Friday, February 22, 2008

No home delivery for Roberto, no radio or TV either


We’re not sure what Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo does in his spare time, but we imagine it’s something with an iPod and motivational podcasts.

With the weight of the Vancouver media starting to drain on his batteries, Luongo announced that he doesn’t read the papers anymore, won’t listen to the radio and most likely won’t be watching the news with Tony Parsons or Bill Good anytime soon.

Iain McIntyre of the Vancouver Sun, brings us up to speed on Luongo’s fatwa against all media, a not to unusual situation over the years when it comes to Canuck goaltenders. Vancouver’s media, like Toronto and Montreal, lives and breathes hockey. Rumour or fact, it’s all part of the news cycle and lately Roberto seems to have been filling in most of the blanks when it comes to hockey.

Luongo tired of all of the media’s intense speculation and fact gathering has decided to tune them all out, and if the results of the last few games are any indication Vancouver fans should be hoping for the silent treatment right through until June.

Thursday night, the now introspective and reserved Luongo put on another one of his goaltending clinics facing 51 shots and saving 49 of them, all on the way to a 3-2 shoot out victory over the Nashville Predators.

The Predators outworked the Canucks for the majority of the game and put Luongo to the test frequently, but as advertised, when the time comes for the big stop or the big win, Luongo manages to summon up that extra bit to secure the save.

The win, the Canucks third in a row, moves them slowly back up the playoff race chain, in as tight a race that the Western Conference has seen in a few years no. Thursday was rookie night for the Canucks as the young ones participated in the bulk of the scoring while the veterans seemed to struggle against the Predators defence, taking untimely penalties and finding frustration with every shift on the ice.

For the most part, it was all Luongo though, as he stopped the Preds for all but two scores on the night, a remarkable performance, worthy of a fine write up in a newspaper. Too bad, Roberto’s not a reader anymore; he might have liked some of the reviews from Thursday’s game…

National Post--Canucks ride Luongo to shootout win

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