The Boston Bruins are your 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Champions, much to the dismay of the City of Vancouver, and more specifically Roberto Luongo. While both Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas are both Vezina Trophy candidates, only Thomas has dizplayed a Vezina worthy effort in the most important 7 games of the entire season. Sure, one can say that Luongo looked superb while shutting out the Bruins twice, albeit at home on friendly ice both times. On the road, he looked like a first year player, lost at times, and spending a significant amount of time on the bench.
His will most likely not be remembered for recording shutouts in games 1 and 5; instead he will be remembered for his meltdowns in games 3 and 6, as well as questionably soft play in games 4 and 7. Luongo has allowed 3 shorthanded goals; Tim Thomas has allowed 8 goals…for the entirety of the Finals. He will also be remembered for making asenine comments about the puck stopping abilities of Tim Thomas.
After his game 5 win Luongo stated of the shot that beat Thomas:
It’s not hard if you’re playing in the paint. It’s an easy save for me, but if you’re wandering out and aggressive like he does, that’s going to happen. He might make some saves that I won’t, but in a case like that, we want to take advantage of a bounce like that and make sure we’re in a good position to bury those.
Really? You have the nerve to criticize a goalie who set a regular season save percentage record at .938. By the way, he also had 9 regular season shutouts, and another 4 in the playoffs. Oh yeah, he wasn’t pulled a single game in the entire playoffs, which you can’t exactly say for yourself. By the way, Tim Thomas also won the Conn Smythe Trophy. Tim played a classy series never retaliating at your comments, instead stating that you are “a great goalie.” Perhaps had you been more aggressive you wouldn’t have had Patrice Bergeron’s shorthanded “shot,” while being pushed down from behind during game 7, trickle past your pads.
It must be disheartening to lose in such a fashion to a goalie who is 5 years your elder and just last year was thought, by many, to have be potentially washed up. Just imagine, it could be you hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup, but instead the only thing you’re hoisting is your jockstrap that the Bruins repeatedly handed you over the course of the series. Perhaps these comments are too harsh for you to handle; maybe you should go cry with LeBron; I’m sure he could use the company.
Roberto Luongo, regular season hero, Finals zero…maybe you can come to Boston to watch how real champions celebrate.