Luongo says mentoring Lack, Schneider 'worked pretty well': 'Both of them were able to steal my job'
Roberto Luongo is undoubtedly the best goalie in the predominantly sordid history of the Vancouver Canucks.
Luongo, now of the Florida Panthers, posted an above average save percentage in all eight seasons spent in Vancouver, leading the Canucks to the playoffs six times and the Stanley Cup final in 2011.
Somewhere along the way, Luongo became a lightning rod for controversy, and lost his job twice: to Cory Schneider (now the New Jersey Devils' starter), and to Eddie Lack (now Ryan Miller's backup with the Canucks).
Luongo requested a trade after he first lost his starting gig during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, but it took until short-lived Canucks head coach John Tortorella tapped Eddie Lack as his No. 1 goalie after the 2014 Olympic break for Luongo to get his wish.
At the trade deadline, Luongo's talents were sent to South Beach - or Broward County, but who's splitting hairs - and now he'll look to help a moribund Panthers team earn a rare playoff berth.
Recently, Luongo has been skating in Switzerland with Lugano, a National League-A club that employs his brother, Leo Luongo, as a goaltending coach.
"It gives me a chance to work with him a little bit and kick-start my summer of training on the ice," Roberto explained in a recent interview with Italian language, Swiss-based hockey blog HeShootsHeScoores.com.
The trilingual Montreal-born goaltender, who answered questions asked in Italian in English during the filmed conversation, also spoke about how he took to mentoring young goaltenders, and job thieves, Lack and Schneider during his Canucks tenure. His answer was a solid example of Roberto Luongo's winning, self-deprecating sense of humor:
I was with them when they came in the league and they were rookies. I tried to act the right way, and be professional on and off the ice, and hopefully they took something away from that and brought it to the way they approach the game or the way they play it.
I think it worked pretty well 'cause both of them were able to steal my job, so I was a pretty good mentor.
Hopefully, Luongo has learned his lesson by now and knows not to be quite so helpful and supportive to his incumbent Panthers backup Al Montoya.
[H/T Pass it to Bulis]