Goaltending controversies: A tradition like no other in Vancouver

Some franchises in North American professional sports are simply associated with certain things. 

The Toronto Maple Leafs lose more painfully than anyone else. The Los Angeles Lakers perpetually employ generational big men. The Pittsburgh Steelers seem to always field an excellent defense. The Boston Red Sox for time immemorial have fielded a team populated by players with glorious beards. 

As for the Vancouver Canucks, they have goaltending controversies. 

The Canucks do goaltending controversies better, harder, and more frequently than anyone else. 

A tradition lives on

It was thought that perhaps the pernicious Canucks' tradition may have departed Vancouver along with Roberto Luongo's lifetime contract last spring. It didn't.

Vancouver signed Ryan Miller to a three-year, $18-million contract this summer. Though Miller has racked up wins, his performance has been iffy. He's been one of the worst by even-strength save percentage among starters, and his .904 save percentage would be considered below average for a backup. 

Miller allowed four goals on 14 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. His play wasn't good enough to give his team a chance. 

It was bad timing for Miller to play poorly, for a variety of reasons. First of all, Vancouver plays the second of back-to-back games Sunday against the Ottawa Senators, and now neither Canucks goalie qualifies as rested. 

Secondly, earlier this week Miller convinced head coach Willie Desjardins to depart from his planned goalie rotation. On Miller's advice, Desjardins took a scheduled start away from backup Eddie Lack and let Miller lead the team onto the ice Tuesday against the Washington Capitals. 

Lack played Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins instead, and pitched a shutout. Lack joked afterwards about Miller's advice having paid off, suggesting that his platoon-mate has the chops to be an NHL coach in the future.

Then Miller struggled enormously Saturday. After the game, Miller wasn't sure if he'd start Vancouver's game Sunday against Ottawa.

"I don't know - ask the coach please," Miller responded when asked if he knew who would start on Sunday.

Desjardins wouldn't shed any more light on the topic, though he did offer a defense of his starter.

"He's probably going to break sometime and used up his luck in the other games," Desjardins told Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province. "It wasn't his way tonight. He had tough shots. It wasn't his fault. We gave up too many good shots in the slot."

A full-throated defense, but this still reads as a bit of a loaded comment:

Goalieville

For now, Vancouver isn't quite in controversy territory yet, in part because it's clear that Miller is still the number one. 

Miller has started 78 percent of Vancouver's games, and that's the sort of workload one would expect of a traditional workhorse starter. He also has that 16-5-0 record, which is a solid trump card.

In another market, that record would be good enough to protect Miller from this type of scrutiny, but not in Goalieville. 

In Goalieville, Lack's almost 110 consecutive shutout minutes over three games have been noted, indexed, and filed away neatly as evidence that perhaps Lack should get an extended look and a greater proportion of Canucks starts going forward.

With Lack getting hot and Miller continuing to struggle, the seeds of what could blossom into an all-out goalie controversy are sprouting. Knowing Vancouver's particular history between the pipes, that possibility seems more like an inevitability.