Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings 10-15-10

Vancouver Canucks (L) 1 vs. LA Kings (W) 4


"100% of shots not taken, don't score"

This is one of that variations of a quote by Wayne Gretzky, and it couldn't be more true than in this game.  What most shooters don't understand is that it is very hard to stop every shot.  The puck is small and the net is big and pucks bounce off of things in weird ways.  In the breakdown of Roberto Luongo's performance this will become very clear.  Also you will see out stats don't tell the whole story of a players performance.

Roberto Luongo
Goals (4) Shots (19) Saves (15) Save % (.789)

If you just look at Luongo's stat line you would think that he played a horrible game and really let his team down.  To a certain extend he did but in looking at the goals individually you will see a different picture start to take place.

The Kings first goal was scored just a couple of minutes in to the game when Jack Johnson made a heads up play in taking a shot pass towards the front of the net.  Johnson had his head up all the way and could see he didn't have a clear shot on goal but he had traffic just in front of it, so he shot for the traffic.  You can see in the video that Jarret Stoll managed to get his foot out just enough for the puck to glance off of his toe and redirect into the far side of the net.

You can clearly see that there is nothing that Luongo could have done to stop that from going in.

The second goal is more of the same for Luongo, the Kings do a nice job of breaking out of their zone and going on the attack.  The puck is mishandled a couple of times and the Kings were fortunate to keep recovering it.  Justin Williams tries to get a good shot of on Luongo but you can see in the slow motion on the replay that the puck he shot would have gone wide but it hit the skate of the Canucks defenseman and redirected right through Luongos legs.

On this play Luongo did exactly what he was suppose to do.  He read where the shot was going, kicked his leg out and moved his goal stick to redirect the puck into the corner.  The problem was that Bieksa the defenseman redirected the puck right through Luongos legs.  Two goals down and still nothing the goalie can do.

The third goal the Kings scored was just pretty.  Two defenseman got turned inside out by Anze Kopitar who laid a perfect pass on Dustin Brown's stick for a wide open net.

The only real issue I have with Luongo on this goal is that he was a little too aggressive in following Kopitar and because of this he lost his angle a little bit.  However since neither of his defenseman took away the passing lane to Dustin Brown the fault is not all his and 9 times of 10 his aggressiveness partnered with his defensemen taking away the pass with result in no goal.

The fourth and final Kings goal was another goal where Luongo was in the right position doing exactly what he should be doing.  Dustin Brown got a pass from below the goal line while standing at the top of the crease.  If Brown gets a good solid shot off then Luongo makes the save.  Instead Brown partially fans on the shot and the puck flutters straight up and off of Luongos shoulder and in to the net.

There you have it four goals allowed, a horrible stat line for a goalie and only one of the goals could you argue that he had a chance at stopping.


Jonathan Quick
Goals (1) Shots (26) Saves (25) Save % (.962)

Quick has had a much better start to this season allowing only one goal a game and keeping his save percentage in the mid .900's.  Much of this improvement is most likely caused by the fact that he is playing a calmer style than he did last year.  Also it should be noted that both Quick and his defensemen are doing a much better job on not allowing follow up opportunities on rebounds.  This save shows a bit of both with Quick not overreacting to the wraparound chance and the puck not squirting loose to the other team like it did last year.

Much like the Kopitar, Brown goal, the goal that Quick allowed to the Sedin brothers is more about a great play by the forwards than about a fault in the goaltenders play. 

You can see the tape to tape cross ice pass, not much for Quick to do in that situation.  The one thing i would coach him up on that could have helped there is to lead with your stick on the ice.  He lead with his stick but he tried to keep his body as tall as possible anticipating the high shot from Sedin.  Doing this caused him to keep his stick off the ice and the puck slides right underneath it.  Just a little practice with moving side to side like that with his stick down should help turn that from a great goal to a spectacular save.