Roberto Luongo
Roberto Luongo
Roberto Luongois a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he is of Italian and Irish ancestry. He employs the butterfly style of goaltending and has previously played in the NHL for the New York Islanders and the Vancouver Canucks. Luongo is a two-time NHL Second All-Starand a winner of the William M. Jennings Trophy for backstopping his team to the lowest goals-against average in the league. He has...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth4 April 1979
CityMontreal, Canada
Every game right now for us is huge. It's fun.
We had some breakdowns. It was a tough game to be a part of.
It started out a little innocently, a couple bad bounces here or there and then guys started losing their confidence, including myself and it just escalated to bigger and bigger things. And then we got to the end of the games and guys were nervous. When you're in those kinds of situations and you don't have the confidence to do the job, most of the time it's not going to turn out your way.
It's one of my weak points, coming into a game when I didn't plan on it. But I don't think I did too badly.
They get a goal and it seems as though we get away from our game. We put our heads down or something. I've never went 12 games without winning. That's new for a lot of guys.
The game was a good workout. The last half of the first period, they were on the power play the whole 10 minutes. It was tough, but you have to battle through it.
The guys played a great game for 65 minutes. It's nice to get rewarded with two points at the end of the day.
First and foremost, we've been playing well defensively. The number of scoring chances are much lesser than the previous years I've been here.
I think a lot of guys, including myself, feel like the pressure's been lifted a little off our backs because it was getting pretty tough. It's a big win, now we have to keep going.
Roberto was a high pick (fourth overall in 1997), and he was supposed to be the franchise goaltender there, ... But it turned out good. We're both happy.
From my standpoint it's disappointing. I think I could have played a little better.
Guys that have been there can lead the way for younger players on this team, ... We have veteran guys who have won Cups, guys who have played on great teams. They know what it takes and know what it takes to put pucks in the net. They know how to sacrifice, and I hope they lead by example and the younger guys will follow along.
To go 9-for-9 in my career, there has to be a little luck involved. So I can thank the Lord when I make the save. I know (Kovalev) has great hands, so I just wanted to be as patient as possible on him and wait until the last second to make a play.
We need two points at this point of the year. One point is not going to cut it anymore.