The debate on whether or not the goalie should be ‘fair game’ when he leaves his crease was recently rekindled in spectacular fashion when Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic hit Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller during their game on November 12th.

It was a relatively common play that developed at about the two-thirds mark of the first period: Lucic and Miller were each racing for the puck, Miller getting there first, swatting it aside. What made this particular play uncommon was the fact that Lucic did not lay up or try to avoid Miller, as is almost always the case. Instead Lucic held his course, braced for impact, and plowed into Miller, sending the goalie cartwheeling, his mask flying.

Miller didn’t play the third period, but stuck around to give NHL fans and wags a rare treat indeed: an honest interview, one entirely devoid of tired platitudes or sports clichés; Miller called Milan Lucic a “Gutless piece of shit.”

During the sleepy days of mid-November hockey, the hit by Lucic and the ensuing lambasting by Miller serve up high-drama indeed. Sports writers’ column-inches, normally intimidatingly large at this time of year, are suddenly frightfully claustrophobic, radio call-in programs have their lines lit up by countless armchair Bettmans and Shanahans, and office coffee kitchens have seen sharp rises in the attendance at daily hockey-talk scrums. The only topic of discussion of course is “Why can’t you hit the goalie?”, the Lucic-Miller Incident serving as nucleation point for the issue that has always been simmering on the back of the hot-stove.

I’ve often asked the question; I’ve wondered why should goalies be treated any differently from players when outside their crease. But as someone who became a goalie rather late in life, I’ve found a new perspective on the conventional wisdom and arcane mystery that surrounds the hockey goaltender.

And so, with this somewhat unique viewpoint, I’ll dip my oar into these muddied waters, I’ll explain why you absolutely cannot allow goalies to be hit.

Goalies are Vulnerable

They may not look it, wearing 45lbs of protective equipment, but goaltenders are incredibly vulnerable. It’s not obvious when looking at them in their suit of armor, but essentially all of that protection is facing forward. To a very close approximation, a goalie has zero protection on his sides and back. No shoulder or rib protection, nothing protecting the spine or back, only that which is absolutely required to stop a puck.

When you think about this it makes sense, goalie gear is heavy and bulky, it affects movement greatly. Anything that can be shaved off without affecting puck-stopping will help the goalie’s mobility, ultimately helping make saves.

And also, as illustrated by the image of the Lucic-Miller hit and the video below, a goalie’s mask is attached to his head rather loosely by elastic straps. They are designed this way in order to absorb the impact of a puck, with the unfortunate side-effect of often being knocked off when involved in a collision.

Miller suffered a mild concussion from the hit. While it’s unclear, it could very well be due, not to the initial hit, but to the small bump his head made on the ice when he laid down after it. Fortunately, Miller’s concussion appears to be relatively minor (as minor as concussions can be). However, as the terrible case of Don Sanderson recently illustrated, having a goalie’s mask knocked off in a collision can be extremely dangerous.

Okay, no surprise so far, goalie gear is meant to protect from puck impacts. What’s worse though, is that when involved in a collision, wearing goalie gear can be far more dangerous than wearing nothing at all.

That 45lbs of equipment is quite bulky and hangs out in front of the body. This results in the goalie’s centre of mass being considerably off-balance from the regular human body or even a skater’s in his gear. It’s no coincidence that goalies tend to walk like very pregnant women, they are considerably imbalanced. This imbalance, coupled with the fact that goalies are wearing giant mattresses on their legs, can make it far more difficult to protect oneself by falling safely.

The bulk of the equipment can lead to some rather awkward falls, but where it can be truly dangerous is when the equipment goes one way, but the goalie’s body goes another. For example, almost all goaltenders have their legs tied to their pads at the foot. In order to butterfly though, these pads are free to rotate about the leg, until of course, stopped by the toe-ties. However, if conditions are right, even a relatively minor impact, can put a goalie out of commission for the season, even a career.

In the video above Brian Boucher is involved in a fairly low impact collision in which he sprained both his knees. If you watch the over-head angle at the 1:10 mark, you’ll see why. When Boucher’s teammate falls atop him, he is flattened to his back between his feet, with his pads held flat against the ice, their toes pointed out to the side. Because Boucher is tied into his pads, his toes are also forced outward. I speak from experience when I say that your legs cannot bend in such a way where your heels touch your hips and your toes are pointed outward. Legs cannot do that, the weak link, the knees, tear to shreds.

Fortunately for Boucher, his double MCL strain wasn’t as bad as it could have been. However, others have been less lucky. No small number of goalies have had their careers ended, or significantly affected by serious injury due to relatively minor impact.

The main reason why you have to protect the goaltender is that they are more vulnerable than any other player on the ice. Of course, that reason alone won’t suffice for the Milburys of the world or for those for who share their blustery viewpoints. For these types, an increased rate of injury to the players is not sufficient reason to disallow the hitting.

Injured Goalies are Bad for the Game

Players are growing bigger and faster, their equipment is constantly getting lighter, more maneuverable, allowing them to shoot harder and more accurately. Yet despite this upward trend in shooter skill, goals have been decreasing. The explanation for this is largely due to a renaissance in goaltending that started in earnest with Patrick Roy and his butterfly.

Patrick Roy (pictured here without fingers in his ears) hoists his second Stanley Cup.

Now more than at any time in hockey history, the goaltender is the most important player on the ice. Teams live and die by the quality of their netminder, fans look at a blowout as a failure of just one of the twenty players on the team, and as a result, the goalie is usually pulling in superstar-level salary.

There are many in the hockey world that think goalies have gotten too good, that a ‘lack of scoring’ is hurting the game. Proposals surface from time to time, suggesting that the size of the goalie equipment be drastically reduced or the size of the net increased, all with the aim to increase scoring.

What proponents of these ideas don’t understand though is that scoring isn’t what makes hockey exciting. Instead it’s Scoring Chances that make the game thrilling. Being surprised when a weak shot beats the goalie isn’t nearly as suspenseful or exciting as watching a breakaway or a 2-on-1 develop, or seeing a skater race toward the back-door, hoping to blast a one-timer past a diving goalie.

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer makes a diving save in an inevitable loss to the Washington Capitals.

Whether or not one thinks it is a good thing, it is undeniable that the goalie’s effect on team performance is monumental. Even outstanding goaltending can’t save a terrible team effort, but merely average goaltending can turn a win into a loss.

The top 60 or so goalies in the world are playing in the NHL, and the skill discrepancy between the top and the bottom, even among the top 10 goalies, is huge. If the injury rate were to increase, the overall skill level of active goalies would reduce dramatically.

The pinnacle of any sport is best-on-best competition. Anything that would increase the chances of the best and most important players sitting out with injury, would only serve to diminish the game.

Injured Goalies are Bad for Teams

As has been evidenced by the recent surge in concern over player concussions, reaching a fever pitch just after the biggest cash-cow star in the game suffered one because he wasn’t looking where he was skating, the owners of the league are very keen to protect their investments.

Even if you don’t care whether more goalies become injured, whatever your feelings on the relative worth or importance of the goaltender, you must understand and appreciate their value as assets to teams. When a team pays many millions of dollars for something, whether a superstar goalie or the world’s fanciest whirlpool machine, it is imperative that they can make use of that asset.

⌘-v: Rick DiPietro is injured.

Every dollar on the injured reserve list serves no value whatsoever, it is money flushed down the toilet. Worse, if a team has a Six Million Dollar Man out with injury, that money is still eating up precious salary cap space. Improper management of that cap space, bad luck, or both (see Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders above), can doom a team to mediocrity for years.

All other considerations aside, General Managers and owners simply can’t afford to increase the already high risk of injury for their extremely valuable goaltender assets.

Goalies Will Always Be Special

I understand the sentiment: “If the goalie leaves his crease, he must accept that he’ll be hit.” That’s an inherently fair way to play. Unfortunately the fairness of that proposition is outweighed by the monumental practical implications of making goalies ‘fair game’.

In the real world, the goaltender is special. They wear special gear, they are subject to special rules, they have special talents, they have a very special effect on the team’s performance, and of course they are subject to special treatment by their teammates, dictated by a host of strange and mysterious superstitions and customs.

It shouldn’t be surprising or worrying that goalies need special protection on the ice.

Evidence that the Sabres once knew about protecting the goalie.

How Does the League Protect the Goalie?

The rules of hockey state that players must essentially do everything in their power to avoid colliding with the goalie. Hopefully the above will illustrate why that is a good thing. The question becomes one of what to do if a player doesn’t try to avoid the goalie, as Lucic most certainly did not. Let us make no bones about it, Lucic absolutely, without shadow of a doubt, intentionally hit Miller. Suggestions otherwise are sophistry of the highest degree.

Personally, I understand why there was no suspension, because there’s no real precedent for it. But there needs to be, and very soon. The league has officially endorsed Lucic’s play, categorizing it no differently than a hooking penalty in the form of a mild tug on the wrists. That’s dangerous for goalies, the game, and for every team’s multi-million dollar goaltending investments.

The GMs need to address this very soon, or it will be open season on goalies. Fortunately, it appears that these discussions are taking place. Unfortunately, even stiff suspensions won’t change the fundamental problem at hand.

Punishment is not Prevention

The league is currently struggling with some serious changes to the way the game is played. It has become necessary to make new rules and identify new suspension criteria where before it was not necessary. In years past, the players did a fairly good job of policing their own conduct, ensuring that nobody did anything egregiously harmful to each other as a whole.

Certainly stupid, non-hockey-related violations did occur, but when they did, the matter would be addressed by players on the other team (in a line brawl) as well as by players on the same team (behind closed doors).

The Broad Street Bullies discuss the Hockey Code with the Vancouver Canucks

It may seem ironic to suggest that players beating on each other is actually an important part of maintaining a healthy respect among players, that fighting in hockey actually keeps players safe, but one has to understand the climate.

To function at the elite level of hockey, teams must be at war with each other, players must compete at the very limit of their capacity for violence. But that violence must be controlled, contained within the bounds of the sport. On the ice, there must be a code of conduct which prevents players from doing seriously unacceptable acts. The threat of being beaten up by the other team isn’t what prevents these acts.

Instead, it is the core value system instilled in a player throughout their hockey lives, the ethos that certain acts are so wholly unacceptable, they require immediate violent reaction. It is this code of immediate, visceral outrage which actually prevents players from acting out themselves. They understand at the cellular level what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable in hockey and what is not. They learn this in the trenches with their comrades. It becomes internalized. It keeps the unacceptable barbarity out of the war.

At least it used to.

Now however, we’re seeing a sharp rise in the number of seriously injurious actions that players are visiting upon each other across the board. Hockey has always been a tough game, but there used to be a code. The folksy days of hockey players looking out for one another, sometimes with tough love, are long gone.

What Happened to the Hockey Code?

What Lucic did violated a very important hockey-player code of conduct, an unwritten rule which carries far more weight among players than the one which is written in the rule book. The goalies are protected, they always have been, everybody knows that. But Lucic decided to play otherwise.

For me, much more worrying than Lucic’s indiscretion was the absolutely shameful response from the Buffalo Sabres. They did nothing. They did nothing immediately afterward, and they did nothing in the 45 minutes of play following the incident. Tim Thomas said that he was expecting to get hit in reprisal, but surprisingly never did. That’s usually all but automatic. As a goalie I understand this all too well; the one thing I ask of my teams is to not run the other goalie, knowing that I will be the target of retribution.

Lucic broke an important part of the hockey players’ code, but the breach in that code that the Buffalo Sabres made was even more serious. Standing up for one’s team, and especially one’s goalie is a big part of the bedrock foundation of that code. But that solidarity was nowhere to be found among the Sabres players on the ice or on the bench. That they did absolutely nothing after seeing Lucic barrel over their goalie demonstrates a very worrying state of affairs among today’s hockey players.

I’m hopeful that this code isn’t completely dead. I have faith that there are enough veterans and true hockey players in the League that there can be a renaissance in the respect shown for one another. No rule changes, no suspensions will ever make that happen, it can only come about if players league-wide hold each other accountable to that code. You can bet that Tim Thomas didn’t like what Lucic did. I just hope he talks to him about it.    

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I’ve been a bit… preoccupied of late. I’ve been watching the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs and have been far too consumed with wins, losses, and playoff beard growth to write anything coherent. The playoffs are not quite over, tomorrow we’ll be playing Game 6 of the Finals, but before then, I’d like to share some thoughts.

Specifically, I’d like to talk about goaltending. As a hockey fan and hockey player who relatively late in life at 29, took up goaltending, I have a rather keen perspective on the game both from the perspective of an average, knowledgeable hockey fan who knows little about goaltending, but also from the perspective of a goalie. Let me tell you, from the new perspective, the game has not been the same.

It is from this perspective that I’ve been watching this years’ playoffs. With this added insight, an insight which few hockey fans ever have a chance to attain, one which I certainly didn’t have until taking up the position, I’ve had to listen to thousands (millions?) of sportswriters and Canucks fans, both casual and die-hard, decry our goaltending from their comfortably ignorant perspectives.

At times it’s as if we are watching two different games, but it’s clear to me that Roberto Luongo is stealing the Stanley Cup Finals.

Roberto Luongo of the Canucks makes a save in a 4-0 loss to the host Bruins in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final at TD Garden.

[Harry How/Getty Images]

Someday I’ll write-up an in-depth exposé on the cult of goaltending, an outsider’s view of the quirky and arcane art of what some call ‘the hardest position in sport’. After which I always add ‘to play well’.

For now though, let’s save that for later. Let’s stick with a few high-level goaltending concepts which may seem foreign at first, which you may not even believe, but which are indeed true and absolutely essential in understanding the position.

Once we establish a common level of understanding about goaltending, and if we can all agree on these points, at least for the duration of this post, then we can all look at Luongo’s play during the Canucks’ 2011 Stanley Cup run to date from about the same perspective. I think that will be helpful.

Key Concepts in Goaltending

Point 1: All saves are percentage plays

This point could also be called: What looks like a great save isn’t always (and vice versa). You know the save where the goalie dives across the net and plucks the puck out of mid-air with his paddle? Like this save that Ray Emery makes in Game 6 of the 2011 Ducks-Predators series.

That’s a good save, but not a great save. Ray Emery did an excellent job of filling space, knowing instinctually that the shot was probably going high, and throwing stick to the middle of the net. That’s an example of great battle, good instincts, and of never giving up on the puck, but that’s where the skill leaves off and the luck takes over.

That save was maybe a 5-percenter. With everything Emery did (and he did a lot), he gave himself about a 5% chance of stopping the puck. Had he done less, the percentages would have been even lower, but he was pretty good on that one. In that situation, 5% of the time the goalie stops the puck by making that save-attempt, but the other 95% of the time, even if the goalie does *exactly* the same thing, it results in a goal. The goalie certainly doesn’t get any credit on those goals that go in, and definitely gets too much credit for the ones that are stopped.

Don’t get me wrong, the goalie is proud of that save, but he knows that it looked better than it really was, that after he did what he could, it was purely a function of luck that the shooter hit where Emery put his stick. The goalie also knows that if it went in, nobody would have cared about the identically impressive save-attempt he made.

Contrast the above save with the following stick save by Tim Thomas in Game 5 of the 2011 Bruins-Lightning series:

Now that is an amazing save. Did you catch the difference? Many might see the Emery save as far more spectacular (which it was) and come to the conclusion that it was far better (which it wasn’t). Where Emery simply threw his stick where he hoped the puck would go and got lucky, Thomas was able to actually react to the shot and tailor his save to it. Thomas displayed the same great battle, instincts, and ‘sticktoitiveness’ that Emery did, but he was also able to add the extra reaction to the puck. Thomas’ save-action was still a fairly low percentage save, but he was able to rely a little bit less on luck to make it.

While spectacular examples of both, Emery’s save was a Blocking Save, and Thomas’ was a Reaction Save. And that leads to my next point.

Point 2: Some shots can’t be stopped

The differences between Blocking and Reaction saves are huge, and telling them apart is sometimes difficult. A Reaction Save is one where the goalie has time to react to the puck and make his save accordingly. A Blocking Save is one where the goalie does not have time to react to the shot and simply chooses the best place to put his body/gloves/stick at the time of the shot, or just before, in order to get the highest percentage of a save.

Often the goalie doesn’t have the luxury of a Reaction Save and will have to use a Blocking Save. Such was the case for Emery’s save. In that situation, he had no chance to react to the shot and had to, for lack of a better word, ‘guess’ and simply fill space.

Of course not all saves are as spectacular as the above. Far more often the goaltender is in position, between the puck and the net, and therefore has a far higher percentage of a save, whether it be Reaction or Blocking.

Take for example the following two saves by Roberto Luongo in Game 5 of the 2011 Canucks-Bruins Stanley Cup Finals. Watch carefully and see if you can tell whether each save is a Blocking Save or a Reaction Save.

So what did you think? Were each Reaction or Blocking? You heard Craig Simpson, colour commentator for Hockey Night in Canada, call the first save off the deflection a “positional save” (blocking) and the second save off the rebound a “reactive save”.

Well, Simpson holds true to form in that half of what he said was completely wrong. In reality, both were Blocking Saves.

The first save was off a deflection of a shot that was going well wide, and fortunately for Canucks fans the puck was deflected directly into the crest on Luongo’s jersey. The time between when it was deflected and when it hit Luongo’s chest was about 0.22s. While that is more than the possible human reaction time to press a button, it is far too little time to react and move a limb more than an whisker’s breath, to say nothing of picking up a new puck trajectory between the two actions. On such a scoring chance, if the deflection is aimed for open net, the puck is going in.

The second save, the one Craig Simpson called a “reactive save” was not a Reaction Save, it was also a Blocking Save. For that one, the puck had bounced off Luongo before he had a chance to try to contain the rebound and it landed in the slot directly on Bergeron’s stick. Bergeron shot it and 0.20s later it hit Luongo’s blocker. If you go through frame by frame, you can see that Luongo starts his Blocking Save action before the puck is shot.

That’s not to diminish the save that Luongo made. If you watch carefully, the puck bounced to Luongo’s right, and he was out of position for the shot, he wasn’t directly between the puck and the centre of the net. As a result, and because his instincts are excellent, Luongo varied up his standard butterfly Blocking Save to focus more on his right side and higher up, as he felt that that is where the shot was going. Importantly though, he did this before reacting to the actual shot, it was a Blocking Save.

Luongo did just about all a goalie could do for that second shot, but it was still a relatively low percentage save. If you pause the video just as the puck hits Luongo’s blocker, you’ll see that Bergeron had quite a bit of net to shoot at (slightly less from the puck’s-eye view than is shown from the camera’s-eye view, but that’s a topic for another time).

Luongo's Blocking Save on Bergeron Rebound

Had he shot at empty net, instead of at Luongo, he would have scored. It would have been an unstoppable shot. Of course that wouldn’t have stopped many people from crucifying Luongo for not saving it.

Why did Luongo start the Blocking Save just before the shot? For the same reason all goalies do. Because he knew that the shooter was in too close, with a proper shot coming, and that he would have had no time to react to it. In such a case, all the goalie can do is block as much of the net as possible. As the position has evolved, the ‘butterfly technique’ (goalie kneeling with pads flared wide, gloves sitting atop pads) has come to the fore as the most effective blocking save technique, it covers the most amount of net, especially down low where still the vast majority of pucks are directed.

Before a shot is taken, the goalie is constantly assessing how close the shooter is and how fast a shot they can expect at the given moment. The goalie has to factor this constantly on the fly, and the moment a shot is imminent, he has to decide between making a Reaction Save and a Blocking Save.

Excellent goalies, like all those who play in the NHL, factor in a staggering number of variables to assess how fast a shot they may be expecting and where it may be going, factors such as the skill of the player, what hand they shoot with, how the shooter is handling the puck (forehand, backhand, in front, etc), whether the puck is bouncing, whether the shooter has defensive pressure or not, etc.

The key takeaway from this point is that, as the shooter gets closer to the goal, and as his ability to get off a quality shot improves, that shooter will pass a threshold where the goalie can no longer react to the puck and has to make a Blocking Save. Sometimes, if the shot is very fast, this can be as far away as the high-slot. And since all Blocking Saves can be beat by simply shooting where the goalie is not, if a shooter can get in tight, has time and space to get off a good shot, and his aim is true, it will be an unstoppable shot.

The next time you see a goal appear to go right past the goalie without him reacting, ask yourself whether it was actually a stoppable shot. Sometimes you’ll see that the goalie had no chance at all.

Point 3: You can’t stop pucks without good Defense

This point naturally follows from the above two, without good Defense, a goalie has no chance against even half-decent shooters. If a shooter can walk uncontested into the mid-slot and fire an incredibly weak 60mph wrist-shot, the goalie has under 0.2 seconds to react and move a glove or pad in front of the puck. That’s not enough at all and the goalie knows this. If the shooter is anywhere near that close and has time to shoot, the goalie makes a Blocking Save and hopes for the best. If the shooter can hit the corner, he will score every time. Obviously without good defense, these sort of scoring chances materialize more and more often, and NHL shooters will not miss many of them.

If the goalie has good defensive support, not only will it dramatically reduce these golden scoring opportunities, but he can also come out further to a shot. Doing this will cause the puck to ‘see’ far less open net, making it much more difficult to pick a corner on him, even with an uncontested shot.

Tim Thomas is an excellent example of this. He frequently comes well outside the crease to make his saves. Because he is so much closer to the shooter, he fills a much larger part of the net, and therefore it is incredibly hard to both miss Thomas and hit the net with a shot. Of course, that added first-shot coverage comes at a price in that it is much harder to get back in position for a rebound. Fortunately for Thomas, he is an excellent skater and can reposition himself quite quickly, diving if necessary to get back in his net on a quick second shot.

Tim Thomas White Paint Save

However, because he challenges the shooter so much by skating out of his crease, Thomas is susceptible to lateral plays. He relies on his Defense to prevent those plays, and only resorts to the relatively low-percentage, but always amazing diving save on occasion.

Without that vigilance from his Defense, Thomas would not fare nearly as well. It is no coincidence that Thomas’ outstanding numbers started the year Claude Julien took over the head coaching job in Boston and brought in his airtight defensive system.

And one needs look no further than the recent 2011 Bruins-Lightning series for a perfect example of this symbiotic relationship between goaltender and defense. In this series many of the games turned into track-meets, with both teams abandoning the incredibly tight defensive play they had demonstrated in the first two rounds in favour of trading scoring chances on the rush. Both Thomas and Dwayne Roloson had put up incredible numbers before that series, but both goalies were absolutely lit up when their Defensive system stopped defending as hard.

Tim Thomas' Bruins Fan Support after 5-4 Loss in Game 6

[Masshole Sports]

Many blame the goaltenders of course, they see 5 or 6 goals go in and immediately assume that the goalie had an off night, but this isn’t necessarily the case, and wasn’t really for the Bruins-Lightning series. A goalie playing his same game at the same ‘compete’ level can, depending on defensive support, either get a shutout or get lit up for a touch-down. The reverse is certainly true, a goalie can have an off night behind stellar defense and let in few or no goals. The fact is that the number of goals scored is not a good indicator of the quality of goaltending.

Thomas and Roloson had played extraordinarily throughout the playoffs behind excellent defense. As a result, they had been putting up incredible stats. In the Bruins-Lightning series both goalies played just as well, but without their airtight Defense, they were ventilated.

Roberto Luongo

Now that we have a bit better common ground, we can look at Luongo’s goaltending with a more analytical eye. Roberto Luongo has been a polarizing figure around the league and especially in Vancouver. A great many people love him for his play and his leadership on and off the ice. Perhaps just as many hate him though, with the reasons cited most often that he is overrated, that he has never accomplished anything major, that the fans cheer his name when he touches the puck, or that he has Italian heritage and otherwise looks ‘ethnic’, what with his darker skin, heavy beard, and ‘oily hair’.

While I don’t think much needs to be said about the criticism of Luongo’s racial stock, it is worthwhile to consider the critique of his body of work.

It is widely agreed upon in the hockey world that Luongo will always bear the lion’s share of the blame when the Canucks lose, and little or no credit for when the Canucks win. In recent years this has become a fairly common theme in analyzing a team’s success, but Luongo’s case is certainly the most extreme example, with his performance held up to the greatest of double standards.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics

The general reaction to and conventional wisdom about Luongo’s play during the Olympics serve as an excellent example of the double-standard that he faces. After starting the tournament and posting an easy shutout against an overmatched Team Norway, Luongo drew backup-goalie duty for Martin Brodeur, who was to lead Team Canada to gold. Unfortunately, Brodeur looked a bit shaky, posting a 3-2 shoot-out win against Switzerland and a 5-3 loss against a strong Team USA.

After Brodeur’s very un-Brodeur-like play, Luongo got the start in the single-elimination medal playoffs. Luongo played very well, and racked up another four straight wins on the path to Gold.

However, a prevailing feeling among much of the sports world is that Luongo was more of a passenger on the team, that he played well because the team in front of him was so good, and that Team Canada won despite Luongo rather than in-part because of Luongo. While, as we’ve seen, much of a goaltender’s play relies upon a strong team in front of him, it is forgotten that Brodeur looked decidedly poor behind that same Team Canada.

Added criticism on Luongo’s 5-0 Gold Medal winning performance was levied against USA’s tying goal with 24 seconds to go in the Gold Medal game, that goal coming off a rebound that bounced straight onto Parise’s stick. Forgotten or ignored was the fact that the rebound came came off the great save of a very dangerous pinball-deflection.

And little or no hey was made about the incredible save Luongo made against Pavol Demitra with 9 seconds left in the 3-2 win over Slovakia in the semi-final, helping Team Canada get to the Gold Medal game in the first place.

Nor did Luongo get much recognition for his incredibly tough, and somewhat lucky, elbow-save off of Joe Pavelski’s top corner shot, after Scott Niedermayer coughed it up to him directly in front of Luongo. After that save, instead of freezing it, Luongo played it to Niedermayer, who passed it to Crosby, who then did a give-and-go with Iginla to score The Golden Goal.

Fifteen seconds elapse between Luongo’s incredible save and The Golden Goal, but people only remember that ‘Luongo let in the tying goal late.’ This sort of selective memory regarding Roberto Luongo’s play is not limited only to best-on-best international play, it happens during the NHL regular season and Stanley cup playoffs.

The 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Luongo’s playoff history appears shaky to most, but an experienced eye can see his game has been solid throughout most of his Stanley Cup Playoff career. While he did play poorly against Chicago in Game 6 of their 2009 series, much of that series was fraught with defensive breakdowns by the Canucks. As a whole, they did not play well enough to win, Luongo was not the reason for the loss.

A similar story was told in 2010 when the Canucks were again defeated by the Blackhawks. Once again, Vancouver’s defensive play was dreadful, this time due in no-small part by the fact that it was riddled with injuries and the call-ups were more of a liability than a hole in the roster would have been. In 2010, Luongo was lit up, but did not play nearly as poorly as the scoreboard might indicate.

This year, familiar shades again haunted the Canucks. After dashing out to a 3-0 series lead against Chicago, the Canucks decided not to play the next two games. Luongo was hung out to dry in the worst way, many of the goals coming off complete defensive breakdowns by the entire team. Like the following goal by Duncan Kieth in which he was able to walk across the mid-slot and wire a slap-shot top-corner. No goalie can be expected to make that save.

In no way should that chance not be buried by the shooter, yet because it came 17 seconds after Chicago’s 2-1 goal, Luongo looked bad in the minds of almost everybody.

That 2-1 goal 17s previous? It was scored by Brian Campbell, who received a quick cross-ice pass from Kane and was able to skate uncontested toward the net and lean into a top-corner snap-shot from inside the face-off dot. Once again, Luongo had no chance on a golden scoring opportunity and an excellent play by Kane and Campbell. Luongo did everything exactly right on that save-attempt, he slid across and got square to the shooter and was perfect in his Blocking Save, but it was still a 75% or so save play, if the shooter hits the corner, he will score.

It was universally agreed that the Canucks played absolutely dreadfully in Games 4 and 5 of the 2011 Vancouver-Chicago series, but still, the talk was about how poor Luongo was, even on shots which he had little or no chance of a save.

Leading up to the Stanley Cup Finals, and aside from Games 4 and 5 of the Chicago series, Luongo’s numbers had been excellent. Sports wags and fans were coming around to accepting his stellar play.

There was talk of how eerily similar Game 7 against Chicago was to the 2010 Gold Medal game, but this time recognition was being given to Luongo for his save on Patrick Sharp in overtime. This save was functionally almost identical to the Campbell 2-1 goal, a 75% or so play where Luongo again slid across beautifully in a Blocking Save position, but where Sharp shot into Luongo, instead of hitting the top corner. On similar save-actions, Luongo did his job, on the first he was the goat, and on the second he was the hero. Those who understand goaltending know that he was very good on both plays with the difference coming down to the shooter.

The Stanley Cup Finals

After doing much heavy lifting in, if not downright stealing, Games 4 and 5 against San Jose in order to send the Canucks to the Finals, after getting a shut-out against Boston in Game 1, and after coming up big in an OT win in Game 2, there was actually talk among sports analysts about Luongo winning the Conn Smythe as the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs.

That’s when things went all kinds of sideways. After going up 2-0 against Boston, and as with the 3-0 series lead against Chicago, Vancouver perhaps was guilty of over-confidence. Whatever the reason though, as with the Chicago series, Vancouver decided not to show up for Games 3 and 4 in Boston.

Once again, it was generally agreed upon that the Canucks were absolutely dreadful across most, if not all, aspects of their game, and especially defensively, but once again, almost all focus was on how ‘poorly’ Luongo played.

Not from all people of course. Some, a relatively silent minority, have had confidence in Luongo. Some with blind faith in him, knowing or hoping that he would see the Canucks through. Others, having watched the games carefully and witnessed the golden scoring opportunities that were gifted to Boston throughout Games 3 and 4, knew that, while Luongo was not perfect, he couldn’t be held accountable for most of the goals that were put past him. They knew that the team’s dreadful performances in Boston could not be laid at the feet of Roberto Luongo, and they knew that no goalie in the world could have prevented blow-outs in those two games.

However true though, that’s not the story that was told. That’s not the reality for the vast majority who laid the blame at Luongo’s feet.

After being unfairly maligned by the media and fans, after being taunted with questions about his home crowd cheering after he was mercy-pulled in Game 4, Luongo would be rightly justified in feeling as if he were left standing alone in the spotlight, on trial for crimes he did not commit, with the whole world against him.

Alone in the Spotlight

Luongo made a statement when he smashed his stick to the ice in defiance after being named first star for his 1-0 shutout in Game 5. Right now Roberto Luongo is angry, he has something to prove, and he is very dangerous.

Most of the faithful knew then and know now, after his outstanding performance in Game 5, that Luongo has a history of excellent play, of stepping up and playing incredibly in some of the biggest games imaginable. We had faith in Luongo, and we hoped that the rest of the team would show up in front of him, completing the team that we had seen play so very well all year.

Whether or not they are Canucks fans, and whether or not they have faith that Luongo can win the Stanley Cup with and for his team, all followers of this year’s Stanley Cup Finals would be well served to take note that Roberto Luongo is stealing the series.

The Canucks have scored 6 goals in 5 Stanley Cup Final games, yet they are leading the series 3-2. That shouldn’t be the case. That can’t have been the case without Roberto Luongo.

One More Win

Going into Game 6 on Monday, I know that Roberto Luongo will be ready, and I’m hopeful that the Canucks will show up and play their game. When they do, they are nearly unbeatable. If we can’t manage a win in Game 6, I am confident that Roberto will save one more game at home for us.

Not in My House, Not on My Land

As a Canuck fan, I have confidence going into Game 6. I believe in the talented group of men that have been fighting all year, fighting for each other and for us fans. I believe in the heart that our players have consistently shown, abandoning any sense of self in order to always put the team first. I believe in the Canucks.

I believe in Luongo.    

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