The decision regarding the future of the Vancouver Canucks' goaltending position might be the most important of Mike Gillis's administration and there is one number to keep in mind concerning Roberto Luongo. It is not the 10 years he has left on his contract. It's not the $5.333 million annual cap hit he represents. It's not even the number of Stanley Cups he's won.
No, those are all relevant in the great Vancouver goaltending debate but the most important number connected to Luongo is this: 21,743. That number, in fact, represents the number of shots Luongo has faced thus far in his 12-season NHL career. http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Schneider+Luongo+Which+Canuck+will+stay+which+will/6128320/story.html#ixzz1lzytIhGc
Shacks' Take: This time Willes at least spent two minutes thinking about this one albeit not without fault. He thinks there's a correlation between shots faced and a goalie's tenure in the league and the Canucks should think long and hard about which goalie they keep despite Lui's no-trade clause. He even predicted Schneider is going nowhere this season.
At least it's a different angle to look at the goalie conundrum but there's still no tangible evidence Luongo is breaking down soon. Does Ed think the more rubber that hits you eventually breaks down muscle tissue or does it wear you down mentally? Is there any iota of evidence about goalies that train extremely hard suddenly start sucking because of their workload?
I also believe the Canucks have a goaltending decisions to make and that they need Schneider for this year (which will be in my Shacks' Take for tomorrow). If Luongo performs well in the playoffs, Schneider is gone, if he doesn't, the Canucks have a problem that will make me glad I'm not Mike Gillis this summer. However Willes' articles lately have really boiled down to him looking for shortcut angles that require no research and can be written in under 30 minutes. I like Ed's writing but he's really mailing it in lately. Luongo is part of the new generation of athletes that train and take care of themselves to a point that hitting 30 is not an indicator the player is hitting the backside of his career. Many athletes excel in their 30's and even improve in some cases so there's no reason to think Lui won't be excellent for years to come.
No the decision on Luongo needs to be based on playoff performance alone and not how many times he's been hit by a piece of rubber.
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