Stanley Cup Finals 2011: Roberto Luongo Has 3 Games to Define His Legacy

12 goals.  12 goals on only 58 shots. Those are the ugly numbers put up by Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo over the last two Stanley Cup Finals games against the Boston Bruins. 

With the series now tied at two games a piece, the Canucks limp back home trying to find their groove again.  With the shelling Luongo has taken, he now has three games to salvage the series and perhaps his future legacy. 

Luongo has been an enigma since joining the Canucks in 2006, in a trade from Florida.  He is one of the top-paid goaltenders, has been nominated for the Vezina, led the league in wins, won a gold medal and back-stopped the President’s Trophy winning team. 

Despite all that, he has a poor playoff track record and despite quieting the critics somewhat this year, he is on the verge of having the dreaded c-word drudged back up. 

Choker. 

After looking unbeatable in the first two games, he has looked confused and lost during the past two. 

Now, not all 12 goals were his fault, as the team in front of him has been anything but good these past two games. But the questions and whispers are back. 

After giving up two, somewhat fluky, goals in Game 3, Luongo seemed to pack it in.  That mentality carried over into Game 4’s four goals on 20 shots performance. 

This seems to be a recurring theme with Luongo. Right or wrong, the impression is that when things get tough, he packs it in.  He seems to lack the mental toughness to win the Stanley Cup.

If the Canucks lose the series, Luongo will face another long, hot summer under the spotlight. 

Vancouver sports radio and sports pages will be littered with people demanding he be shipped out of town.  You have to wonder if even Luongo himself will begin to wonder if a change of scenery is in order. 

Luongo needs to find a way to win two of the next three games. 

Win two out of the next three and the summer will be spent arguing about how great Luongo is , how he overcame adversity and the only controversy will be about which bridge in Vancouver should be renamed The Luongo Bridge. 

Goaltenders, historically, get too much of the blame and too much of the credit.  No one more so than Roberto Luongo.   

Now is his chance.  Now is his chance to put his team on his back.  Now is his chance to hold off the Bruins long enough for the skaters to get their wheels again.  

Now is his chance to establish his legacy as one of a champion, as one of the all-time great Canucks and to finally quiet those pesky whispers that have dogged him his entire career.