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The Canucks fire Gillis. Oh happy god damn day.
Finally. If only we could rewind the last year or so of decisions this jackwagon has made. Only had to piss away two All-Star caliber goalies, lock up some aging veterans to illogical contracts, replace a stuffed shirt coach with a goon, and turn the farm system affiliates into an utter shambles before ownership finally saw the light.
Unbridled optimism or hopelessly naive? You make the call:
In a story relating how a team gave up seven goals in the third in a game they had been leading 3 – 0, on their way to their twelfth loss in fourteen games, be sure to mention how they’re still four points out from the last wildcard spot.
Buddy, this team may not earn four more points this season. I think talk of making the playoffs is a bit of a reach.
We may occasionally burn down the city when things go awry in Game 7. We may be current owners of the longest running NHL losing streak. Half our team may be suffering from upper and lower body injuries. Our coach may be an angry freak of nature. We may have been gooning our way across the league in 2014. But we also create things of beauty like this [1].
In the past I’ve made no bones about rather having Cory Schneider in goal rather than Roberto Luongo. Schneider is the more technically adept goalie. He has likely has better instincts. Most importantly, however, he isn’t prone to the kinds of meltdowns that turn Luongo into merely an above-average NHL goalie.
On the other hand, over the last year or so I’ve really come to appreciate the man Luongo is. In a very public way his team demoted him and dangled trading him for a year. By virtue of signing him to possibly the stupidest contract of all time, Luongo was basically untradable. Despite all of this, he remained a good natured guy, stepped into his backup role with aplomb, and worked hard to show there was no ill will between Schneider and himself. He has been the very definition of a standup guy.
In his first public comments since the Schneider trade1, he continues to show he is a bigger guy than the Canucks deserve. He was even talking about voiding his crazy-ass contract just to help Vancouver and he move on.
But now that the team wants/needs him, he’s committed to the Canucks–at least publicly. He says all the right things. He’s motivated to repeat his 2010 Team Canada performance in the 2014 Olympics. It’s hard to not like the guy. I even follow him on Twitter2 because he’s a funny guy. I notice he still has the goalie wearing the “?” uniform as his avatar. So maybe there are some underlying hard feelings.
Not that I blame him.
I’d still rather have Schneider as my goalie though.
But I’ll feel some vindication if Luongo puts together the solid, no-head-games season he can. And I’ll enjoy the Stanley Cup celebration that such a season would bring.
1 http://o.canada.com/2013/08/23/roberto-luongo-breaks-silence-on-canucks-drama-considered-voiding-contract/
2 https://twitter.com/strombone1