Interest in the goaltending situations for the Vancouver Canucks and Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey team has just increased.
Canucks’ starting goaltender Roberto Luongo left the ice and went to the dressing room during the first period of Sunday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets. According to the team’s official Twitter account, Luongo is currently being “evaluated” by the team’s medical staff.
Luongo is currently being evaluated by team medical staff.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 23, 2013
Luongo not on bench to start 2nd period. #Canucks
— Elliott Pap (@ElliottPap) December 23, 2013
Eddie Lack had to come into the game.
According to the Associated Press, Luongo was involved in a goal-mouth collision with Jets’ forward Blake Wheeler earlier in the period.
Luongo, 34, is in his eighth season with the Canucks. He also backstopped Canada to a gold medal in men’s hockey at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. He was also in the running to be named to the 2014 Olympic squad.
So far this season, he has a 16-9-6 record, .919 save percentage and 2.26 goals-against average.
There were numerous reports via Twitter that perhaps Luongo had suffered a groin injury of some sort.
Luongo has had groin injuries in the past - in one instance, he missed 24 games in the 2008-09 season with a groin injury.