Luongo was truly an all-time great Canuck
Goaltender’s career is often misunderstood
Apoint shy of history, Henrik Sedin is the greatest Canuck there ever was.
If you’re to chisel out the organization’s Mount Rushmore, Henrik is the George Washington, the first to be carved and the most prominent on display.
The remaining three slots are worthy of debate. Trevor Linden was the heart and soul for nearly a decade. Pavel Bure is in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Daniel Sedin is destined to be there, too.
Thing is, they can’t all make it. Not with Roberto Luongo’s Vancouver career, which is both among the greatest in team history and the most underrated. He has to be there.
Luongo is 37 now but his career remains misunderstood, mostly because it’s bananas. There are still those arguing whether or not he will be in the hall of fame.
Yet Luongo’s place in the hall has to be a slam dunk, even if he finishes a career without a Stanley Cup ring or a Vezina Trophy.
Consider, this is setting up to be his 15th consecutive full season in which he finishes above the league average in save percentage. It could be his eighth with a save percentage higher than .920.
In every full season since 2001, except for one, he’s played at least 55 games. The consistency both in his durability and his performance are mind-blowing.
He is among the greatest workhorse goalies the game has ever seen, a machine who is as good now as he was on June 23, 2006, the day the Canucks traded for him, a moment in time that changed everything.
What followed were the glory years. With the Canucks, Luongo won 252 regular season games and 32 more in the playoffs. In eight seasons here his winning percentage was .631. It averages out to 104 points per season.
He remains the only elite goaltender to ever play for the Canucks through his prime and is so much better than any other netminder to wear a Vancouver uniform it’s insulting to make comparisons.
Alex Burrows remembers the trade bringing Luongo to Vancouver like it was an hour ago. He lists off the date and the players involved like it’s branded on the back of his hand.
“We were getting a legit No. 1, a guy who played for his country,” Burrows said. “We were going to be a contender with a No. 1 goalie. “It was great.” In his first year with the Canucks, Luongo was a finalist for both the Hart and the Vezina Trophies. He led a mediocre team into the second round of the playoffs, beating the Dallas Stars in a series the Canucks were shut out three times.
“It does bring a lot of confidence when you have a top goalie in the game who can steal you games, win you games,” Burrows said. “You look at the box score every night and the team that wins 90 per cent of the games is the team that had the best goalie that night.
“It’s probably the most important position in the NHL.”
Luongo was different back then. He was not yet the loose pro with the sharp wit and wicked sense of humour fans know now. He was incredibly focused, and intense — though he did often take Sundays off to make sure he’d catch NFL games.
“The first few years, he wouldn’t come out for dinner on the road,” Burrows said. “He’d say, ‘ We play tomorrow, I’m staying in my room. I’m sticking with my routine. I’ll get room service. Maybe watch some football and play some online poker.’ “We’d never seen him out.” That, of course, changed dramatically over t i me. In a recent interview with Postmedia, Luongo was asked what he would tell his 20-something self if he could.
“There’s a lot,” he said. “I just have a different mindset with the way I approach the game. I try to enjoy it more. I think when I was younger, I took it too seriously and sometimes it would impact the way I performed. I hate that.”
Burrows could see that change over time and, just two years younger, he can relate. “He is such a competitor. Even watching football, it would be a competition who would score next,” Burrows said. “He wants to win at everything. “But sometimes when you’re too focused, it’s counter- productive. I think he realized that. It’s just a game.”
There is no question that change in outlook helped Luongo. He was traded back to Florida three years ago at the age of 34. Since then, he’s had a .922 save percentage.
To be this good, at this age, is, well, insane.
But so were Luongo’s eight seasons as a Canuck, a career that will only look better with time and perspective.