Spoilers 3 Canucks 2
by Sean Zandberg on Mar 24, 2010 12:11 AM PDT
in Game Review
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Yeah, yeah, before you start jumping all over me for hanging Roberto Luongo for this loss, hang tight!
I'm not going to lie, my confidence in Roberto's abilities this season has wavered all season long and tonight's performance did nothing to appease that feeling. Blame bad luck on goal 1 for the Oilers? Blame goal #2 on Christian Ehrhoff's bad coverage on Robert Nilsson as he blew by Blastoff and went in on Lou unmolested? Blame the 3rd Oilers' goal on Alexander Edler's stick for getting in the way and deflecting the puck?
Let's stop making excuses for Lou. An elite goalie getting paid this much money has to come through for his team and Roberto did not do that against the Oilers. Instead, he was outshined by Jeff DesLauriers... a guy with a huge weight on his shoulders in this game, as his backup goaltender was just some guy named Nathan Deobald. Had Jeff failed it could have gotten ugly. But he didn't. Instead he was solid, stopping 31 of 33 Canucks shots while the Oil only peppered Lou for 22.
It's frustrating. Sure, the Wings and Sharks lost to the Oilers in the past couple of days as well but I could give a rat's ass. Both Chicago and San Jose won their games tonight to solidify their spots, once again, as the #1 and #2 seeds in the West. The Canucks are now 6 points behind 2nd place Chicago. Stick a fork in it it's done, as far as I'm concerned. Vancouver is not going to catch the #1 or #2 seed in the West. They remain 5 points ahead of Colorado with a game in hand for the NW Division lead. Not even top spot in the NW is a guarantee. Too many games left.
Conspiracy theorists may say that the Canucks are trying to keep their 3rd seed to avoid playing Detroit or whoever in the playoffs. To that I say bullshit! The Canuck forwards were trying to get a win tonight but were let down by their goaltender. Well, I think lines 2, 3 and 4 were trying, but that's the best of what I saw against Edmonton. Let's see what the stats say...
-Alexandre Burrows played with the Sedins again, registered 2 shots, many missed opportunities, and no points.
-Henrik Sedin played 21:25, had 1 assist and no shots
-Daniel Sedin played 20:12, scored 1 goal and had 2 shots.
All 3 finished an even zero and beyond their goal looked....well...nearly useless.
I thought the 2nd line of Kelser-Raymond and Grabner looked good, combined for 3 points, 11 shots but were a -1 each.
Line 3 combined for 10 shots, no points and an even +/- rating.
Line 4 looked good and grindy but didn't play a whole lot.
Most shots on goal from either team: Wellwood with 5
Most ice time: Ryan Whitney with 24:46. He also finished a +2.
Oilers' defenceman Tom Gilbert had a goal and an assist, a +2 rating and 22:13 played
Aside from all that, Lou was weak. The best part? He owned up to it post game:
"I made some good saves, but unfortunately all three of those goals I should have had."
"I’ve got to find the consistency in my game. Before, I might have a bad game every 10 or 12 games, now it’s every two or three games I’m getting one where I’m not at my best. I’ve got to get that consistency level back and game in and game out I have that swagger that you have to have."
So there you have it. The Captain is challenging himself to be better. Personally, I have faith in the guy. Great goaltenders respond. It's time for Roberto to do just that.
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OMG Lou owned up to it? What are some people going to do now? Guess they’ll have to find another cause to bitch about.
All in all a shitty game by the captain and the top core guys (line 1, Erhoff, Salo who looked slow and lazy to me tonite, Bieksa who…well who was Bieksa) and a good game by lines 2,3 and 4
"Hope you like pancakes, Norway..." Morgan Freeman
"you'll be playing in england the rest of your career" Sir Alex Burrows
i’m just wondering when luongo is going to actually win a game again, rather than just stop enough pucks that the 2nd best offense in the league can pull it out. interesting stat i saw tonight, deslauriers (who is a terrible goalie on average) has a record of 15-25-whatever, yet has only 1 less shutouts than luongo.
lou is not getting paid for 12 years to be an average goalie, he needs to pull his head out of his ass and shut the door. i could give a flying f*** about defense making mistakes, that’s going to happen with the canucks dmen and you can’t use it as an excuse, especially not on any of the goals scored tonight.
Gone are the LUONGOD statements. Haven’t used them enough this season. He hasn’t earned it. I still think that once the playoffs start he’ll kick it into high gear.
by Sean Zandberg on Mar 24, 2010 1:14 AM PDT up reply actions
We now have the second best offense in the league because AV has allowed them to open it up, finally.
But opening up can’t come at the cost of playing sloppy defense. It’s alot easier to play goal in a defense oriented structure where you can challenge the shooter knowing other players aren’t going unchecked.
Luongo’s biggest problem right now is he is playing in the blue paint right now, which usually denotes a lack of confidence, either in yourself or the players in front of you in your own zone.
Not making an excuse, because some of his worst goals lately have been minor hockey stops, but he gets a bit of confidence back, there shouldn’t be a problem. He doesn’t look far off. He’s still making some pretty big saves, even after bad goals which tells me he’s still battling.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
that’s garbage. you can’t blame any goal against from last night’s game on sloppy defense. they were all weak goals you’d expect from one of the crappy former toronto goalies, not a vezina candidate. (and i’m not suggesting for one second that luongo is a candidate for a vezina) there’s been a lot of weak goals this season, particularly early in games. luongo and everyone else needs to quit making the offense an excuse for that crap.
The bst example I can give is Minny:
Under Lemaire, any two bags of flour he put between the pipes(Fernandez, Roloson, Backstrom , Harding ) looked like Vezina contenders under his system. Teams used have parades for just carrying the puck over their blueline. They bored you to death and won on special teams.
Move any of these goalies away from this system(except maybe Roloson), or change the coach and what do you get? Below average goaltending or goalies who don’t even play in the NHL anymore.
AV employed the same system up til this year. We had more talent and less effective special teams being the only difference. GM Place games between the two brought on bouts of narcolepsy in the crowd.
I’ll take the tradeoff, but almost anytime you see a marked amounts of goals for from a team, you’re gonna see some more against.(As my above post, still not excusing last night…those were on Luongo)
AV
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
He’s honest and says swagger. Respect.
"I was thinking it would be cool to see a game on the road. I have been looking all over this atlas but I don't see Vancouver anywhere. What state is this sh*t in!?"
- Dallas Stars Forum
Luongo is going to be fine
I just think he needs a bit more rest. The man has played a tonne of high intensity pressure hockey games this year. As soon as the division is locked up, he needs to be sat down.
Knights, Canucks, Dolphins, Jays and Raptors all the way.
I'll Say it Again...
Mr. Luongo,
Yes, your gold medal performance was quite inspiring, and all that.. but why do you insist on punctuating above average performances with complete stinkers like we witnessed tonight against the lowly Oilers?
Mr. Luongo, I’m a Canucks fan stuck in Calgary, and as such I was forced to shell out $15.95 on PPV to watch your impersonation of a human sieve… could you please be so kind as to reimburse my money? I hear you’re quite generous when it comes to passing along your winnings… and let’s face it you didn’t actually deserve your salary last night, did you?
Very Refreshing.
“I made some good saves, but unfortunately all three of those goals I should have had.”
“I’ve got to find the consistency in my game. Before, I might have a bad game every 10 or 12 games, now it’s every two or three games I’m getting one where I’m not at my best. I’ve got to get that consistency level back and game in and game out I have that swagger that you have to have.”
My guess is finally admitting the truth will do his game some good.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
by yoata on Mar 24, 2010 7:44 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I don’t know what he says privately to the team but…
Hearing him say this publicly can’t be anything but a positive.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
Yeah
I think his teammates will appreciate this a lot more than having the blame for his mistakes deflected on to them, so also guessing they will rally around him even more now and let him know it’s ok to admit he’s human.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
I'm gettin all teary
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Mutt+show+favours+Oilers+snipers/2719775/story.html
“I don’t think it is anything mechanical,” Luongo said. “I think it’s more of a mental thing. I’ve had a lot of bad starts to games which puts us in the hole. Some things I have to figure out on my own and obviously putting in the work makes things easier.”
Good for you Big Lu.
And…
Luongo’s teammates rallied to his defence after the game.
“He has to be able to have bad games, too,” said Canuck winger Daniel Sedin. “Everyone has bad games. Right now, we are not helping him. We have to score more. If he lets in three, we have to score four. That’s the bottom line. We have to be able to do that for our goalie … it’s a team game. You can’t blame anyone.”
weep
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
Christmas really has come early for you, hasn’t it?
Seriously though, a little humility never killed anyone. Except me.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
What can I say
True leadership is a beautiful thing.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
Paging Dr. Clark
The guy is more often flopping about and landing on his back than I’ve ever seen before.
I've noticed
that too, he seems to be guessing a lot, not just staying square and in position and using that big body to block shots, I think that’s when he’s at his best.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
Sprawling, not challenging enough and cheating off the short side are all signs of a goalie lacking confidence.
You’ll notice he’s not up and looking over and around screens as much either, and finding those sightlines is something he normally excels at. He’s staying back more and hoping it hits him.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
Very well said
I think that sums it up nicely, you a goalie coach?
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
nah
Played many years and had an excellent goalie coach. I like to think I understand the position intimately.
…but then, I like to think I understand women the same way. Just sayin’.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
Clark has been great for Luongo. But, since he’s now only doing the part-time thing, you could be right.
Whatever Lou’s problem is right now is more sports Psychologist type of thing, or , whatever.
He basically just needs to make friends with his brain.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
I have to say
Lu when he’s off, reminds me of a big lanky kid I had playing goal on a Bantam team I coached, when he was on, he was phenomenal, hard to beat, but he had a bad habit of getting lazy and waiting too long to get set for a shot, and therefore also had a tendency to let in bad goals, especially early in a game or period.
Funny thing is his name was Robert too, I used to tell him to get himself focused and prepared for anything as soon as the puck crossed the centre line, and I’d yell at him from the bench to start every period “ROBBIE! SET AND READY! SET AND READY!”
I see Lu being a bit lazy/nonchalant sometimes too.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
I know what you mean. I hate seeing goalies setup late. I never get that too much from Lu though.
I see hesitation right now though. When my reliable Dmen were on the ice I knew I could go challenge the puck with no worry about a cross ice pass or a late trailer trapping me out of position. Unreliable guys , you have no choice but stay closer to home to be able to take care of the passing option.
This isn’t putting all on the Dmen or the centerman, lack of confidence in yourself causes the same thing, the two together are a pretty bad situation.
Luongo is at his best challenging aggressively, same as most. Techically he is one of the best in the game IMO. Funny thing about situations like this, is it only takes one game to get the mental stuff all cleared up, technical stuff can take awhile.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
No
with Lu it’s never that obvious, but sometimes he seems to be less than 100% sharp and focused, I think he maybe needs to just bear down and stay on top of the play more at times instead of flopping or guessing.
Thing about hockey though is you can only do your job, not someone else’s, that’s when things really get screwed up. Especially at the NHL level, shooters are just way too good for any goaltender to get away with cheating off the short side post or giving them too much net by staying back out of caution, they see any hole and they will make you pay no matter who you are.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
Think you misunderstood me, or I just stated it poorly.
Hanging back in the goal , cheating, etc. are never viable options. But, and this is a really big one, it is the hardest thing to mentally overcome when things aren’t going well (whichever the cause). You are a professional though, and you get paid, and are expected to fight your way through it.
Really though, the job is to keep the puck out of the net. Someone else’s job or not to cover the open man,,,if he’s not covered..then he now just became YOUR responsibility and you have to adjust accordingly. Managing percentages and reading plays. Part of the job.
When a puck goes in people look to blame the goalie first, then work their way out. It’s a “prestige position” but like any of them, comes with the most responsibility.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
Oh I agree
I mean if the coverage isn’t there it’s one thing and yes then you have to play the %, but it’s when the goaltender assumes the coverage won’t be there and therefore worries about coverage instead of stopping pucks that it becomes them doing someone else’s job, and that’s where where goaltending breakdowns can start, and obviously have in Lu’s case.
Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols so I'll keep the Pesos
Yeah that seems fair
Is he lacking confidence in himself only, or more in his teammates? If a goalie knows that his D would not allow the pass to go through, he should be able to be square to the shooter and not cheat when the puck carrier is coming from the short side. His teammates are not helping in that regard either, because recently the team has not played well defensively. On the other hand, the Brule breakway did show that he lacked confidence by going down so quickly. He was beaten by the fake but Brule failed to put the net into the essentially open net (Luongo covered part of the bottom of the net with his left pad, which Brule shot at it)
Pitiful performance by Failou...
…but a great way to own up to it afterwards.
I think all you guys have it dead-on with what he is going through right now. He will never be Luongod in my books, but I believe that he can lead this team to the hugely anticipated Stanley this season. The best thing about this goalie, IMHO, is that he can play well under pressure. That said, this whole team needs to stop downplaying to the level of their opponents. When they manage to work through that, I think this team will be a force to be reckoned with.
He’s still a great goalie, albeit one in a major slump. I think the Olympics – the anticipation, selection process, games and aftermath – have drained him a bit this year.
Normally, he thrives on lots of work, but even so I’d rest him a bit now, several games in a row in fact as long as Raycroft plays OK, and just let him recharge his emotional batteries before getting some final late-season tune-up games and then the playoffs.
Why not? Barring weirdness, our playoff position is pretty well set. And Lungoo seems like a good guy, we know he’s got the skills, and he’s physically healthy, so if his play has dropped off lately, it’s most likely due to mental fatigue. The tears (remember them, after the 1st period of the Avs game?) were a hint, too.
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
While the majority of the league just took 2 weeks off, he had the most pressure-packed week of his life, and arguably, the most pressure-packed week any Canadian goalie has ever had (I don’t think that’s an overstatement).
As soon as the division is secure, I hope he gets rested for the better part of the rest of the season. I would hope he plays no more than 4 games the rest of the way.
Knights, Canucks, Dolphins, Jays and Raptors all the way.
That sounds about right to me, too. Given that he seems to go stale when he hasn’t played in a while, those games should be just before the playoffs, which, at this stage, would mean that Raycroft should handle the next 5 games in a row, with Luongo returning on Apr 4th against the Wild. Or something like that. It’d give him about a 10 or 11 day rest, which seems appropriate.
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
I like it
Give him a chance to get his head screwed on straight again.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
I see that nobody blames the Coach here, who should be bamed, for not seeing that Luongo has the simptoms of mental burn-out.
Los Angeles, CA
The way I see it, everything done over the last 3 years in regards to goaltending, was done to appease Luongo. If he said in the press, he wanted to start the next game, or the next 10, then that was the way it was going to be.
The Captaincy handed to him just before contract time, representing at the draft, were all perks to get him to re-sign because management was unsure of the outcome. Enough to push Vancouver over the top.
Now, he’s signed longterm, and after the debacle of a stretch run 2 years back, management shows less hesitation chucking Rayzor in (earned by him). If Lou’s feelings get hurt, too bad. They won’t let him overplay before the playoffs or have any fatigue issues (mental or physical) again.
Leave my name alone Botchford...get your own.
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