Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
Well, it’s time again for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which means only one thing. It means it’s time for Roberto Luongo to come back to the forefront of the conversation. That three week break that came after the trade deadline, when Luongo was almost dealt, is over and now we get to hear all about ol’ Bobby Lu again.
Luongo started Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Vancouver Canucks, which resulted in a 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. He’ll start Game 2 on Friday night, as Cory Schneider continues to sit out with some sort of “body injury”. Does that mean that the Canucks are in trouble?
The struggles of Luongo in the postseason are well-documented. Perhaps even more well-documented than the postseason performance of any other player in any other sport in any other country in the world. We all know that Luongo has his issues when the playoffs begin.
He’s been the goat for the struggles of the Canucks in the past several years. He started just two games in the postseason last year before they eventually handed the reigns over to Schneider. Once the Canucks were eliminated in the first round, it became pretty clear who the new no. 1 man between the pipes was.
Yet, here we are. Luongo is back in net with Schneider out, and is again wearing the frustrations of the postseason for Vancouver. And it doesn’t matter how many goals the Canucks fail to score, or how many failed power play opportunities they see, if Roberto Luongo is in net when the Canucks go down, it’ll all be on him.
It’s pretty much a certainty that we’ll see Luongo don a new sweater next season. As long as Schneider is healthy, the Canucks are going to find a way to unload him. But where is the fun in having him go out on the bench? Let him go out like old times. As the face of postseason failure for the Vancouver Canucks.
