Sports

Hockey Night in Canada commentators leap to Roberto Luongo's defence

by Charlie Smith on March 2nd, 2014 at 3:07 PM
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      Much of the intermission commentary in the Heritage Classic has focused on Canucks head coach John Tortorella's decision to start Eddie Lack in goal.

      After the first period, Don Cherry claimed that nobody has been treated with less respect over the last 10 years than Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo.

      Cherry said part of the reason is that Luongo is a nice guy, leaving viewers with the perception that management can walk all over him.

      Following the second period, commentators Elliotte Friedman and Kevin Weekes jumped on the fans for booing the Canucks as they left the ice behind 3-2.

      They also piped up about how Luongo deserved better treatment from Vancouver fans and management.

      The Twitterverse wasn't exactly onside.

      "Dear cbc, get yourself some on air talent," declared Michael Fox of @mfoxrocks. "My tax dollars deserve better than this."

      Meanwhile, former Globe and Mail journalist and hockey fan Rod Mickleburgh tweeted: "It's easy to second guess Tortorella, I suppose, but decision not to start Lu was still terrible."

      Comments

      4 Comments

      Marty

      Mar 2, 2014 at 10:10pm

      Usually I hate listening to those CBC idiots waste my tax dollars on their rants. But today they were for once spot on!
      The way Lou has been treated is just embarrassing! I think it is going to be hard to attract top NHL players to play for the canucks with the track record current coaches and mgmt have for treating their players. First they said they would trade Lou, while making him beca backup for an entire season. Then they don't trade him and beg him to come back and once again be # 1...and now they are doing the same thing over again.
      Also those fans that were booing Lack and chanting we want Lou are idiots. It's not Lacks fault his coach is an idiot. You can't blame lack for this mess! As far as I'm concerned Mike Gillis and Torts need to go. Clean house and bring some respect back to this organization. I'm sick and tired of watching Gillis trade away young prospects, ie. Cody Hodgson, Corey Schneider, etc enough is enough!

      GD one letter away

      Mar 2, 2014 at 11:58pm

      Totally agree you are the man Marty!

      PS: Michael Samuelson had some nice parting words for van mgmt

      HabsFan in BC

      Mar 3, 2014 at 3:09pm

      I can understand Tortorella wanting to stick with the hot hand, and maybe he saw what happened in NJ when DeBoer started Brodeur rather than Schneider, who was on a roll. The difference is Schneider is not a young rookie, unlike poor Eddie Lack who was having a super season and was showing remarkable poise and confidence -- until Sunday! Two nights earlier, he was listening to the fans chant "Edd-dee edd-dee" in his strong game against Minnesota, only to have to listen to 60,000 scream boo him at the introduction and hollar "we want loooo" in the Heritage Classic after he muffed one. Now Torts has a furious #1 goalie, who has really been screwed by this team -- a rookie #2 goalie who bore the brunt of the fans' anger -- and the coach has to decide which of them to start in a couple of huge divisional games this week (against Phoenix and Dallas). Yikes!!