a punching bag. It was about Finger-Gate between Alex Burrows and Patrice Bergeron, Lapierre’s yapping and Henrik Sedin’s diving. But as the last line of defence, the focus will always be on Luongo. The short off-season curtailed his training by a month, but he still had workouts with longtime goalie confidant Francois Allaire and his fitness testing was as good as last season and in some cases even better.

A traditionally slow starter in October — he’s 18-20-2 the past four seasons — it’s easy to forget that having Schneider make 25 appearances last season resulted in Luongo being rested, healthier and better. It reflected in winning eight of his last 10 regular-season starts and finishing with a career-best 2.11 goals-against average, .928 saves percentage and four shutouts. That gets lost in the way it all ended.

“Nothing in particular improved my game in general,” summed up Luongo. “You learn from every experience and how to handle it better the second time around.”

And you can quote him on that.

Vancouver Province

Luongo's biggest problem is that he is too emotional.

If he can learn how to control his emotions and use them effectively, then he can finally win that cup and prove the haters wrong.

 

[germany00]

I agree, too emotional, everyone know's he is good. They just hate on him not being Clutch, and crumbling under the pressure. Which is more the likely caused by his emotions. They dont hate on him for being bad, just hate on him for crumbling, everyone know's he is Elite.