We're at the 1/4 mark...

[bsjezz]

lu is actually 15th in the league for GAA when you count goalies with more than ten games played. he also has a better save perentage than such duds as hiller, howard, quick, bobrovsky (this year's vezina winner, might i remind you) and halak.

edit: he's one of only 7 goalies with 2 shutouts on the year... shall i go on? lu's fine. he's an NHL calibre goalie who lets us win. expecting more is folly

 

[Reign Nateo]

Delete.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Every goalie has one good year and everyone jumps on their jockstrap arbitrarily naming then the best goalie in the world. I call it the Ryan Miller effect. Quick is a good goalie, but he's extremely beatable. I like the Kings D a lot better than the netminder. I'd probably even go as far as to say Quick's performance in last year's playoffs were more impressive than the year he won the Cup.

Say what you want about individual trophies awarded over a 20 game span, Claude Lemieux won a Conn Smythe for goodness sakes. It's a team game. While goaltending is the most important position, you can't leave it hung out to dry so often or eventually it'll stop bailing you out.

 

[Karl Hungus]

It's quite eye opening that Luongo ranks 26th in the NHL in GAA with a healthy looking 2.41 GAA. It means the standards are getting higher for goalies. We can't necessarily look at a number like that and say "Oh, he's doing great".

Luongo hasn't been bad at all, but he hasn't been great. If we want to think he's still an elite goaltender in this league we have to judge him against the rest of the elite goaltenders and he doesn't quite match up. Look at guys like Ben Bishop and Steve Mason. They're not playing behind the best defenses by any means, yet they're sporting GAA's of 2.02 and 2.15 respectively while both have a .930 Save%.

Again, this isn't to say Luongo has been BAD. Just the standard has been raised apparently and there are many of his peers who are doing better than him.

20 games is still a small sample size and it's not really fair to compare Luongo's stats with other goalies as the quality of competition could be extremely skewed. We are about to play San Jose for the 4th time already. I think this argument could be very different if we had got to play 3 games against the Panthers instead. He's had some issues with his concentration at times but I think we can expect some the competition's numbers to get worse as they face a wider selection of teams and I could see Lu's numbers doing the opposite as we face more teams from the other divisions.

 

[YouCantYandleThis*]

You can doubt Quick if you like. I wouldn't. He's a Conn Smythe winner and 2012 All-Star (Luongo last appeared in 2008), at barely 27 years old. Also just out-played Luongo rather handily head-to-head. You have to use your head a bit on that one.

Lundqvist may be showing signs of decline yes, I haven't watched a lot of Ranger games this year, but he's getting to that age where he may be slowing down like Luongo. But because unlike Luongo, he hasn't been below average the last 2-3 years, he gets the benefit of the doubt from most people at this stage. He's kind of looking like Luongo did a year or two ago. Makes sense as he's 2 or 3 years younger.

Anyway, I'm not interested in a big Luongo debate. Not biggest issue, but I'd like to see more from him if he's got it left in him.

Oh really? Because I didn't get that impression when the entirety of your post in a Quarter Season Review thread was a Luongo slag fest. What were you expecting exactly?

Quick has worse numbers than Luongo this season even after last game against the Kings, where the Canucks looked flatter than Budweiser after 5 minutes.

 

[YouCantYandleThis*]

I knew someone would bring up Jonathan Quick. Quick is still an elite goalie but he absolutely has to be better as well. I hold him to the same standard.

I agree with your comment about the elite goalies separate themselves from the pack as the season progress. Lundqvist is in the process of doing that right now and you just know he'll be one of the best goaltenders stats wise by the end of the season. My sentiment is I just don't believe Luongo will do that. He won't end the season with bad numbers but I don't believe he'll end the season as one of the top goaltenders in the league either.

That all depends what you see as one of the "top goaltenders in the league."

As of right now, he sits middle of the pack stats-wise, and is 11th in wins. This is after a rough start in October. If you consider being one of the top 2/3 goalies in the league to be your expectations you're probably going to be disappointed. But if it's a top 10 goalie you're looking for I don't think that's too unreasonable to expect based on what we've seen, and what we hope to see once this team fully mesh's and heals up. And if you're not happy with a top ten goaltender, you're a bit of a spoiled brat.

 

[Reign Nateo]

Oh really? Because I didn't get that impression when the entirety of your post in a Quarter Season Review thread was a Luongo slag fest. What were you expecting exactly?

Quick has worse numbers than Luongo this season even after last game against the Kings, where the Canucks looked flatter than Budweiser after 5 minutes.

I was expecting yourself and/or Y2KCanucks to come and defend his honor valiantly by trashing Schneider, the coaching staff, the Sedins, a tough schedule, (or whatever excuses you have for him this week) as happens in every game day or Luongo-related thread. So I guess I wasn't dissapointed.

More excuses from the Lu fan club. Let's just see what happens in March/April. That's all I really care about.

 

[YouCantYandleThis*]

I was expecting yourself and/or Y2KCanucks to come and defend his honor valiantly by trashing Schneider, the coaching staff, the Sedins, a tough schedule, (or whatever excuses you have for him this week) as happens in every game day or Luongo-related thread. So I guess I wasn't dissapointed.

More excuses from the Lu fan club. Let's just see what happens in March/April. That's all I really care about.

When did I say any of this?

Unless you mean me saying that Cory lost his job in New Jersey. Which is true.

Lu fan club...I love that term. I'm a Canucks fan. I try and support every player we have, and I'm certainly not looking out for them to fail, waiting for any mistake to jump on. That would be so pathetic of somebody!

 

[opendoor]

That all depends what you see as one of the "top goaltenders in the league."

As of right now, he sits middle of the pack stats-wise, and is 11th in wins. This is after a rough start in October. If you consider being one of the top 2/3 goalies in the league to be your expectations you're probably going to be disappointed. But if it's a top 10 goalie you're looking for I don't think that's too unreasonable to expect based on what we've seen, and what we hope to see once this team fully mesh's and heals up. And if you're not happy with a top ten goaltender, you're a bit of a spoiled brat.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a .925-.930 or so EV sv% out of Luongo and he's pretty damned far away from that (.910 right now). Among the 30 goalies who've faced 200+ EV shots he's 26th, ahead of only Nabokov, Hutton, Markstrom, and Dubnyk. And don't try to accuse me of picking on Luongo or cherry picking stats because I said the exact same thing about Schneider when he had an unsustainably high SH SV% that inflated his overall numbers.

It's still early, so I'm not going to read too much into his numbers in terms of what they mean going forward, but he needs to be a fair bit better than he's been so far. Though I can't say his .914 EV SV% over his last 40 or 50 games is particularly encouraging.

 

[Pure West]

Pretty much all of the "ifs" we had with this team going into the season have worked out....and unfortunately we are still a bubble playoff team due to the strong start of essentially all Western teams in inter-conference play. Santorelli and Richardson have answered the bell and given the team center depth, Stanton has been great, Bieksa and Edler have been great for the most part and seemed to have found steady partners for themselves. Even in the games we've lost in regulation, its only really the LA game where you're really thinking that the team didn't show. Other than that, there were at least some positives out of every loss...and a good chunk of them you'd think the team probably deserved a better fate.

I actually think Luongo has been pretty good...I don't know what some of you guys are seeing. Maybe he's not a vezina contender anymore, but I think his rebound control is as good as ever even if he isn't as athletic as some of the younger top goalies in the league. Athleticism, lateral movement and skating were never really his strengths anyways, its mostly been his positioning, size and reflexes that have been his strengths.

Problem is to me is still the powerplay...and I think we really need a true PP QB defenseman. We have 2 shooters in Edler and Garrison, but not really puck distributors back there. Despite how well the 6 D have played this season, we probably need a change there if we want to improve the powerplay.

All in all, I think you have to be encouraged by the start. The team looks like its responding to the coach and the system, and a lot of the question marks are being answered. However, I still think there are some holes on this team and its probably not a contender without a major move. Competitive? Absolutely....but not really a team positioned to do damage in the playoffs.

 

[Reign Nateo]

When did I say any of this?

Unless you mean me saying that Cory lost his job in New Jersey. Which is true.

Lu fan club...I love that term. I'm a Canucks fan. I try and support every player we have, and I'm certainly not looking out for them to fail, waiting for any mistake to jump on. That would be so pathetic of somebody!

You realize just how hypocritical this post is right...

You attack me for waiting for "any mistake to jump on" right after you mention yourself bringing up Schneider losing his job (not really, but OK) in New Jersey? You don't see the glaring hypocrisy as you post these things!? I've been on the Devils board, the Lu Fan Club (LFC) is in full effect over there, waiting for any misstep to run back and post on the Canucks board, so don't give me that bull ****. I posted my issues with the team at the 1/4 pole, didn't start this to attack Luongo, just the LFC can't handle the slightest critism.

Evidence by your post here: (these are your comments to any poster saying a goal was soft, just in the last few GDTs)

"Man, watching that goal again, you really cannot blame Luongo at all for that. The only way to get that would have been to either anticipate that bounce, or put his glove behind his back and hope it falls in."

"I'm not saying Luongo couldn't have handled that better, because he could have, but things are a lot easier to analyze when looking at a slow motion replay."

"It sure could've, and that would've been a pretty spectacular save considering it was essentially a 2-0."

"You CANNOT blame Luongo for that goal, without confirming yourself as a nonsensical hater."

"For those blaming Luongo, I would LOVE to know how you figure the logic on that one.

"Seriously though, somebody here, instead of just saying "Lu is a joke", explain why exactly that was his fault. He's supposed to anticipate that?"

And that's just the last couple GDTs. Nothing is every Luongo's fault for the LFC and that's the area of contention. Further back you get pretty upset at Canucks fans in Roger's Arena for cheering for Schneider in the New Jersey GDT.

So don't tell me you're just sharing facts and observations without bias as a "Canucks fan," you attack any one that shows the slightest bit of critiscm towards Luongo, it's all over your post history. So don't try to spin it on me just randomly attacking the guy when the time is right, I posted my opinion on what the team is lacking at the 1/4 pole, it's the LFC that makes everything about Luongo because they can't handle poor Lu facing his critics. I've had the same opinion on Luongo for years and have been proven dead right so far. Just because the LFC can't handle it does not mean that opinion is going to change any time soon.

For the record, Luongo has been decent, my point all along is we need better than decent to get into the playoffs and challenge for a Cup.

 

[NuxFan09]

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a .925-.930 or so EV sv% out of Luongo and he's pretty damned far away from that (.910 right now). Among the 30 goalies who've faced 200+ EV shots he's 26th, ahead of only Nabokov, Hutton, Markstrom, and Dubnyk. And don't try to accuse me of picking on Luongo or cherry picking stats because I said the exact same thing about Schneider when he had an unsustainably high SH SV% that inflated his overall numbers.

It's still early, so I'm not going to read too much into his numbers in terms of what they mean going forward, but he needs to be a fair bit better than he's been so far. Though I can't say his .914 EV SV% over his last 40 or 50 games is particularly encouraging.

Ouch, that's awful. Those are pretty much the worst goalies in the league right now.

Appreciate you sharing these stats opendoor. It validates the concern some of us have about Luongo.

 

[Superpest]

I feel like a trade might be the change this team needs.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

It's still early, so I'm not going to read too much into ... numbers

This is all that needs to be said. As much fun as quarterly scouting reports are, 20 games is such a minute sample size. Alex Steen is 1st and 3rd in goals and points respectively.

 

[NuxFan09]

I feel like a trade might be the change this team needs.

Agreed. I don't care about sample size. I feel confident in saying already that this team won't go very far with the forward group as is. It's amazing how even one top 6 forward can really change things, though.

 

[pahlsson]

it's funny, i'm probably more satisfied with their play and effort level this year than the two previous years but i could easily see them missing the playoffs this season, which i never even considered at all in those two seasons

 

[DL44]

Just the basic numbers... feel free to add other notable stats.

20 gms, 11-7-2, 24 pts, 4th in the div, 14th overall Pt%.

ROW : 3rd
G/gm : 16th
GA/gm: 16th
5-5F-A: 12th
+ / - : 14th
PP % : 28th
PK % : 1st
SOG : 6th
SOGA: 8th
FO % : 12th
Hits : 20th
B S : 6th
Gwy : 10th
Twy : 19th
Goals in 1st: 6th, 2nd: 7th, 3rd: 25th


Mediocre by recent Canuck standards, but it's all about how the the team is trending as the season moves along. will try to redo this in another 10 games.

 

[canucksfan]

A lot of it has been said, but in a nutshell - I love the effort, defensive awareness and accountability going on with this team right now. Breath of fresh air after some very consistent lethargic and passive play under Vigneault during his last two seasons.

Our offensive prowess (or lack thereof) is the biggest concern. The PP and a lack of overall offensive talent would be the biggest issues there, IMO. I think the PP can be addressed with work and practice (at least for the first unit), but the second one can't really be changed without a trade.

Pretty much my thoughts as well

 

[vanuck]

it's funny, i'm probably more satisfied with their play and effort level this year than the two previous years but i could easily see them missing the playoffs this season, which i never even considered at all in those two seasons

It's the whole "reset" thing in terms of expectations, isn't it? Though if they make they playoffs - and I think they will - they should be far more competitive than they've shown the last 2 years.

 

[rune74]

I was expecting yourself and/or Y2KCanucks to come and defend his honor valiantly by trashing Schneider, the coaching staff, the Sedins, a tough schedule, (or whatever excuses you have for him this week) as happens in every game day or Luongo-related thread. So I guess I wasn't dissapointed.

More excuses from the Lu fan club. Let's just see what happens in March/April. That's all I really care about.

Yes, this sounds like a non biased report...dude you have an axe to grind

 

[Jack Tripper]

To add something to the "BAD" category: Injuries

there's not much i can add to what's been previously stated, but i would place injuries (or lack thereof) in the 'GOOD' category

the top 6 d-men have played every game, there's been no nagging goaltender injuries, and aside from burrows we haven't had a significant injury to the top 6 forward group...a quick glance around the league reveals that most teams would take the canucks injury situation in a heartbeat, especially with booth and hansen returning this week

injuries to 3rd line forwards have exposed a lack of depth, and similarly this team could be in real trouble if as many as 2-3 d-men get injured for any length of time and we end up having to rely on andrew alberts or yannick weber on a regular basis...also expecting the inevitable ryan kesler injury sometime this year

 

[vanuck]

I would say that still having Alberts on the team is something else to add to the Bad column.

Just the basic numbers... feel free to add other notable stats.

20 gms, 11-7-2, 24 pts, 4th in the div, 14th overall Pt%.

ROW : 3rd
G/gm : 16th
GA/gm: 16th
5-5F-A: 12th
+ / - : 14th
PP % : 28th
PK % : 1st
SOG : 6th
SOGA: 8th
FO % : 12th
Hits : 20th
B S : 6th
Gwy : 10th
Twy : 19th
Goals in 1st: 6th, 2nd: 7th, 3rd: 25th


Mediocre by recent Canuck standards, but it's all about how the the team is trending as the season moves along. will try to redo this in another 10 games.

Also noted earlier in this thread is that this team is 7th in score close Fenwick and 8th in score close Corsi. When we get the 4 forwards back from injury it should bode well moving forward.

 

[Virtanen2Horvat]

Like:

- Without looking at the stats, we have to be one of the better 5 on 5 teams in the league.

- Our Dmen look excellent and whoever is playing the best saps minutes from whoever isn't.

- Penalty kill is excellent and has produced offensive chances.

- We change our lines around... we have some roster flexibility.

- Booth in the AHL.

- The Sedins look the best they ever have. Kesler too.

Dislike:

- Powerplay. WTF.

- While he has the track record to have earned faith, Luongo has not looked particularly good. I do like the look of Lack a lot though (and I love his poise with the puck... I didn't know Canuck goalies were allowed to have that).

He has a solid October and you are saying he is not that good? If anything the only thing I don't like on the team is the powerplay. We may also need a trade.

 

[Reign Nateo]

Yes, this sounds like a non biased report...dude you have an axe to grind

The only "axe I have to grind" is that the goalie situation was handled poorly. That's my stance, traded the wrong guy and we're eventually going to pay. I don't hate Luongo, I just don't believe in him.

That's it. Any conflict comes from the fact that Luongo cannot be discussed in a rational manner around here. It's OK to discuss the negative side of your starting goalie and express your concerns. Luongo doesn't need to be protected every time his name comes up in a thread.

There's a lot of talk about lack of secondary scoring in this thread. But no one felt the need to jump in and protect guys like Burrows, Richardson and Booth with a bunch of childish ****.

Take a look at my original post in this thread.

 

[NuxFan09]

The only "axe I have to grind" is that the goalie situation was handled poorly. That's my stance, traded the wrong guy and we're eventually going to pay. I don't hate Luongo, I just don't believe in him.

That's it. Any conflict comes from the fact that Luongo cannot be discussed in a rational manner around here. It's OK to discuss the negative side of your starting goalie and express your concerns. Luongo doesn't need to be protected every time his name comes up in a thread.

There's a lot of talk about lack of secondary scoring in this thread. But no one felt the need to jump in and protect guys like Burrows, Richardson and Booth with a bunch of childish ****.

Take a look at my original post in this thread.

Some people here seem to have a problem with having a negative outlook on some things. I know, exhausting, isn't it?, when you have a simple opinion or view that for some reason you need to valiantly defend.