Stanley Cup Finals 2011: Can Canucks Count on Robert Luongo After Being Pulled?

Ever since the injury to Nathan Horton, the Boston Bruins have been absolutely on fire in the Stanley Cup Finals.

They have now outscored the Vancouver Canucks 12-1 in the last two games.

All 12 goals were surrendered by Vancouver goalie, and Vezina candidate, Roberto Luongo.

Luongo was pulled in the third period of Game 4 and was replaced by Cory Schneider who stopped all nine shots that he faced.

So the question that several people in Vancouver have to be asking themselves right now is, "Can the Canucks count on Luongo after this horrific performance?"

It's obvious that the Canuck faithful would be skeptical of Luongo as he has had some serious struggles in the playoffs throughout his career.

He even had some serious issues at the start of these playoffs when he was lit up by the Blackhawks two games in a row.

After those performances, and being replaced for one game by the aforementioned Schneider, he was lights out in the biggest game of the whole series and has played great until he stepped off the plane in Boston.

My answer to this conundrum is quite simple: yes.

Absolutely Vancouver can count on Roberto Luongo for the rest of this series because they have counted on him all the way up to this point and he has earned it.

He has shown that he can bounce back from bad performances in serious ways.

Plus, if I'm a Vancouver fan watching Game 4 from home, I'm far more upset about the way the team played in front of Luongo because he was left out to dry on multiple occasions.

Luongo knows that he has to be better, there's no doubt about that.

He also knows that he is not the first goalie to ever be pulled during a Stanley Cup Finals.

Martin Brodeur was pulled in Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, only to come back and help his team win Game 7 and the Stanley Cup.

Patrick Roy has been pulled in the playoffs before, only to rebound with amazing performances.

Tim Thomas, during this playoff year, might not have been pulled but has had several less than good performances of his own during the Bruins' run to the finals, only to bounce back and redeem himself.

Game 5 will be in Vancouver on Friday night, and Luongo has played very well on home ice throughout the playoffs.

Not only can the Canucks count on Luongo, they need to count on him.

Luongo has been the man for the Canucks all throughout the playoffs, and has responded when he has performed poorly.

Luongo will be focused and ready to go for Game 5, and should definitely be the one to start the game.

Besides, it's just like that old saying goes, "You dance with the one who brung ya."