NHL Playoffs

[Ben Kenobi]

My problem is my assessment that Bobby was outgoaltended in 3 of 4 series. The performance in some games is great but the lack of consistency kills him for this in my view

Thomas was beat in round 1 and was beat in round 3. Plus, Bobby Lou was better than Pekka Rinne. I'm not sure how you can say that Pekka Rinne was better when he was beat in 6 games.

[Asher]

Stop making excuses. Just stop.

[Asher]

Strange final heads toward dramatic finale for Canucks, Bruins

The Canucks were hammered in Boston yet again, setting up a winner-take-all showdown for the Stanley Cup.

BOSTON

However this very strange Stanley Cup final works out, the Vancouver Canucks are not going to be left with a warm and wonderful legacy.

The Boston Bruins? They, like their goalie Tim Thomas, are surely the little engine that could, the team given no chance to capture the 2011 Stanley Cup but yet finds itself a win away from doing just that.

But for the Canucks, it’s a different tale entirely.

If they lose Game 7 on Wednesday, they’ll be ridiculed as an arrogant, unlikeable team that choked on its own words. They’ll be hockey’s Miami Heat.

If they win, oh, they’ll get a parade alright, and they’ll be beloved in the Lower Mainland for winning the franchise’s first Cup.

But they’ll also be viewed as a badly flawed champion everywhere else. They very nearly blew a three-games-to-none series lead in the first round, and got themselves there by waking up the defending champion Blackhawks with an unnecessary cheap shot.

Now, they have been destroyed in three road games in this final by the Bruins, while revealing themselves to be a team with a distinct taste for fakery and no problem crossing just about every line there is to cross in the sport.

In a nutshell, they’ll be seen as the cheatin’ champion with no stones.

Hard to put that on a banner. Even if they win the Cup, they’ve already robbed themselves of much of the lustre.

Too bad. For seven months, this was the NHL’s best team in every way possible, but it has all unravelled over the course of the post-season, and most notably in this final, and most specifically in Game 6 on Monday night in Boston.

They were hammered again, 5-2, just as they’d been thrashed 8-1 and 4-0 in the same building earlier in the series. Not even close once.

Goalie Roberto Luongo had been humbled in the first two games, but he was humiliated in Game 6, forced to make that long, uncomfortable skate to the bench after less than nine minutes of play in the first period, having already coughed up three goals.

Even worse, it was a dreadful performance that came after Luongo had taunted Thomas for allowing the winning goal in Game 5 — “it’s an easy save for me” — and then whined that he was bothered because Thomas hadn’t said enough nice things about him.

Seriously?

However this very strange Stanley Cup final works out, the Vancouver Canucks are not going to be left with a warm and wonderful legacy.

The Boston Bruins? They, like their goalie Tim Thomas, are surely the little engine that could, the team given no chance to capture the 2011 Stanley Cup but yet finds itself a win away from doing just that.

But for the Canucks, it’s a different tale entirely.

If they lose Game 7 on Wednesday, they’ll be ridiculed as an arrogant, unlikeable team that choked on its own words. They’ll be hockey’s Miami Heat.

If they win, oh, they’ll get a parade alright, and they’ll be beloved in the Lower Mainland for winning the franchise’s first Cup.

But they’ll also be viewed as a badly flawed champion everywhere else. They very nearly blew a three-games-to-none series lead in the first round, and got themselves there by waking up the defending champion Blackhawks with an unnecessary cheap shot.

Now, they have been destroyed in three road games in this final by the Bruins, while revealing themselves to be a team with a distinct taste for fakery and no problem crossing just about every line there is to cross in the sport.

In a nutshell, they’ll be seen as the cheatin’ champion with no stones.

Hard to put that on a banner. Even if they win the Cup, they’ve already robbed themselves of much of the lustre.

Too bad. For seven months, this was the NHL’s best team in every way possible, but it has all unravelled over the course of the post-season, and most notably in this final, and most specifically in Game 6 on Monday night in Boston.

They were hammered again, 5-2, just as they’d been thrashed 8-1 and 4-0 in the same building earlier in the series. Not even close once.

Goalie Roberto Luongo had been humbled in the first two games, but he was humiliated in Game 6, forced to make that long, uncomfortable skate to the bench after less than nine minutes of play in the first period, having already coughed up three goals.

Even worse, it was a dreadful performance that came after Luongo had taunted Thomas for allowing the winning goal in Game 5 — “it’s an easy save for me” — and then whined that he was bothered because Thomas hadn’t said enough nice things about him.

Seriously?

This is the same Luongo who was the team’s captain a year ago before having the “C” stripped from his jersey. Not only did he come up very small in a very big game — again — he did so while not being able to back up his own trash talk.

To his credit, Thomas chose not to take any shots after outplaying Luongo yet again in Game 6.

“No, I’m not going to go there,” he said.

Luongo’s dissing of Thomas was just the latest episode in a series in which the Canucks have, by their actions, been portrayed as the bad guys, and the Bruins as the good guys. Maybe that doesn’t matter, but then again, in a highly emotional game like hockey, maybe it matters a little.

“The most important thing now is not what is being said but what is being done,” said Claude Julien, who will now guide the Bruins into their first-ever Game 7 match in a Stanley Cup final.

Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault wasn’t in any mood to explain much, even why he chose to pull Luongo so early.

“Just felt like it,” he shrugged. “He knows he’s going back in for Game 7.”

Of course, Vigneault has already dissembled once on that issue earlier in these playoffs, starting Cory Schneider after saying he’d play Luongo, so no one will buy his “confidence” in Luongo this time around.

The amazing part of this game was that the Canucks actually came out strongly and looked like a very confident team until Brad Marchand put a good wrist shot past Luongo high on the short side at 5:31 of the first. Milan Lucic beat Luongo through the legs 35 seconds later and the Canucks just seemed to sag.

Now, the Bruins have to figure out how to do the same in B.C., having scored 17 goals in the Bay State in three games, but just two on the west coast in a trio of matches.

“We’ve got to bring that game to Vancouver with us,” said Julien.

Vancouver likely won’t have winger Mason Raymond for Game 7, with Raymond lost early Monday night after getting tangled up with Boston’s Johnny Boychuk. Put that together with the injury absences of Dan Hamhuis and Mikael Samuelsson, the suspension of Aaron Rome and the reluctance to play Keith Ballard, and the Canucks are getting a little thin up front and on the back end.

Little thin on the legacy, too.

.

[Flubber]

He's just simply been not good enough so far.

1. Ben -- how can you say this about Thomas? You are the guy that loves save % as proof of how great Luongo is over his career etc etc. As it currently stands, Luongo is 8th on save % and ninth on GAA of all playoff goalies. I'm sure you can point out that he is first in shutouts, tied for first in wins and second in time on ice. It paints a picture of troubling inconsistency. He has been very good to excellent sometimes and downright bad other times. You can talk of bad bounces or whatever but how many other elite goalies have been pulled as many times as him? Thomas against playoff competition is at .937 which is pretty much his regular season mark while Luongo has fallen from .928 to a playoff .916.

2. Vancouver remain the deepest and most skilled team in the NHL. They have an excellent chance to win the cup in game 7. If they do, it will be a testament to the team coming through adversity. Even if Luongo is excellent in game 7, it doesn't erase the fact that through these playoffs he has cost his team on several occasions. If he comes up big in game 7, I could not see him as a choker but nor would I praise him. Hes like the guy that expects adulation for solving a crises he himself created. Sure Vancouver wasn't great in aggregate in Boston over 3 games but come on, when you are 6 minutes in and your goalie lets in two marginal type goals, you tend to sag. His team must be already thinking " ok tonight its bad bobby"

3. Ben its simple-- based on what I am seeing, if I could pick any goalie for a playoff run. I would have a long list that i would prefer over Roberto Luongo. he is "in his prime" and yes he is capable of brilliance but the uncertainty and inconsistency is maddening. This is his fourth playoff and with the exception of his first playoff try, his regular season numbers are noticeably better than his playoff ones. That is fact.

4. All that said, Luongo may win a cup. The team he plays for is very good. If he does, he gets a key piece of silverware but frankly, when looking at where Luongo ranks in the all time greats, this playoff run may hurt him more than it helps. How many all time greats have been pulled as often as he has, have had so many goals scores in a SCF etc etc . Sorry but he is nowhere NEAR the modern day greats like Brodeur and Roy and a cup win will be viewed by many as more in spite of Luongo than because of him ( a somewhat unfair characterization for when he is good he has been very good and he was a very big piece of winning the SJ series). However he almost cost them the Chicago series abd frankly he was irrelevant against Nashville . Try to assert that the Cnucks don't beat Nashville with Schneider between the pipes, I dare you LOL

[Asher]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/3-goals-9-minutes-countless-questions-for-luongo/article2059622/singlepage/#articlecontent

3 goals, 9 minutes, countless questions for Luongo

This is what “ugly” means in hockey.

Its face today, unfortunately, belongs to Roberto Luongo, a brilliant goaltender who just may have too many synapses going off in his head at critical moments.

Luongo’s Vancouver Canucks went into Game 6 at Boston’s TD Garden with the opportunity to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada for the first time in 18 long years of championship drought.

It was an opportunity lost in all of 8 minutes 35 seconds, squandered in eight shots on Luongo’s goal, of which three went in, two of them kindly described as “weak.”

In that small blink of ice time, the Boston Bruins had effectively evened their best-of-seven final series at three games apiece – the final score 5-2 in Boston’s favour – with a decisive Game 7 now to be played in Vancouver Wednesday night.

Luongo said he “felt fine all day,” but the first difficult shot he faced, a wrist shot by Boston forward Brad Marchand from the right circle, beat him easily.

“It was a good shot,” Luongo said after the game. “But at the same time, I’ve got to make that save.”

Another shot, far weaker, went between his legs, followed by a long shot from the point that he appeared not to see to make it 3-0 Boston.

“To hang your head now and feel sorry for yourself would be the worst thing I could do,” Luongo said.

“I’m not going to make any excuses. I’m just going to move on. We have one game at home now to win a Stanley Cup.”

It is not known whether Vancouver will start Luongo, the team’s $10-million-a-year superstar and franchise player, or young Cory Schneider, a $900,000-a-year backup who has yet to win his first Stanley Cup playoff game.

It was Schneider who came in to Monday’s game in relief of Luongo. The 25-year-old Boston-area native had also replaced Luongo in Game 4 here after the Bruins had run up the score to 4-0. In that game, he did not allow another Bruins goal in the short time he played.

The 32-year-old Luongo, on the other hand, has a positively horrific record in Boston, having now allowed 15 goals in less than three full games – a remarkable contrast to the three Stanley Cup final wins he has in Vancouver, including two by shutout.

It is most perplexing: brilliant at home, stumbling on the road. And the conundrum could well become the fabulously talented Luongo’s National Hockey League legacy.

More than a half-century ago, Detroit Red Wings general manager Jack Adams claimed that, “What pitching is in a short series in baseball, goaltending is in the Stanley Cup playoffs.”

He wasn’t even close. Pitching staffs have four starters and a bullpen; hockey has the money goalie and the backup. When the money goalie crashes, the team usually follows.

It is an incremental collapse. The goaltender falters. The defencemen, who are tasked with keeping attackers at bay, lose faith and stay further back in order to defend. The forwards begin worrying more about their own end than the opposition end. The attack fizzles; the mistakes compound; the game is lost. That is how important the goaltender is. Whether Schneider’s play and Vancouver’s slight recovery in the third period can regain the confidence the Canucks – the NHL’s top team during the regular season – brought into the postseason remains to be seen.

Since the Conn Smythe Trophy was first awarded to the most valuable player in the playoffs back in 1965, goaltenders have won it a remarkable 14 times. Five times, the trophy has gone to a member of the losing side, four of those recipients being goaltenders.

If Boston were to lose in Vancouver, the odds-on favourite to win this year’s Conn Smythe is Boston’s Tim Thomas. If Boston wins, he’s a lock.

The contrast between the two, Luongo and Thomas, has been stark this spring, Thomas endlessly easygoing and laughing, Luongo intense and, at times, brooding. Thomas usually laughs off most questions. Luongo, a serious and thoughtful man, tries to answer. When the Montreal native happened to say, quite accurately, that because of their differing styles of play –Thomas challenging shooters, Luongo protecting his net – the off-the-backboards goal that won Game 5 would have been “an easy save for me,” it blew up on him in Boston as some sort of insult aimed at Thomas. The quote was even shown on the television screens when Luongo was replaced in net by Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault.

In less than three games in Boston, Luongo had an 8.09 goals-against average and a shocking save percentage of .773. He allowed 15 goals on 66 shots. Thomas, on the other hand, had sparkling statistics of a 1.33 goals-against average and a save percentage of .974 in those games.

Luongo’s play in Boston had them snidely calling out “Loooo-wonnnngooo,” and shuddering in Vancouver, where fans were once certain Vancouver’s two-games-to-none lead in the series would result in a Stanley Cup.

It is easily hockey’s most stressful position. “How would you like it,” hockey Hall of Famer Jacques Plante once asked, “if you were sitting in your office and you made one little mistake – suddenly a red light went on and 18,000 people jumped up and started screaming at you, calling you a bum, and an imbecile, and throwing garbage at you?”

This, however, was not just “one little mistake.” Two of the three goals scored on Luongo were shots he would normally easily save. Something gets into his head under intense conditions and that has tracked him throughout a career that is otherwise sparkling. He did not play well in the 1998 Memorial Cup. He allowed a late goal in the gold-medal game at the 2010 Winter Games, leaving victory to Sidney Crosby in overtime, with all credit going to the goal scorer and precious little to the man in net.

The question that has continually been asked of Luongo is: “Can he win the Big One?” It is a question that drives Vancouver Canucks fans to distraction, even anger, but it may finally have to be answered on Wednesday night in Vancouver – providing Luongo, and not Schneider, gets the start in net.

Luongo’s teammates are acutely aware of the big question, one they are as keen to see answered as Luongo himself.

“If you win the Stanley Cup,” Canucks forward Daniel Sedin said before Monday’s match, “no one can really say anything about you.”

True enough, but until then they will talk … and talk … and talk.

[Asher]

Daniel Sedin has guaranteed a Game 7 win.

Raymond has a fractured vertebrae. Out 4-6 months. He was one of the few Canucks I liked...

Edler has an undisclosed injury, questionable for G7.

Alberts has an undisclosed injury, questionable for G7.

[Guynemer]

Ben, Luongo could make 60 of 60 saves in Game 7, and he won't come within a country mile of the Conn Smythe.

My word, you are precious.

[Arrian]

Oh the humanity. The games in Boston have been crazy - I don't think I've ever seen a clearer example of a talented player totally getting psyched out (and I'm a Yankees fan!). Wow. Let's-go-Bruins (says the Rangers fan!).

This is like a bizzaro 2001 World Series. Arizona went up 2-0 by winning at home, and winning handily. The Yankees won three close games at home, including back-to-back games featuring 2-out, 2-run homeruns in the 9th to tie the score (I still can't believe that happened). Then Arizona blew them out in game 6 at home and won game 7 in possibly the most unlikely fashion imaginable. Arizona outscored the Yankees handily in the series, but came really really close to losing (down 2-1 with 3 outs to go against the best closer ever). The Yankees were lucky to even get to game 7 (thanks in no small part to the opposing manager, IMO, being an idiot with his bullpen).

-Arrian

[Tupac Shakur]

Of the 15 Game 7 SCF games in history, 12 were won by the hometeam. So the odds for Vancouver are still very good.

Told you so. Vancouver is going to win.

[Ben Kenobi]

1. Ben -- how can you say this about Thomas?

Because it's the honest to God truth. Every game in this series where the difference has been the goaltender, Thomas has come up short. I've had a chance to look at the Neilson numbers for game 6, and it reinforces my position.

There were 48 total scoring chances for the Bruins last game. 48. And you want to blame Bobby Lou?

You are the guy that loves save % as proof of how great Luongo is over his career

Indeed, because only him and Hasek are at all close.

As it currently stands, Luongo is 8th on save % and ninth on GAA of all playoff goalies.

Career wise is the larger and more reliable sample. More games = better stats.

I'm sure you can point out that he is first in shutouts, tied for first in wins and second in time on ice.

It suggests to me that the problem is not Bobby Lou.

It paints a picture of troubling inconsistency.

True. But not with Luongo. Ehrhoff is a -12. That is a huge reason why they are not performing as well in the playoffs as they have in the regular season.

He has been very good to excellent sometimes and downright bad other times.

48 chances last game? The win for the Bruins was frankly, inevitable. They put up 22 in the first period *alone*.

You can talk of bad bounces or whatever but how many other elite goalies have been pulled as many times as him?

This series? Maybe once in game 2. Games 1 and 5 were all Bobby Lou.

Thomas against playoff competition is at .937 which is pretty much his regular season mark while Luongo has fallen from .928 to a playoff .916.

Which suggests to me that he's due for a bounceback game. He was at .919 last game which is identical to his career numbers. Thomas' are overinflated.

2. Vancouver remain the deepest and most skilled team in the NHL. They have an excellent chance to win the cup in game 7. If they do, it will be a testament to the team coming through adversity. Even if Luongo is excellent in game 7, it doesn't erase the fact that through these playoffs he has cost his team on several occasions.

He's been dominant in every close game. When a team gets blown out, it's usually not the goalie's fault.

If he comes up big in game 7, I could not see him as a choker but nor would I praise him.

That's because you've never praised him. Not even for the two shutouts already in this series. Why would I expect you to give credit where credit is due when you've failed to do so in this series. I've praised Thomas for his shutout. What is so difficult from understanding that Bobby Lou has 2 to his 1?

Thomas hasn't won a game yet in the SCF where the goaltending has been the crucial difference. If they don't blow the Canucks out early on, they lose. Thomas has been the critical reason for this, because his errors are the reason why Boston isn't hoisting up a cup right now.

Hes like the guy that expects adulation for solving a crises he himself created.

Except for the fact, that it's not him who is causing 48 scoring chances, and 22 in the first period. Defense has to show up.

Sure Vancouver wasn't great in aggregate in Boston over 3 games but come on, when you are 6 minutes in and your goalie lets in two marginal type goals, you tend to sag. His team must be already thinking " ok tonight its bad bobby"

Boston was getting chances all over the ice. The defense simply did not do their job, and Bobby Lou was hung out to dry. *Again*.

3. Ben its simple-- based on what I am seeing, if I could pick any goalie for a playoff run. I would have a long list that i would prefer over Roberto Luongo.

Like who?

he is "in his prime" and yes he is capable of brilliance but the uncertainty and inconsistency is maddening. This is his fourth playoff and with the exception of his first playoff try, his regular season numbers are noticeably better than his playoff ones. That is fact.

Umm, unfortunately, this is not so. His career numbers for save percentage in the playoffs and the regular season is a stellar .919 He is one of the *few* goalies who perform exactly the same in the regular season as in the playoffs.

4. All that said, Luongo may win a cup. The team he plays for is very good. If he does, he gets a key piece of silverware but frankly, when looking at where Luongo ranks in the all time greats, this playoff run may hurt him more than it helps.

I don't see how that can be at all the case. He's earned 4 shutouts in this run and is the only reason why they still have a chance to win the cup. He's proven beyond a doubt that he is *good enough* to win in the big games. This is a huge part of his resume.

Every goalie with 300 wins and a cup is in the hall of fame, and yes, Osgood will be in there too. He wins, he's got his ticket punched for the HHF today, and he's only 31.

Sorry but he is nowhere NEAR the modern day greats like Brodeur and Roy

You're talking about probably the number 1 and number 2 goaltenders in the history of the game. Unfortunately for you, his numbers stack up superior to Roy in the regular season through age 31. Playoffs? No, but then that's because Roy was the greatest money goalie in the game. Dryden included.

frankly he was irrelevant against Nashville.

History will bear out his play. I am confident that when the haters move on, objective analysis will be possible and he will get credit for his performance throughout the season.

Try to assert that the Cnucks don't beat Nashville with Schneider between the pipes

I fail to see how that is relevant. Did he play well? Yes. Did he outplay Vezina nominee, Pekka Rinne? Also yes. He was a big part of why they advance to the third round. I've seen a powerhouse Canucks squad falter to a very similar team, because the goaltending was subpar. This was not the case this year.

[Ben Kenobi]

Anyways, we shall see. I would love to see the Canucks win and Luongo to get the Conn Smythe.

Overall chances in the first 15 minutes of last game? 18 - 2.

[Ben Kenobi]

Raymond has a fractured vertebrae. Out 4-6 months. He was one of the few Canucks I liked

I expect to see the NHL suspend Boychuk next season for the dirty hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qn97tELtNTI#at=55

Watch the 'classy' Bruins fan reaction to the hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoSLSU4e1XQ

There's the hit. Count 2 seconds. Hit was late and puck was nowhere near Mase. Hit caused a severe injury. So why no suspension?

[EPW]

What, you want them to suspend the wall?

[Asher]

There's no suspension because there was no intent to injure. They both got tangled up while the puck passed by, such that neither player could touch the puck. It was a freak play. I knew there'd be no suspension -- not because there's a conspiracy against the canucks, but because there's a world of difference in blindsiding a player with a direct hit to the head way after he touched the puck and getting tangled up and going into the boards awkwardly with bad results.

You are a moron, Ben. You also disparage Thomas, who is having one of the finest goaltending performances in SCF history while defending Luongo, who has had one of the biggest personal meltdowns in SCF history.

[Asher]

Anyways, we shall see. I would love to see the Canucks win and Luongo to get the Conn Smythe.

Overall chances in the first 15 minutes of last game? 18 - 2.

Other things you would love but will never happen:

- Having sex with a woman
- Being intelligent
- Being a fan of a classy hockey team
- Being an American
- Going to "Heaven"

The Canucks may win, but Luongo will certainly not get the Conn Smythe. Even if he got a 1-0 shutout tonight.