Flames420
Registered User
- Jan 2, 2007
- 154
- 0
He was either hot or cold I'll agree. But it is hard to argue with his hot moments. He was on fire when he was "on". Plus he was the starting goalie in 4 Cup finals. Shouldn't that be a statistical threshold for the HHOF? What goalie has that on his resume and isn't in the HHOF? (Osgood only has three, 1998, 2008 and 2009)
There's no doubt in my mind that Luongo has a LONG ways to go to be considered a great goalie all-time. However, he beats Hextall in so many categories now. For starters:
All-star noms:
Luongo - 2nd team all-star ('04, '07)
Hextall - 1st team all-star (1987)
Wins:
Luongo - 308
Hextall - 296
Highest Hart finishes:
Luongo - 2nd, 6th
Hextall - 10th
Longevity
Luongo - 1999-2011
Hextall - 1986-1999
The only thing Hextall beats him at is the playoffs. Other than 1987 it isn't as if Hextall has other legendary performances. He was pedestrian in the postseason other times. He too like Luongo had a penchant for giving up the soft ill-timed goal.
I don't know how Luongo's career isn't at least Hextall's equal, and probably better.
Put Hextall in his prime with Luongo-sized equipment on that Canucks team and they win the cup. Hextall won the Conn Smythe on a losing team, Luongo wouldn't have been close to it even if the Canucks won game 7.
Luongo has played on an elite team for half of his career. Did Ron ever play on an elite team? Also, Hextall had balls and personality.
Lou is good but not elite, he lets in more soft goals than any Vezina candidate i've ever seen. The Canucks are an offensive juggernaut able to give him the lead way more often than not, when he doesn't have the lead he is average.