“C” Back on Luongo Would Be as out of Place as Hasek Back in NHL

The question is: Should goalie Roberto Luongo remain captain of the Vancouver Canucks? Barring a trade, does back-up Cory Schneider have a shot in hell of ever becoming a starter, let alone of starting even 10 games this season?

One has to think that even if Luongo gets injured, Canucks general manager Mike Gillis would sooner enlist the help of an arthritic 45-year-old Dominik Hasek before handing the goaltending reins over to the unproven Schneider. So, the answer, in both cases, is: “No.”

Gillis has publicly acknowledged that Luongo staying the team’s captain could become a distraction and that the possibility of him giving the “C” away would be discussed next week. Considering Luongo’s performance dropped off this past season, his second as captain, both issues have come to the forefront.

Luongo is the Canucks’ $10-million man, at least this year, and even if he starts to channel Andre “Red Light” Racicot, his job is safe to say the least. The Canucks need to justify the contract, and, even if that worst-case scenario becomes a very sad and unenviable reality for the organization, Luongo will get every second chance in existence before Schneider even gets a whiff of starter superstardom. Gillis wouldn’t have it any other way, because he’s the former agent that signed the goalie to the 12-year, $64-million deal that has since become the bane of his and the team’s Stanley Cup hopes. Clearly, he suffered through a bit of an identity crisis during negotiations. But that’s in the past. In the present-day one has to question Luongo’s worth as team captain, and it isn’t very sizeable.

Luongo may be the team’s highest-paid player. On some nights, he may even be the team’s best player, but he has as much business being the Canucks’ captain as Gillis does showing in face around General Motors Place (or Rogers Arena) or even in the mirror after negotiating that contract. That’s proof positive that Luongo may very well still bear the “C” at the start of the season. By now, though, the reasons why he shouldn’t have been discussed to death:

1) Goalies cannot efficiently relay referee rulings to the bench and coach, due to their need to remain in the crease.

2) Goalies cannot conduct post-game interviews with the media, answering questions as to why the team lost 5-0, for example, without seeming as though they’re blaming every other player on the team except themselves for all the defensive breakdowns suffered during the rout.

3) Fashionably, the “C” on the jersey takes away from the statements goalies’ masks tend to try and make.

"My head may just cave in from all the added pressure."

While Luongo found a way around point #3 by putting the “C” on his mask (and not trying to make a statement with his bland-looking mask to begin with), points #1 and 2, arguably the two most important of the three, have been left unaddressed. As such, the captaincy has to be given to another player. The most realistic alternatives include:

1) Rotating the captaincy between several players, working out a schedule around the few games defenseman Sami Salo has decided to stay healthy this season.

2) Giving Daniel and Henrik Sedin half-crests and allowing them to split the “C”. I mean, how can you choose between identical twins when you would always be mistaking one for the other outside of their uniforms?

3) Giving it to Alexandre Burrows in a bid to give him more alone time with the referees, you know, to give them a chance to talk about God knows what.

4) And giving it to Ryan Kesler, who best exemplifies the characteristics of grit, hard work, and performance on a game-to-game basis.

At the end of the day, there really is one choice, and that is to give Kesler the chance to prove himself in more of a leadership role. The team really has got little else to lose after two straight harrowing post-season defeats at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks, both series ending with Luongo doing his very best imitation of a sieve.

So, the question now becomes: Are the Canucks good enough to challenge for the Stanley Cup? With the additions of Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis on defense, the back-end is now probably the deepest in the entire NHL and will likely perfectly complement the little-changed, second-most prolific offense in the league from last year. It all comes back to Luongo... can he return to his all-star form? That remains to be seen.