Luongo Starts For Team Canada Against Norway

Team Canada’s Head Coach Mike Babcock confirmed on Monday that Canucks goaltender, Roberto Luongo, would get the start against Team Norway on Tuesday night. Babcock made it clear, however, that Martin Brodeur would get the nod against Switzerland on Thursday.

“This is what I thought: Lou is from here and he was going to play in one of them, and Marty has played a ton of hockey so this buys him a little time,” Babcock said. “We talked about it and that’s what we came up with.”

What does this move mean for Team Canada? Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy thinks Yzerman and Babcock want to establish Roberto’s confidence in front of his hometown crowd, and I tend to agree – Luongo could use an easy prelim game to get prepared for more challenging teams, if he’s called upon later in the tournament. I think Babcock is wise to play the field in the early games, because he’s got such a wealth of talent in net, and if one of his goaltenders falters in the preliminary round, he can easily switch out starters. Often, it’s not the ‘best’ keepers that win Gold; sometimes, it’s just the goalie that got hot at the right time.

Not everyone is getting behind Babcock’s decision, however:

“But the courtesy extended by coach Mike Babcock to the home standing Luongo may not really be in his best interests when you break it down, particularly when you consider that there’s a good chance he won’t see a decent scoring opportunity.

After all, as much as Babcock tried pumping the Norway tires — reminding everyone that Canada barely beat them, 2-1, at the 2008 IIHFworld championship — you also have to remember that Norway and the UBC Thunderbirds were tied 1-1 after two periods in an exhibition game last week. Granted, this team featuring 11 players from the Swedish Elite League did go on to a 4-1 win and they were jet-lagged, while the Thunderbirds had a couple of key players missing because they were writing midterm exams. ” {The Guardian}

In short, some believe that Norway won’t be a legitmate challenge for Luongo (or Team Canada, for that matter), and that it’ll hurt Lou down the road. Norway probably won’t make much noise this tournament, but Luongo isn’t going to play down to their level – he’s a professional, and one of the best keepers in the world. If anything, Team Canada couldn’t have asked for a better set of goaltenders, and now isn’t the time to start criticizing them.