Monday, October 16, 2006

The Scouting Report on Luongo

I talked to a friend of mine named Cache Harris who is a goalie coach here in Smithers, and he brought up a great point about Roberto Luongo's weakness and what needs to be done about it. We have noticed, from the shootout loss and from the breakaway goals scored on him, that Roberto gets out of position and beaten easily. This is especially true with players breaking in who are left handed. They fake a shot, freeze Luongo, go to the backhand, and lift a shot over a fallen Luongo.
Check out the clip...



Looks all too familiar doesn't it? He's been doing that all along in his career it seems. He overcommits to a faked shot and doesn't have any movement side to side.
What Cache was telling me, is that the Canucks' goalie consultant, Ian Clark should help Luongo with his balance, and especially his lateral movement. Remember how Alex Auld practiced that movement before every Canuck game? It is a quick way for a 'butterfly goaltender' to shuffle side to side and not get out of position.
From what I have been reading, it appears that Clarke already was working with Luongo in 01/02. So hopefully this time around, with more time with Clark, Luongo can work this out.
Here is an example of Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas showing positional composure on a breakaway, even though Eric Staal scored on the play.

Now imagine Luongo doing that with his super long legs and massive frame. He'd be nearly unbeatable.

1 Comments:

At October 16, 2006 at 2:19 p.m. , Blogger Sean Zandberg said...

It really does. But once he gets this down, he'll be the man!

 

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Waiting For Stanley was created in June 2006.