Ok, but do you think he's worthy of being a first ballot HOFer? I'll defer to you, I don't pay attention to goalies
but it would seem without playoff success and never winning a Vezina he should have been on at on the back burner for the HOF?
I have argued that Luongo SHOULD be in the HOF for years now, but I am somewhat surprised he got in first ballot.
I really thought he might have gone 5 years past eligibility before getting in.
He should have probably won the Vezina in 03-04. The best they gave him was a third place finish that year. Marty won the Vezina that year. Looking back on it, I would have given him the Vezina over Brodeur that year. I think the reason he didn't get the Vezina (or second place) was because his wins/loss record was ridiculously lopsided that year. He was 25-33-14 that year, but he had a .931% on an absolutely awful team. Typically, they don't give the Vezina to goalies on a non-playoff making team, so I understand why he lost out that year. Still to this day I think Bobrovsky in 12-13 is the only goalie to win the Vezina on a non-playoff team and that was a lockout shortened 48 game season.
He came in 2nd to Marty once again in 06-07, but I do think Marty deserved the Vezina over him that year. Brodeur had the higher save percentage by one point and he played in two more games. Luongo did play 76 games that year, but Brodeur played in 78. So I'm willing to give Luongo Brodeur's Vezina from 03-04, but not 06-07, but he is an extremely close second for me that year.
I think Brodeur's 06-07 and 07-08 seasons were his best, when you factor regular season only. I would argue his 07-08 season was better than his 06-07 season. Save percentage was 2 points lower, but he also only had 4 shutouts to 12. His save percentage being 2 points lower in 07-08 than in 06-07, but with 8 fewer shutouts. He didn't many shutouts that year and surely not enough to bloat his save percentage like it probably did the year before, but that means he was playing even better in the games he wasn't getting shutouts in IMO.
Luongo's career for me was more about how consistently well he played for the duration of his career, despite no personal accolades in the NHL.
However, he did play VERY BADLY in the 2011 SCF, in the one time he made the finals. And he also made a comment about Tim Thomas and his over-aggressiveness causing him to allow the one and only goal of game 5 of that series where Luongo and the Canucks won the game 1-0. Luongo was blown up and chased early the next game with a chance to clinch the cup and then allowed 3 or 4 the next game too. And he allowed 8 goals in a game earlier that series.