It is clear now beyond belief that Canadian Olympic gold medallist Roberto Luongo wants out of the Vancouver Canucks.
In a bombshell press conference on Wednesday, Luongo simply stated “my contract sucks”. It is no surprise that Luongo is disappointed by being the backup goaltender to Cory Schneider, but to state that to the national media on the day of the NHL trade deadline was a shocker.
Luongo did state he was proud to be a Vancouver Canuck, but the bottom line is there is no doubt he would like to be elsewhere, considering the fact he is seeing minimal playing time at the moment.
So far this season, Luongo has a 7-4-3 record with a 2.44 goals against average with two shutouts, but has struggled mightily lately with a 3.71 goals against average and a .859 save percentage in the last seven games.
Luongo clearly wants his contract restructured. It seems he would rather play for less and be the number one goaltender on a team than be the backup goaltender and earn $6.7 million per season with Vancouver through 2018 and then $6.9 million over the following four seasons.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we’re looking at a disappointing week in CBA talks in the NHL, a bad week when it comes to the new arena in Edmonton, the latest speculation about Roberto Luongo and an embarrassing result for Canada’s men’s soccer team.
In the GABBYs: Orlando Cruz, McJordan sauce, Toronto FC, the Boston Red Sox, the Asian Football Confederation and nuclear disaster jokes. The Punchline this week is the NBA & MLB!
This week on the show we look at the latest Edmonton Eskimos news, check out what’s happening between the NHL & the NHLPA, plus some notes from around the league and the latest on the NFL bounty scandal.
In the GABBYs: Gabriel Landeskog, Sarah Crilly, Manchester United, the Maple Leafs, Paul Ryan and the MLB. The Punchline this week is a school district in Colorado.
This week on the show we’re looking at the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Roberto Luongo situation in Vancouver, some racist comments from Boston Bruins “fans” in reaction to Joel Ward’s series clinching overtime winner and the latest IIHF rankings.
In the GABBYs: Mark Visentin, the Edmonton Oil Kings, Tyrone Crawford, Mohamed Sanu, the Miami Marlins and a couple of Texas Rangers fans. The Punchline this week is the Charlotte Bobcats!
The Calgary Flames must be pleased that they’re back home after a disappointing road trip.
Monday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Mike Cammalleri scored a goal and two assists as the Flames defeated the Dallas Stars 5-4 to jump back into the Western Conference playoff chase. Alex Tanguay scored the game winning goal for the Flames with 28 seconds left in the second period, one of four goals the Flames scored in the middle frame.
Defenceman Mark Giordano had a goal and an assist and captain Jarome Iginla had two assists.
With the win, the Flames are two points back of the Phoenix Coyotes for the eighth and final playoff spot. But in order for them to catch Phoenix, they have to catch Los Angeles and Colorado as well, who are each one point up on the Flames in the standings.
The Flames got huge help Monday night from the Vancouver Canucks who got a shutout from Roberto Luongo in a 1-0 win over Los Angeles.
The Flames next play the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
We’re through another week of action in the NHL and I’ve got to say, this may have been the toughest one so far when it comes to whittling my list of potential Goals of the Week down to a top five!
Cracking the list this time around is a beautiful spinning backhander, some slick breakaway moves, a bit of between the legs magic, a clutch play from a young forward and a one-man show at the United Center!
Let’s go!
5. Tyler Bozak
Toronto’s Tyler Bozak checks in at number five this week, corralling some knee-high sauce from Phil Kessel and hitting the top shelf with a spinning backhander over the shoulder of Roberto Luongo. Beauty!
The Calgary Flames now head on to a significant road trip after a poor performance at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
On Tuesday, the Flames had a very sluggish performance in a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. Swedish defenceman Alexander Edler led the Canucks in scoring with a goal and two assists. Cody Hodgson was the other Canuck with a multi-point game with a goal and an assist.
Alexandre Burrows, Chris Higgins and Daniel Sedin also scored for the Canucks in a very strong balanced effort where twelve Canucks registered at least one point.
The Flames meanwhile ot their lone goal of the hockey game from Alex Tanguay, who broke Roberto Luongo’s shutout bid with 32 seconds left in regulation. The Flames just seemed to lack energy and momentum. The Canucks got off to an early 3-0 lead and made it 5-0 midway through the second period. It was interesting that Flames’ head coach Brent Sutter decided not to pull goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, as it was clearly not his fault on the majority of goals he gave up Tuesday.
With the loss, Calgary falls to 4-5-1, while Vancouver improves to 6-5-1.
Calgary now goes on a three game road trip to Detroit on Thursday, Buffalo on Friday and Colorado on Sunday. This was the first of six straight road games for the Canucks, who will also travel to Minnesota, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Anaheim over the next ten days.
Tuesday night at Rexall Place, Jordan Eberle, Shawn Horcoff and Taylor Hall put the puck in the net as the Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2.
Eberle and Hall also recorded an assist.
The real story of the night however is what is wrong with Roberto Luongo? The Canadian Olympic Gold medallist and three-time NHL all-star was clearly fighting the puck and was pulled early in the second period for Cory Schneider when the score was 3-0 Edmonton. According to Sportsnet, Luongo was extremely disappointed to have been pulled. So far this season, Luongo has a goals against average of 3.45 and a save percentage of .868.
Schneider made eight saves and lowered his goals against average from 1.95 to a sizzling 1.67. Is there a goaltending controversy in Vancouver like there is a quarterback controversy in Calgary? I think so.
It will be interesting to see who Canucks’ head coach Alain Vigneault starts tomorrow night for Vancouver against the Saint Louis Blues. Don’t be surprised if it is Schneider.
The guys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it for another week, breaking down the top stories from across the world of sports. This week, we’re discussing the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup (and the city of Vancouver’s reaction), we make some NHL Awards & Entry Draft predictions, and the Edmonton Eskimos kick off the preseason!
In the GABBYs: The Capitals run up the score, Boston continues to win, Terry keeps his tattoo and lots more!
The Vancouver Canucks are now only one win away from becoming the first Canadian based team to win the Stanley Cup since 1993.
On Friday night, Roberto Luongo made 31 saves for his fourth shutout of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Canucks defeated the Boston Bruins 1-0 in Vancouver.
The Vancouver Canucks will not have defenceman Aaron Rome in their lineup for the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
On Tuesday, Rome was suspended four games for his late hit on Boston Bruin star forward Nathan Horton in game three on Monday night. Like Rome, Horton will also be out for the remainder of the series as he suffered a severe concussion.
Rome was given a five minute major for interference and a game misconduct on the hit that took place at 5:07 of the first period.
The hit might just be the turning point in the Stanley Cup Finals, as the score was 0-0 at the time, and after the hit, the Bruins had remarkable offensive life in scoring eight times on Vezina Trophy candidate Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks.
It will also be interesting to see who will replace Rome in the lineup. My guess it will be Keith Ballard, who at 210 pounds himself provides a physical presence like Rome does, at 220 pounds.
Game four of the Stanley Cup Final is Wednesday night from Boston at 6pm on CBC with the Canucks leading the series 2-1.
If the Vancouver Canucks are going to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, they’re going to have to do it with strong goaltending, impressive special teams and timely scoring.
They got all of that in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight.
Former Edmonton Oiler Raffi Torres scored with nineteen seconds left in the third period from Ryan Kesler and Jannik Hansen as the Canucks won Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals over the Boston Bruins 1-0.
Canuck goaltender Roberto Luongo made 36 saves for his third shutout of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The 2011 Stanley Cup Final begins tonight at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, signaling the beginning of the end of a long championship drought for one of the two participants.
The Presidents’ Trophy winning Canucks joined the NHL in 1970 and have never won a Cup, despite two other trips to the final. The Boston Bruins have been around much longer and have won five Stanley Cups, but the last one came in 1972 and they’ve come out on the losing end in their last five appearances in the final.
While you’d be silly to think that any of those stats will have any influence on this series, they do highlight the fact that a Stanley Cup will be a long time coming for whichever team ends up victorious.
The Vancouver Canucks are heading to their third Stanley Cup Final in franchise history.
They defeated the San Jose Sharks Tuesday night 3-2 on an overtime winner by Kevin Bieksa.
Bieksa’s winner in the second overtime was as crazy of goals as you’ll ever see. The puck bounced off the glass along the side boards and right on to his stick.
Bieksa shot the puck from the point, as San Jose Shark goaltender Antti Niemi had absolutely no idea where the puck was.
The Canucks were a little lucky to get a victory in this one. The Sharks dominated possession of the puck as well as shots on net, out shooting Vancouver 56-34.
We’re through another week of action in the NHL and I’ve got to say, this may have been the toughest one so far when it comes to whittling my list of potential Goals of the Week down to a top five!
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