Vancouver Canucks & Luongo Break The Rules
Posted by Mother Pucker on September 30th, 2008Well the Vancouver Canucks have gone ahead and named Roberto Luongo as their captain. I feel like finishing this post right there due to it being a stunning statement on its own, but what the hell, may as well point out the obvious rule breaking by the Canucks, and throw up a picture of what his jersey, and in fact all of the Canucks captains jersey’s from now on should look like.
Anyway, down to the rules, copied and pasted straight from NHL.com:
No playing Coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain.
Did they forget that Luongo plays goal? Or is Canucks management still dreaming of Super Roberto doing everything for this team, and hoping that he will stand tall in net, yet have enough speed to race to the other end of the ice and back to contribute offensively?
Only the Captain, when invited to do so by the Referee, shall have the privilege of discussing any point relating to the interpretation of rules. Any Captain or player who comes off the bench and makes any protest or intervention with the Officials for any purpose shall be assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct under Rule 41(b) – Abuse of Officials.
So what happens on nights when they actually sit the only reason this team wins? Will he be able to jump over the boards to dispute something or just have a friendly chat with the refs? No. Will they name a backup captain to take the C from him for those 6 or 7 games he won’t play this season? I doubt that Mitchell or Ohlund, either of which should have been named captain, will wan’t to jump on that looser wagon.
Yeah… leave it to the Canucks to stir shit up… I still can’t believe they did this… or better yet… why I am still a Canucks fan… sheesh.
I have to agree that this looks like a move made simply to cause controversy. I know you have a young team, Vancouver, but are you seriously telling me that Bob-o was your best candidate? How did Pavol Demitra feel when that was announced? Or the Sedin twins? (Were they like Lay’s potato chips and you couldn’t have just one?)
The rule is in place (I should stop the sentence there and let it be at that) because goaltenders cannot go and be a part of every discussion that needs to happen when there’s a dispute over penalties or goals or what have you. Half the time (or more if the team is good), the play is away from the goaltender in question. How will he weigh in on the situation?? Even the D-men are at the blue line. Goaltenders are leaders in the locker room the same way that veterans are leaders without the Captaincy. This move does a disservice to the more talented and more “Leader-type” goaltenders that came before Luongo.
Didn’t mean to ramble so long! Sorry for the verbal vomiting.
This is a stunt…there is nothing to say that they can’t have a co-captain who will be able to discuss plays/calls with the refs. This was probably done to stir up some talk in the locker room, show who was a leader etc. Nothing to really get in a tizzy about.
I agree with all three of you saying that this is a stunt. Some have suggested that this will be forgotten in a week, but who knows what will really happen. I guess this is what you have to resort to when your team tries to throw $20 million at a player and get a lone finger in the air back.