JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
- 19,254
- 14,574
Luongo was not great in that tournament, yes. Better than Brodeur at least. Otherwise he was generally excellent in the world championship with multiple championships, excellent when was was the WJC started on a mediocre Canadian team, excellent when he got suddenly thrown into the semi-finals of the 2004 World Cup with not so much notice.Even in the net for Canada, Luongo was shaky in important games most notable vs Slovakia and to a lesser extent Russia in 2010. Versus Russiathe lead was obviously so huge it didn't really matter.
Still don't get this idea that Luongo was this clutch goalie Red Wings would need to sacrifice depth for to win. He has never proven himself to be especially clutch. Is he a better goalie than Osgood? Obviously. Enough to off-set the differences in cap hits. Doubtful.
Pre-cap I would definitely replace Osgood with Luongo. I often argued replacing Osgood with a much better goalie which happened in '02. But in the cap era Osgoods much lower cap hit while still being a capable goalie allowed the Wings to build the type deep team they had.
I don't think that Detroit needed to sacrifice depth for goaltending. For all of his mistakes Holland at least recognized post-lockout that you pay your top forwards and defencemen and let the goaltending be something that doesn't sink you.