If you thought the N.H.L. lockout would have given the Vancouver Canucks time to realize what a terrible idea it would be to start the season with the deposed goalie Roberto Luongo still on their roster, well, you would be wrong. The Canucks did not pull the trigger on a trade to clear up their largest roster headache. And before anyone really settled in for the season, it has become a migraine.
It took all of one game to turn this into a complete sideshow. Cory Schneider took the reigns as the starter to begin the season, and promptly got shellacked by the Anaheim Ducks for five goals on 14 shots. Suddenly fans were cheering Luongo as he skated toward the crease. These are the same fans who had previously decided Luongo was the cause of everything wrong with the franchise and spent last season lighting torches to accompany his exit from town.
That turn of events turned Coach Alain Vigneault's support for Schneider to instant mush, and Luongo was suddenly the Canucks' starter again for Game 2. He gave up only two goals to the Oilers, but they helped the Canucks blow a 2-0 lead to bring the game to overtime. In the shootout, two Oilers, Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner, easily flipped goals past Luongo for the victory.
So now, two games into the season, the Canucks are faced with a real mess. If Vigneault does not reaffirm his confidence in Schneider, as Iain MacIntyre writes in The Vancouver Sun he surely must, the Canucks have found themselves in the same mess they thought they had dug themselves out of by choosing Schneider as the starter and putting Luongo on the trade market.
But General Manager Mike Gillis never closed a deal, despite decent interest and even a potential agreement that might have been one reason the Maple Leafs canned their general manager, Brian Burke. That left Luongo on the Canucks bench in a baseball cap and Gillis trying to make this sound less disastrous by saying things like, "We have two great goaltenders; I don't see how that's a problem."
It's a problem because the basis of any goaltender's success is how much his team believes in him, similar to the dynamic around quarterbacks in the N.F.L. When they falter, fans are always eager for a change. But coaches have to take the longer view. In this case, Vigneault's quick hook meant ushering back in the guy the team seemed so intent on ushering out, so nobody has any confidence in anyone. Schneider deserved a little more support than one bad game before his coach opted for a full-scale controversy.
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