By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

ith four games into the
regular season both
goaltenders, Roberto

Luongo and Cory Schneider, have
split the games at two apiece—
resulting in one win and three losses,
including a shootout loss against the
Pittsburgh Penguins. It is quite evident
that Coach Alain Vigneault has
expressed an undeniable confidence
in backup goaltender ‘Schneids’ after
such a break-out season last year (with
a 16-4-3 record, a 2.23 Goals against
average and a .929 Save Percentage),
and it looks as though we'll be seeing
a lot more of him come the rest of this
season...especially if Luongo doesn’t
pick up his working boots soon and
continues to flop like a frightened fish
on the ice whenever the opponent gets
the puck. Jokes...but seriously.
Luongo has been known for his
slow starts to the season over the
course of his career, so it might not
be the best thing to judge him that
harshly until November rolls around.
Especially only after two games. After
all, he did finish last season with an
impressive career best 38-15-7 record,
2.11 Goals Against Average, and a
.928 Save Percentage, not to mention
coming within one win of winning the
Stanley Cup: something that everyone
seems to forget as soon as he has a

bad game. Although, with that being
said, these slow starts over the past
several years are beginning to get old.
It’s almost expected that Vancouver
will struggle right out of the starting
gates to start the season now because
of Luongo’s notorious slow starts.
It’s nagging and worrisome, that’s for
sure.

 

he has played into October, number
35 has back-stopped the Canucks

to their first win of the season with

a 3-2 victory over the Columbus
Blue Jackets, in a game where the
Canucks didn’t deserve to win. He
stopped Blue Jackets rookie Maksim
Mayorov’s penalty-shot opportunity
which could have put the game away

“Schneider is showing promise with his impressive numbers in his
first two games with a .935 SV% and a 2.03 GAA, while Luongo isn’t
looking too hot with a 3.90 GAA and a .855 SV% in his first two starts.”

But now it’s a completely
different story because the Canucks
have options. They have two
legitimate bona fide goaltenders.
Schneider, the 25-year-old young
buck has come to the stage in his
career where he is ready to be an
NHL starting goaltender. And with
this year being the last on his contract
and Luongo having 11 more years left
on his, it doesn’t take a genius to see
that in this particular situation it is
expected that ‘Schneids’ will not be
returning to Vancouver next year.

But one cannot help but think
that at age 25 and with the way he
is playing, Schneider has a lot more
promise than Luongo, who is 32 and
in 11 years (when his contract ends)
will be 43 years of age. Not only that,
but so far with the two games that

but instead ignited a 3-2 comeback.
What a guy. The 2-0 loss against the
Detroit Red Wings could hardly be
blamed on him, as he made 35 saves
and at times stood on his head.
Schneider is showing promise
with his impressive numbers in his
first two games with a .935 SV%
and a 2.03 GAA, while Luongo isn’t
looking too hot with a 3.90 GAA and

a .855 SV% in his first two starts.

Perhaps this competitive friendly
goaltender controversy will spark a
healthy drive for both players which
might be exactly what Alain Vigneault
is looking for down the stretch.

Just take a look at the Boston
Bruins coach Claude Julien’s
philosophy. He has publicly said that
they have two number one goaltenders
with Tim Thomas and Tuuka Rask,

even though Thomas dominated last
season winning the Conn Smythe
Trophy as the most valuable player

to his team in the playoffs, the Vezina
Trophy as the goaltender who is
adjudged to be the best at his position,
and, oh how could I forget...the
Stanley Cup.

“T think a lot.of it is just like last
year. We started off with two guys
that we called number one goaltenders
and they’re still in my mind, [both]
number one-calibre goaltenders,”
Julien said. “But as you saw Timmy
just took off and you have to ride the
hot hand. The same thing happens
this year; we’ve got two goaltenders
that are, in my eyes, number one
goaltenders.”

Now, I’m not saying that this
is the right way to go about with
both goaltenders — but it’s worth
a shot isn’t it? Especially with the
fact that both Luongo and Schneider
took home the Jennings award as
the goaltending tandem that allowed
the fewest amount of goals in the
NHL last year. A little friendly
competition never hurt anyone, and
with this looking like it’s the last
year the Canucks will have two
legitimate number one goalies in the
organization, for a while at least, it
might be the best shot we have at
making it back that long windy road
to the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

 

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