Oh, Bobby Lou, how could you? That thought crossed every Vancouver Canucks fans' mind -- and maybe a lot of players and team officials, too -- after a bad goal Saturday forced overtime in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup playoff series against the Nashville Predators.
Luongo, the Canucks' gold-medal goalie, went 58:53 into a shutout Saturday in Vancouver. And then, he made a mistake. Predators defensman Ryan Suter fired the puck from behind the end red line to Luongo's right. Suter's seeing-eye shot/pass eluded players and went into the crease.
There, it hit the inside of Luongo's left skate and trickled into the net. Luongo was caught flat-footed with his stick out of the way.
And with that, a second Luongo shutout went poof. The Predators forced overtime in a game they badly needed to win.
It cost the Canucks dearly. Matt Halischuk scored at 14:51 of the second overtime, beating Luongo high glove short side. The Predators celebrated their 2-1 victory. The Canucks were left to wonder about their bad luck.
And the series heads to Nashville tied 1-1.
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Before then, the Predators had played a far better game than they did in Game 1, when they were mere pussycats against the Canucks. That game had Preds coach Barry Trotz livid because his team, making its first appearance beyond the first round of the playoffs, had come up with a less-than-desired performance.
It appeared Saturday that the Canucks would pick up their second consecutive 1-0 victory in the series, holding serve on its home-ice advantage built with the NHL's best regular-season record.
But somehow, the specter of Luongo's past failures seemed to hover above the ice at Rogers Arena. Luongo had fulfilled expectations for Canada in the 2010 Olympics, playing well enough to help Canada win the world's greatest hockey tournament in this very arena.
Even with that success, concerns remained about Luongo's playoff history. As good as he has been, as well as he played this season, Luongo was not above delivering a clunker in the crunch during the postseason.
Let's be fair: The Canucks should not have been in this position. Except for Alex Burrows' shorthanded goal that gave the Canucks the lead in the second period, Vancouver's vaunted offense was blunted a second consecutive game by the Predators' tenacious defense -- and the standout play by Pekka Rinne.
That's not to say Luongo played poorly in this game. After all, he stopped 35 shots during regulation. Halischuk's shot was labeled, going over a sliding defender and past Luongo's glove. Suter's softy, and it can't be called anything but that, was the stain on Luongo's play in regulation.
His teammates were doing their part in front of him -- but still allowing too many shots.
Going the other way, the Canucks were getting far too few chances against the Predators' shut-down defense and slick transition game. Vancouver got 15 shots in regulation. Fifteen. The Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler sometimes get that many shots in a game.
But the Predators blunted the attack, and Rinne was there when the Canucks slipped a shot on goal.
The Predators got a glorious opportunity in overtime, when the Canucks were called for having too many men on the ice. Nashville's power play couldn't take advantage.
Rinne was at his best with 2:14 left in overtime. Daniel Sedin's pass from his right-wing boards seemed to have caught Rinne overplaying Sedin with Kevin Bieksa flying toward the back door. Bieksa got off a solid shot -- and Rinne dived to the right, knocked down the puck with the inside of his blocker and smothered the puck.
He then stoned Maxim Lapierre with just over a minute left in OT.
Say this for Luongo: He seemed to wake up in overtime and made several sweet saves. The Predators tried to bull-rush him, pressure him, bump him and disrupt him. Luongo stayed on his game.
In the second overtime, it appeared Daniel Sedin had the game on his stick. Rinne was down and out after the rare fat rebound -- and Sedin, from a bad angle to Rinne's right, couldn't lift the puck over the goalie. It was a Dominik Hasek save -- sprawl, get the legs up and hope the shooter hits you.
The Canucks killed off a delay-of-game penalty in the second overtime, refusing the Predators solid scoring chances.
But the Predators took the game with a sweet entry off a faceoff, leading to Halischuk cruising in with time from the left slot. Game over.
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