Quote:
Originally Posted by Igottago
I lived in Vancouver for many of Luongo's prime years there...the fanbase and media was absolutely ruthless on the guy, considering he was probably their all time best goalie. The whole atmosphere surrounding that team is a circus.
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This is a little bit revisionist. There were periods where the entire world appeared to be anti-Luongo, this board and Van fans and Van media and Canadian media included.
From 2006 until the end of the 2008 season, he was absolutely what you would call a fan-favourite. Everyone loved him. However, the collapse at the end of the 2008 season where the nucks missed the playoffs was largely put on him and then naming him captain afterwards, combined with his then weird approach to media and fans, kind of soured him with the fans. He was still obviously an amazing goalie but the organization put him into this awkward position where he was expected to be the face of the franchise and he didn't really seem to want that. It would be like if the Flames had made Kipper the face of the franchise - he was happier and seemed to thrive out of the spotlight not saying much. Luongo strugged with being that face, and combined with the playoff collapses, it was a tough thing for the fans. This kind of culminated in 2011 with the Boston performances and his awkward interviews and coming across as detached from the reality of it all.
2011 onwards, especially with how he handled himself with the Schneider 1A/1B situation, being relegated to backup in the playoffs, trying to be traded but not being able to, still being really humble and really finding a way to connect with people, I'd say his image and the fanbase's treatment of him improved dramatically. I haven't read many stories out of Van this year critical of Luongo - they've been squarely targetting Gillis and the rest of coaching/management (which started back with AV) for how they handled it all.
Not to say the Van fanbase isn't disimilar from that of the Leafs or Canadiens - brutal when a player isn't performing, bipolar at the best of times, laregely uninformed except what they hear in passing from their friends. Just that I wouldn't say it was always ruthless to Luongo, and if anything, he's probably one of the more popular people on that team now (which can be called bandwagony if you want, as his image improved pretty much with everyone at the same time).
Also, anyone relying of HF boards as a sample of any hockey fanbase is gonna have a bad time.
Also, anyone giving Gillis any credit for this move is insane. You have to look at the whole, and the whole is that he turned two franchise goalies into zero proven franchise players. That should be insta-fired.