Sunday, June 12, 2011

huge glass house

Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo believes he would have stopped the game winning goal Max Lapierre scored on Boston's Tim Thomas in game #5 of the Stanley Cup Final.  His assertion is that Thomas plays far out of his crease while Luongo plays the odds and protects the posts and tight chances better.

Wow!  The goalie who was shelled in games 3 and 4 of the series has goaltending tips for the guy who might win the Vezina?  Does Roberto spend the off days looking at any of the stats?  His numbers in this final are nowhere close to those of Thomas.  There is no official stat for "soft goals" but if there were Luongo would certainly lead Thomas handily in the post season.

Roberto Luongo is a very good goaltender.  His inconsistency and volume of soft goals in this years playoffs prevent him from being termed a "great" goaltender.  He is a very good player on a very good team which should win the Stanley Cup,  but he has not been nearly good enough to start critiquing the other goaltender in this final.

As about a million coaches have told a million players over the years,  "just shut up and play".  Good advice for Luongo.

See you at the rink.