Province Sports columnist Tony Gallagher reports from Rogers Arena as the Canucks (0-1-1) prepare to host the Calgary Flames (0-2) Wednesday …
This concept of keeping both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider for the whole season, which has been floated by the Vancouver Canucks, may sound wonderful in theory, but how does it work in practice?
It’s been great all these years, because there was an established pecking order. Luongo was the starter, Schneider was the backup, and played only when the former needed a rest, or had an injury, or some other such reason.
That’s no longer the case. It is now pretty much conceded by everyone, including the coach, that Schneider is the No. 1 guy; otherwise he wouldn’t have started on opening night. The problem arises from the fact that Luongo has never been a backup in his career; he has always been a guy who seemed to need three to five or six games to build up momentum, to the point where he was in his zone and playing at his top level.
Luongo’s never been a guy like Schneider, who could be in mothballs for two or three weeks, play one great game, and then go back to sitting. Trying to do that for Luongo would be a whole new experience.
You could ask Schneider to please go back to being the No. 2 for the remainder of this shortened season — and console him with the fact he will be likely the highest-paid backup in the game, at a pro-rated $4 million for this season. But then you would be handing back the No. 1 role to Luongo, a guy who has already publicly proclaimed that it’s time to move on. And it would be a considerable kick in the ego for the guy who must become your No. 1 at the end of this season.
Further, it would make Luongo that much harder to trade this summer, because other teams would know that Canucks GM Mike Gillis would have to move him or buy him out — something the owner would not likely find overly amusing given he would have to write a cheque for some $20 million.
The Canucks can talk about how they might keep both goalies all year. But if Schneider is to continue to be the No. 1 — and Luongo is to be pushed into a backup role — the chances of that working are profoundly remote.
Read more from Gallagher in Wednesday’s Province.
