Luongo hears it from hometown fans in Vancouver

Rented Mule

A year after helping the Vancouver Canucks reach Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, one would think Roberto Luongo would be given unconditional support from fans early in the season, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

As Henrik Lundqvist backstopped the New York Rangers to a 4-0 shutout victory over the Canucks on Tuesday, his counterpart at the other end of the ice was hearing it from the hometown fans.

"They're not happy with my play, as well as I am not," said Luongo. "So I guess they're entitled to that. That's totally fine, I understand that. It's up to me to pick up my game and make some saves."

After two periods, the Rangers and Canucks had held each other off the score sheet, but four third period goals changed the direction of the game and the perception of the fans at Rogers Arena.


The contract that Vancouver signed Luongo to will be a noose around their necks moving forward. Fans of '7uongo' will mention the fact that 'he' won the gold medal for Canada at the last Olympics. The truth of the matter is that Canada won the medal in spite of Luongo.

MrJoeSoap

Have always found him to be vastly over-rated, to be honest. Aside from a great first season in Vancouver, his numbers are just good, but not great given the strength of the team he is playing for. I don't think he's at the consistent level that Ryan Miller and Miikka Kiprusoff have been at over the past five years or so, and certainly isn't near what Brodeur was at his peak.

I've always felt the Ryan Miller was a far better goalie, and despite being delighted when Canada won the Olympics last year I was devastated for Miller. You could see the disappointment on his face more than any other US player. And he was the tournament MVP...

That said, to get on his back after 4 games this season is a bit harsh.

Rented Mule

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

That said, to get on his back after 4 games this season is a bit harsh.

The problem is that fans are looking at the entire picture when it comes to Luongo. He hasn't won the big game for them (yet). He has come up painfully short in the biggest games for Vancouver.

He is being paid as one of the highest players on the roster. He needs to play like it every night.

MrJoeSoap

He bounced back pretty well last night. 25 saves and only 1 goal against.

MrJoeSoap

Allowed 3 goals on 14 shots last night and was replaced by Schneider in the second period, and hit his stick off the boards in frustration as he left the ice. Schneider saved the 8 shots he faced.

Crapbag

Agreed Luo is over rated and has terrible consistancy problems. His performance in the playoffs was up and down throughout each series.

Having said that, to be boo'ed off the ice at home isnt the kind of support fans should be giving him. It seems to be very much a love-hate relationship with him in Vancouver. Give him until December and then start worrying. I'd be shifting him to put Schneider in the number one spot and calling up Eddie Lack. Lack had a great preseason and seemed to show great potential.

BTW Are you guys watching the games on Setanta?

MrJoeSoap

Crapbag wrote: »

Agreed Luo is over rated and has terrible consistancy problems. His performance in the playoffs was up and down throughout each series.

Having said that, to be boo'ed off the ice at home isnt the kind of support fans should be giving him. It seems to be very much a love-hate relationship with him in Vancouver. Give him until December and then start worrying. I'd be shifting him to put Schneider in the number one spot and calling up Eddie Lack. Lack had a great preseason and seemed to show great potential.

BTW Are you guys watching the games on Setanta?

I'm watching them on Gamecenter Live but a lot of the guys on here are using Setanta.

Crapbag

Ditto, Im using the app and only getting the Highlights which sucks. I caught maybe 70 of their regular season games while living there and now im stuck watching crap highlights. Cant justify getting Setanta just yet.

I hope Luo finds his form in November for his own sake. The 3 most frustrating players to watch during the playoffs last Season were him and the two Sedins

MrJoeSoap

Crapbag wrote: »

Ditto, Im using the app and only getting the Highlights which sucks. I caught maybe 70 of their regular season games while living there and now im stuck watching crap highlights. Cant justify getting Setanta just yet.

I hope Luo finds his form in November for his own sake. The 3 most frustrating players to watch during the playoffs last Season were him and the two Sedins

I've got the full package so get all the games live for every team, fantastic to have. ESPN America had great coverage for the past couple of seasons, but Setanta only seem to want to show one game per evening with no re-runs and no highlights shows. Hopefully that will change soon.

Crapbag

So you watch them on your PC? or do you have an alternative set up?

EDIT: Are you on the $4.95 per month? What is the quality like?

Hmmm... I think one of my TV's has a VGA port and an audio in socket. This might trumpt Setanta on price and game availability

MrJoeSoap

Crapbag wrote: »

So you watch them on your PC? or do you have an alternative set up?

I have the laptop connected to the TV by HDMI and watch them on the TV, or if I'm in bed I watch them on the iPad sometimes.

You can watch four games at a time on the big screen, or can do picture-in-picture (screenshots attached).

For most games you can also get home and away commentary feeds, which is good if you are following a specific team, have a preferred commentator or just hate somebody's voice...

I'm on the full $160 season pass, I'm on 50mb UPC broadband and the quality is incredible (the screenshots below don't do it justice). I'd imagine its quite close to HD.

https://gamecenter.nhl.com/nhlgc/secure/gclsignup

Crapbag

Cool! Thats decent quality! I might be swayed towards doing that instead and I like the two Johns who commentate for the Canucks.

Do they still do the little pieces of 'Hockey know how' during the breaks in play? They were excellent little additions to watching the game live. I think John Garrett does them. Too bad I wont be able to get Don Cherrys antics on CBC's Hockey night in Canada.

MrJoeSoap

Crapbag wrote: »

Cool! Thats decent quality! I might be swayed towards doing that instead and I like the two Johns who commentate for the Canucks.

Do they still do the little pieces of 'Hockey know how' during the breaks in play? They were excellent little additions to watching the game live. I think John Garrett does them. Too bad I wont be able to get Don Cherrys antics on CBC's Hockey night in Canada.

They don't show anything during the breaks in-play at the moment, that's the only slight downside. But I generally switch to another game during the breaks anyway.

Crapbag

Ok sorry about this. Last question or two

Firstly is it a fixed contract or can you cancel after a month if you think its crap? Lastly, I was just watching the highlights of the Van Vs. Edm game and it was choppy as hell. Are the games like that? I know latency of local connections, browser problems can all add to that but I was wondering if you notice it.

MrJoeSoap

Crapbag wrote: »

Ok sorry about this. Last question or two

Firstly is it a fixed contract or can you cancel after a month if you think its crap? Lastly, I was just watching the highlights of the Van Vs. Edm game and it was choppy as hell. Are the games like that? I know latency of local connections, browser problems can all add to that but I was wondering if you notice it.

It is a fixed contract, you can cancel up until the fifth day for a full refund .

How do I cancel my account?

If you are dissatisfied with your NHL GameCenter LIVE™ account, you may cancel within 5 days of the initial payment and your account will be refunded the amount of the payment. After the 5 days, no cancellations or refunds will be granted.

This cancellation policy is the same if you choose to pay as a single payment or in monthly installments (See Cancellation Policy below). Purchases made through any iPad App are subject to Apple's no refund policy.

NHL GAMECENTER LIVE™ Cancellation Policy

Subject to applicable laws, if you are a subscriber to any NHL GameCenter LIVE™ package purchased at nhl.com/gamecenterlive (does not include purchases made through the NHL GameCenter™ or NHL GameCenter™ Premium iPad apps) , you may cancel your subscription to NHL GameCenter LIVE™ within 5 days of subscribing, and receive a refund of the subscription or installment price; provided that if you sign up for NHL GameCenter LIVE™ again after cancelling, NHL ICE reserves the right to deny further cancellation requests. You may cancel your subscription by contacting NHL GameCenter LIVE™ customer support. NHL ICE may cancel your subscription to NHL GameCenter LIVE™ at any time without notice for conduct that NHL ICE believes, in its sole discretion, violates the Terms of Service, including, without limitation, conduct that NHL ICE believes is harmful to other subscribers, NHL ICE's business or other information providers

None of the games I've watched have been choppy in the slightest, even at the highest picture quality. When you have four screens going at once the picture quality isn't fantastic, but you can't really expect it to be I suppose.

Feel free to ask any more questions.

PS - You also have access to the NHL Vault... https://gamecenter.nhl.com/nhlgc/secure/vaultsignup?intcmpid=nhl.com:vlt:vdsbnv

MrJoeSoap

The debate rumbles on...

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2011/10/luongo-should-be-playing-not-watching.html

Alain Vigneault didn't pump gasoline on the fire, but he certainly didn't help extinguish the flames that surround his embattled goaltender on Wednesday.

The Vancouver Canucks head coach reasoned that starting backup Cory Schneider at home against the St. Louis Blues was the plan all along. But clearly that plan could have been altered to give Luongo some much needed time between the pipes to find his form.

Luongo put forth another suspect performance in Edmonton on Tuesday. He surrendered three goals in the opening seven minutes of the second period against the young Oilers. Enough was enough. He was summoned from the crease, replaced by Schneider and proceeded to smash his stick over the boards when he arrived at the Canucks bench.

He could only be faulted for the second goal, when he misplayed the puck behind his net and didn't scurry back to the crease in time before Oilers centre Shawn Horcoff scored. But Vancouver fans don't want to be told to chill their fury for Luongo. They have their whipping boy. The only way the heat will subside for Luongo will be for him to respond with a win streak.


Fall patterns


Luongo has gone 2-3-1 in six starts this month with 19 goals against. His save percentage is an alarming .868 (38th in the league) and his goals against is a dismal 3.45 (36th). But early-season struggles are nothing new for the 32-year-old Luongo. In seven October starts a season ago, he went 2-3-2 and allowed 20 goals. He went 7-4 in November and 8-1-1 in December. By then the Canucks were on their way to the Presidents' Trophy.

The Canucks faithful, however, will not back off. Wrongly or rightly, Luongo has been blamed for the Canucks failure in the Stanley Cup final last spring. The play of Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler and others in the final has been forgotten as well as the fact that the Canucks scored only eight goals in seven games. But Luongo's three stinky outings in Boston have not been misremembered as Roger Clemens once said.

We realize the goaltender position draws undue criticism and praise like a magnet. But Luongo also wears a 12-year, no-trade contract around his neck like an albatross. Therefore, there is no room for error for him. The expectations placed on him are sky high.

Finding his form


We queried a couple of scouts who know the goalie position about Luongo's technique. They see a goaltender struggling to play the back-in-the-net style that Canucks goalie coach Roland Melanson has preached to Luongo. They see a goalie who has not found his rhythm, has not followed the puck as soundly as he should be, has struggled to read the play and has not relied on his instincts.

A good goalie rarely loses sight of the puck. On that Horcoff goal the other night, Luongo not only messed up his delivery of the puck to Vancouver defenceman Dan Hamhuis, but lost sight of puck as he returned to the crease.

Our experts do not advocate that Luongo return to his former ways, his more aggressive approach. They simply believe that more instinct and less technique could benefit him in the short term.

"He's a guy who just looks unsure with himself right now," said a scout. "He used to be so confident in that crease. He's missing that demeanour."

He should be allowed to fight his way out of this funk, with time in the crease and with or without the support of the Canucks faithful.

Crapbag

Ive never been Luongos number 1 fan. However I would refuse to be one to bash him continually. Watching the finals with Thomas the other end, pulling off amazing save after save and Luongo getting shredded in Boston was terrible.

However I think he can pull his socks up. Its mistakes like that goal against the Blues that really make be mad. He did the same thing in the series against the Sharks. They worked on it and he eventually got through it. He just needs some time but the fans in Vancouver are impatient with him. His reputation, I feel is not deserved. He is a very good Goalie but not the brilliant under pressure.

He finished 1st overall last year in the regular session. You cant ask much more of someone than that. I think the fans in Vancouver need to give the guy a break if they want him to perform. The whole team has started very slowly. The game against the Caps might have been the kick start... heres hoping

MrJoeSoap

Did you sign up to Gamecenter Live in the end?

Crapbag

I didn't actually. Just catching the highlights. It's crap because last nights game look like it was brilliant from start to finish. 20 quid per month is just too steep at the minute