“Who’s calling it that? Well, again, who cares? That’s not being said in this room. We had two good goalies last year and it helped us in a lot of games. I don’t know why it’s being spun into a bad thing.”
-- Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa on Vancouver’s “goaltending controversy”.
Cory Schneider will start his seventh straight tonight while Roberto Luongo backs him up (for the fifth straight time). It looks and feels like a hot story. Yet somehow, it’s not the hot story.
The hot story is how to classify the story.
Or, if it should be classified at all.
At the moment there are two predominant opinions about Schneider, Luonogo and the current state of Vancouver’s goaltending. The first is that it’s a full-blown controversy. The other is move along, nothing to see here.
Those of the first opinion are ink-stained, coffee-breathed pencil pushers from mainstream media (or sweatpants-wearing, Doritos-munching basement dwellers from the blogosphere).
They’re churning out headlines like:
Is there a ‘goalie controversy?’ The Canucks don’t think so
Cory Schneider’s play keeping Luongo on the bench
Daily Debate: Best net option for Canucks?
Would the Canucks have won Tuesday with Roberto Luongo in net?
Canucks goalie controversy: Schneider has won five straight
It’s not like the controversy theme has been pulled out of thin air. Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault acknowledged the potential uneasiness looming with every Schneider start (and Luongo non-start.)
“I understand how unpleasant it could become,” Vigneault told the Vancouver Province. “But at the end of the day, he’s [Luongo’s] a professional, it’s part of his responsibilities and knowing him, he wants to win, and the team is winning right now.
That said, there are plenty of people holding opinion No. 2 -- that there is no goalie controversy.
Bieksa is one of those people. So too is GM Mike Gillis, who told TEAM 1040 radio in Vancouver that “there’s no controversy,” and that “the controversy is in the media.”
Put Schneider and Luongo in this category as well.
“We just do what we normally do,” Schneider said. “It’s not awkward.”
“He never complained and was always 100-per-cent behind me,” Luongo said of Schneider. “The same thing goes for me. He deserves what he’s getting right now. There’s no doubt that he could be a starter in this league. It’s about the Vancouver Canucks winning games.”