Luongo Out, Schneider In as Blackhawks Visit Canucks!

What’s going on with Roberto Luongo? Frank Doyle tries to figure it out ahead of Chicago’s visit to Vancouver tonight.

Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone? Roberto Luongo gets a lot of bad press from Canucks fans who aren’t sure if his goaltending is quite in synch with his salary, but the Vancouver faithful could be about to find out what life is like without him for the next couple of games.

There’s a certain amount of smoke and mirrors being used in explaining just why Luongo isn’t playing tonight, as this story in the Vancouver Sun explains. Coach Alain Vigneault insists it’s an “upper body injury,” but also implied that the light penalty suffered by Boston’s Milan Lucic’s for his hit on Buffalo’s Ryan Miller last weekend was the reason for his reticence.

Which sent people hurrying back to game tape of the Canucks’ last game, an easy 4-1 home win against the struggling Islanders, to see how this upper body injury was incurred. The most obvious cause is a puck to the facemask sustained by Luongo in the third period, while making a save from Mark Streit.

Luongo played it down in post match interviews and the Canucks insist it’s nothing serious, but the fact is that Luongo is day to day and that Vigneault has made an issue of the hit on Ryan Miller has got conspiracy theorists working overtime.

Not that the mystery will be solved in time for tonight’s visit from Chicago, of course. Chicago and Vancouver is one of the great recent rivalries in the NHL, with the teams splitting 16 wins each over the past three years, the most recent being the Canucks’ 6-2 win at Chicago ten days ago.

Chicago has followed a three game losing streak with a three game winning streak to see the ‘Hawks with the most points in the West so far. Vancouver has been slow off the blocks but the Canucks have been getting visibly stronger in recent games – not least in that big win at Chicago.

In Luongo’s absence, Cory Schneider steps between the pipes for the Canucks. There’s a certain poetry in that – this is Schneider’s first start against Chicago in the regular season, but he was sensationally chosen ahead of Luongo for Game 6 against the Blackhawks in the playoffs last year. Schneider cramped up in the third period, Luongo took over and Vancouver never looked back.

Vancouver is an NHL betting favorite tonight – home ice, a high-powered offense and it’s not like Schneider is some guy who just brought his skates to the rink and got pulled out of the crowd. But the Blackhawks’ pride is wounded by their home humiliation and there is a reason why Luongo gets those big dollars in the first place. It’ll be another great game in a great rivalry.