You know what bothers me about the articles in the Province about him today, they just seemed to want to dredge up all the noise and drama, without actually paying due penance to the gravity of his legacy and why he's such a legend and first-ballot HOFer. First of all, the stats are actually mind-boggling. 1044 regular season games with a save percentage of 0.919????? Over a thousand games people, most goalies can't achieve that % in a season once in their entire careers, nobody outside of Brodeur, Lundqvist, Sawchuk, or Hasek has ever averaged anything even remotely close with games played, and Luongo was a man on an island for much of it. Fans and media always gave him shit, (even the articles today can't go 5 seconds without talking about his contract), and all he did was churn out a legendary career. You know what I remember? I remember being smack dab in the middle of downtown in a crowd of Canadians watching him win us gold just a few blocks away, and how we all celebrated in the streets, cars honking, strangers high-fiving.
I remember he put the shambles of the WCE era on his back, fresh off the trade, and churned out an epic 76 game performance that carried us through the playoffs and into the second round for 12 more games. How many times does a goalie get nominated for the Hart, ever? I have enough fingers for that answer
One article mentions the 7-5 loss to Chicago but doesn't even mention this save on Patrick Sharp, o
n the penalty kill in game 7 overtime
Seriously! That save doesn't get talked about enough.
I hear the radio pundits talk about the 1-8 egg to Boston and they don't even talk about his
two shutouts in the Cup final
He gave us everything he had, and it gave us a gold medal and
one game short of the big one. And some of the best individual statistics and performances to ever come out of an NHL goaltender. And some incredible memes!
That's what his legacy means to the fans. John Tortorella can suck a wet sock for what he took away from us, because there should have been more. The media and the haters need to respect the achievement that is his incredible career. Hall of Fame voters won't have an easier selection