Roberto Luongo's time as captain was increasingly awkward and placed him in a no-win situation.
PENTICTON — The idea of naming Roberto Luongoteam captain began as an innovative plan and a tribute to a team leader who just happened to be play goal.
But it grew increasingly awkward, ever more time consuming, and on the eve of his third season as captain Luongo finally gave the ‘C’ back on Monday.
"It may be incompatible with the goaltending position," admitted his GM Mike Gillis.
That’s GM-speak for, "It’s time to take my most important player out of a no-win situation."
There was that night two seasons ago when Captain Luongo called out his team’s play in the defensive zone, something a captain is supposed to do. But it seemed strange to hear those words from a goalie, one who was now in a position to critique his teammates play in an area where he obviously couldn’t include himself among the culprits.
Then there was a 3-2 loss at Montreal this past February, where the Canucks outshot Montreal 47-28 but lost 3-2. Was that sarcasm in Luongo’s voice as he described the Canadiens winning goal, scored on the fourth Montreal whack as three Canucks players bore witness nearby?
"Unfortunately, that last one I stopped the first four (shots)," Luongo said. "I got a piece of the fifth one, but not enough."
But the tipping point came after Game 3 of the Canucks first-round series against Los Angeles, where the Kings powerplay went 3-for-3 in a 5-3 L.A. victory, upping their series percentage to an incredible 73% (7-for-12).
Everybody knew it: The Canucks players needed to block more shots. They didn’t want it badly enough, and the captain had to come out and call a spade a spade.
"We’ve got to lay it on the line when we’re killing (penalties)," Luongo said that night. "We’ve got to block some shots, take some rebounds away... I’m trying to make the first save."
The optics of it stunk.
"It was a very precarious position to be in," Luongo admitted in Vancouver on Monday. "Luckily I won't have to do that anymore."
Some things do need to be said — but just not by the goalie. It sounded as if Luongo, who for the second consecutive spring was turning in an average post-season performance, was blaming everyone else for his poor play.
"When you're a captain, you're asked on a daily basis what the team could do better," the goalie said. "What do you say? You don't want to look like you’re throwing your teammates under the bus. It was kind of difficult position for me to be in. Sometimes it came off the wrong way. As a goaltender, you don't want to be in a position where you feel like you’re putting the blame on somebody else."
Gillis, however, is quite comfortable with that approach.
"The thing I found sort of ironic was," he said Monday in Penticton, "captains are expected to go out in front of you (media) guys and answer questions truthfully. If Roberto, in his position, said anything critical about the team, he was ‘throwing people under the bus.’ And I think that was absolutely unfair.
"We expect that from captains on other teams, to say, ‘We weren’t good enough tonight. We didn’t do this well enough.’ When he did it, it seemed like it was an indictment. I think that’s somewhat unfair, because of his position, but that’s the way it was."
What was unfair, Mike, was putting him in that position in the first place.
It took a simple press release to make Luongo the first goalie to be named a captain in the NHL in 60 years, two seasons ago. But that couldn’t erase 60 years of hockey etiquette, which dictates that unless you are in a position to block a shot or take a hit, you shouldn’t be talking about how your teammates need to do more of both.
Do you ever hear an NHL captain say, "Well, our goaltending really let us down tonight. If we don’t get a few more saves, we’ll never win this series?"
Of course not.
That’s why making a goalie your captain was an idea that, history tells us clearly, was a bad idea.
Henrik Sedin will almost certainly get the nod, though Gillis wasn’t letting on Monday. Then the Canucks can move on from what turned out to be an ill-advised gimmick that didn’t work.
No harm, no foul. Luongo begins his 12-year contract as simply a goalie, not a captain, and life goes on.
"It’s about winning now," Gillis said. "This group is mature enough and we feel confident enough in our ability to really take a run at trying to win a Stanley Cup."
