Vancouver Canucks’ goaltender Roberto Luongo has given up the ‘C’ on Monday after meeting with general manager Mike Gillis to discuss the matter.
"I want to put my whole focus on goaltending," Luongo said at a news conference. "I wouldn't say it was a distraction. I think I could put something less on my plate. The less distractions (as a goaltender), the better."
Key word here is distraction. Roberto Luongo has looked distracted over the past couple of years, and it comes as no surprise that he has relieved himself of that responsibility. His poor post-season appearances can’t exclusively be attributed to his responsibilities as team captain, but surely this change will help him that much more in attaining success of for his club.
"For me, taking a step back, putting my entire focus on that is more important," Luongo said. "At the end of the day, winning a championship for this team is more important than being captain.”
In his defense, there is a fair amount of pressure and adage of responsibility being a captain especially when he’s playing in a giant hockey market like Vancouver, and especially when much of the focus and criticisms have been targeted on him specifically.
"It was my decision the whole time," said Luongo. "I never felt pressure to either give it up or keep it."
The decision was made mutually, I’m sure, in a meeting between Mike Gillis and Roberto.
"It may be incompatible with goaltending and the expectations that are placed on a captain in terms of availability and being the spokesman of the team," Gillis said. "It may have been a little too much based on how he likes to prepare and what he likes to do to get ready for the game.”
Mike Gillis and Alain Vigneault decided, together, that Luongo should be named team captain ahead of the 2008-2009 season. The Canucks broke a 60 year drought of captaincy in the net, as Bill Durnan of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1947-48 season was the last goalie to be named captain.
"He feels he'll be able to focus more on doing his job and that's stopping pucks," Vigneault said. "If he does that and he plays real well, then it's going to be real good for our team and I think that's what he was thinking throughout the summer."
The Canucks will name a new captain before the start of the regular season. Gillis doesn’t seem to have one picked, but if I were picking there’s no question it would be Henrik Sedin. After winning the scoring title and league MVP last season, he heads into his 11th year with the team that drafted him and he has always been a leader on the ice. Same can be said for his twin brother, Daniel. Gillis has rejected the idea of alternating captains, and says “no one is a shoo-in” for the job.
"We've had a lot of changes over the last couple of years," Gillis said. "There are a lot of new players coming into this team that are accomplished players. I think it's an opportunity for us to sit back and see who really wants this and who wants to step forward and have it. There are a lot of candidates, a lot of possibilities. We're going to take our time and observe them and see how it turns out."
Luongo and the Canucks’ management team drew plenty of criticisms across the board for the decision, but being a goaltender myself I can agree that it’s a letter better served for someone else on the ice. Goalies have one thing they need to worry about and that is stopping the puck. Pure and simple. Anything else is just taking away from your ability to do so. Roberto is a stand-up guy, and a great goalie, but if captaincy in the crease was known to pay off I’m sure we would have seen guys such as Martin Broduer taking that role many, many years ago.
"I enjoyed the experience, it was fun," Luongo said. "That was one of the reasons why it was tough for me to come to this decision."
- Kendall Grubbs
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