Despite all of the garbage thrown in Roberto Luongo’s general direction recently, sometimes people forget he’s been a pretty successful NHL goaltender. After setting the Florida Panthers’ franchise record for wins at his last stop, he’s now replicated the feat while wearing a Vancouver Canucks jersey. With the Canucks 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, Luongo past Kirk MacLean on the all-time wins list for the Canucks.
It’s only appropriate that we pump his tires today after he earned his 212nd win for the Canucks. After all, that sounds a little more impressive than the 108 wins he had for the Panthers.
Luongo deflected the praise after the game. “It’s a great honor,” Luongo said. “We’ve had a great team here since I’ve been here. Looking forward to winning many more” That’s true—the Canucks have had some stacked teams since Luongo arrived in British Columbia in 2006. But whenever a goaltender is averaging 40 wins per season over the first five seasons with a new team, he’s probably doing something right.
Even last season, he and Cory Schneider won the Jennings Trophy in the regular season and he put up four shutouts in the playoffs. Of course, there are still fans that are going to question Luongo’s feats until he brings a Stanley Cup to the Pacific Northwest. But for a day, we’ll take a step back and pay respect to a man who’s performed at a pretty high level over the last five seasons.