Sunday, August 30, 2009

Who's #1 in Team Canada's net?

Shouldn't it be obvious--Martin Brodeur is #30 as is Cam Ward, Marc-Andre Fleury is #29 while Roberto Luongo is #1.

The jersey says it all

To make this clearer to all, let's take a time machine back to the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Coach Pat Quinn decided to start his own Leaf goalie Curtis Joseph in the first game Team Canada played. The Swedish torpedo attack ripped apart Canada to the tune of 5-2 which included Leaf teammate Mats Sundin on a breakaway making CuJo look silly.

Enter Martin Brodeur and the rest of that tournament was written in gold for Canada. And Sweden, well, Tommy Salo had a tournament to forget. So don't read too much into early results at the Olympics.

Meaning it really doesn't matter who starts the tournament as the #1 goalie as long as the backup(s) are able to step into the crease and bail the team out, if necessary?

As far as the criticism that Luongo seems to choke in the big games, I present the 2004 World Cup semi-final vs. the Czech Republic. With Brodeur injured, Luongo stepped into the breach and backstopped Team Canada with a sensational 37-save performance in a make-or-break game that went to overtime. Vincent Lecavalier's goal at 3:45 of OT won it for Canada 4-3 but the game was really won by our Roberto.

Brodeur returned for the Final and Canada had another "gold" winning the 2004 World Cup 3-2 over Finland.

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