October Goaltending: Should the Nucks Split it with Schneider?
Roberto Luongo
Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson
If the points in October are as important as March, should the Canucks split the goaltending load between Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider? If you have followed this Canucks team since Luongo arrived in 2006, you should know that Luongo’s record in October has only been above .500 twice. That was in 2006 when he went 7W and 6L and in 2008, 6W and 4L.
To clarify here, I have counted overtime and shoot-outs, as either a win or loss to make things simpler.
Since then, he posted in 2007 – 4W, 8L, 2009 – 6W, 6L and 2010 – 2W, 5L. The October that starts the upcoming season will see 11 games being played and it makes sense to me, with how Schneider played last season, that he should play five of those games.
Those five games are a possible seven to ten points that Schneider may achieve, if Luongo performs at his sub-par October pace. This is not meant to belittle Luongo, but instead to view it as what’s best for the team.
Surely by now Canucks management has seen enough of Schneider to know that they can count on him as the back-up, and with that, an excellent chance of winning. Last season Schneider was the goaltender of record in 22 games (16W, 4L, 2T).
Cory Schneider
Of those 22 games and a possibility of 44 points (regulation time), he assisted in collecting 40 of those points (16W, 2T). I think those are stats that clearly indicate Schneider’s ability to win, and the team to play well in front of him.
Luongo as we know, will kick into high gear come November but let’s not waste precious points in October, because the Canucks no longer need to.
As I mentioned, the Canucks play 11 games in 29 days, of which five of those are on the road. There is only one back-to-back on the 12/13 and only two games are against NW Division teams.
Even with just two inter-division games, I expect the NW Division to be much more competitive this season, and every point is going to be hard fought for.
If there is one thing that is evident these days, it’s that parity arrived years ago in the NHL and continues to close the gap between the top and bottom teams. To think the Canucks will roll out another 115 point season is unrealistic.
Schneider on the other hand, should be expected to play in more than 25 games this season and win more than 20 games. Now that’s realistic and achievable.
Who cares if there’s a goalie controversy this season, as long as the Canucks win and return to the Stanley Cup Final!
Footnotes: Fortunately the pre-season doesn’t count for anything, because the problems Luongo had last night against Anaheim would make my topic a moot point.
If the Canucks stay true to their philosophy of allowing the best player earn a spot at the centre position, then Cody Hodgson is in tough with Andrew Ebbett. Problem here is – where do you play Hodgson?
Once again SHAW botched it up, with the Canucks game not been shown until 8:45PM, which was only an hour and 45 minutes after it started. Yes it was important for the Braves vs. Phillies to finish in 13th innings, but who in BC really cares?
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