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All Luongo
by Paul on 12/04/07 at 03:31 PM ET
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Roberto Luongo took part in an NHL tele-conference today.
Q. There was a drastic difference in play from October to November. Could you explain some of the changes that may have happened, some of the changes in mentality or in certain X’s and O’s that helped you turn things around a little bit.
ROBERTO LUONGO: Well, I think it’s a bit of both. First of all, we lost two of our top defensemen the first game in November when Kevin and Sami Salo went down. So I think that was pretty much rock bottom for us. As a team we really decided to regroup and realized that, if we’re going to win some games from now on, we’re going to have to work hard, but at the same time we’re going to have to work smart. We adjusted a couple things with our system as far as our forecheck and play in our own zone. Since then it’s really been going well for us.
Q. A lot of it comes back on you. What were the differences for you from October? We got accustomed to seeing how good you had been and that was a rocky start. Did it take you a while to get going this year?
ROBERTO LUONGO: I felt exactly the same way as I did in October, to be honest with you. I felt comfortable since the first game of the year. I was confident the whole time. I felt that I was moving well. Compared to last year, where I felt I really was struggling at the beginning, this year was a bit weird for me because I didn’t feel like I was letting in bad goals and stuff like that, but at the same time the results were not there.
So personally it was just a matter of keep doing what I was doing, working hard in practice, making sure that once we got the ball rolling that I was ready to go.
Q. You mentioned the injuries on the defense corps. How tough has it been for you personally to adjust to all the uncertainty on the blueline this year?
ROBERTO LUONGO: Well, I mean, it’s weird because once our two best defensemen, two of our top four best defensemen, were out of the lineup, things kind of worked out better for us. It was kind of a blessing in disguise in a way for our team. At the same time everybody knows the system. We all know what type of game we play. As long as the communication is open between me and my defensemen, things go pretty smoothly out there.
Q. Another strange thing with the team this year is you have been wildly successful against your own division but struggling against other teams. What is it about playing those division opponents that has allowed you to be successful against them this year?
ROBERTO LUONGO: They’re all high-intensity games to begin with. Every team in our division is a good team. Everybody’s got a chance to win the division. We know all those games are of high importance. For some reason we play well against them. We just have to make sure that on a nightly basis, when we do play a divisional team, we’re ready to play.
Q. Last week we were down at the Board of Governors meetings and Paul Kelley addressed the gathering and made a couple of points about things that players would consider looking at. One was to increase the schedule to 84 games and another was to look at possible reduction in the size of goalie equipment, provided they could be adopted safely. What is your reaction about that?
ROBERTO LUONGO: For the 84-game schedule, I think it involved having a game home and away against the other conference, which I think guys would enjoy, to be able to go in every city every year and play against every team. Home and away is something that would interest most guys, I would assume. I mean, I can’t speak for everybody. At the same time, that would involve less exhibition games. I think it’s interesting.
For the equipment, I’m not sure what exactly—which part of the equipment they want to reduce. As long as it’s nothing that jeopardizes the safety of the goaltender, those are things we can look at.
Q. It’s interesting that the three stars of the week this week are all goaltenders. Goal scoring coming out of the lockout is down a goal a game. Looks like you have taken over the game again. Do you have that sense that all the attempts at increasing scoring have failed because you guys are stopping a lot of pucks?
ROBERTO LUONGO: I mean, goalies are like a quarterback in football: you need to have a good player at that position to be successful. A lot of the time the focus of the game is going to come down to the goaltender.
I’ve said it a hundred times before: if you want to increase scoring, just open up the game more and there will be more scoring chances and there will be more goals. That’s how you increase scoring.
Q. The Board of Governors said they would leave the game alone now and not be too concerned about the reduction in scoring. You mentioned possibly opening up the game a bit more. Where do you see things? Do you think the game is okay as is now? Do you think it needs to be a bit more open? Do you think there are enough chances on the ice right now?
ROBERTO LUONGO: Well, it all depends on the game. Sometimes there’s some games where there’s more open areas. But I think the game’s fine, exciting. We have shootouts. The fans love that. But at the same time I’m just a player in the NHL, and that’s not my job to decide what people want to see, you know, what’s going to happen in the future. I love the game of hockey. I think it’s exciting no matter what type of game it is. At the same time you don’t want to make changes every year and make the league look different every season.
Q. Do you think there’s a way to reduce goalie pads safely? There was already the one reduction. Do you think there’s any kind of room that you might be able to sacrifice some stuff without giving up safety?
ROBERTO LUONGO: You know, I don’t know. I mean, it’s tough to say. I don’t think pads, is an area—that it’s something that we want to touch. It’s pretty small as it is. With the knee guards and stuff, it’s already spilling out a little bit on the sides there. I don’t know, the 10 inches, how it would look. That’s up for them to judge and do some testing on and see what would happen.
Q. Do you feel less safe now in the newer pads than you did a couple years ago or are you comfortable with where they’re at right now?
ROBERTO LUONGO: I’m comfortable with the pads. The one area that concerns me a little bit is they’re talking about the gloves. I’ve never had bruises on my hands like this in the past. I’m a little afraid to think of what it would be if they would go smaller in that.
Q. In the month of October did you feel a sense a little bit more that the team was relying on you to come up with some saves rather than pushing forward and creating for themselves?
ROBERTO LUONGO: I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t think that was an issue. I think we just didn’t have it. I mean, we weren’t playing our best as a team. You know, a lot of teams went through that. I mean, you look at the first month, there were a whole bunch of teams playing around .500 for a while. I think a lot of times in the first month teams are just trying to find their way. Good thing for us is we found that, you know, in November, compared to last year where it took us after the Christmas break to get our game going.
Q. You have Ian Clark there. What is the relationship you have and what kind of conversations do you two have? I think every team has the goalie consultant there. What is the benefit there?
ROBERTO LUONGO: We have a great relationship. He’s not there all the time. He’s there maybe 10 days a month, something like that max. When he’s there, we work every day. We do some alone time, work on little aspects of my game that I want to improve, that he thinks I can improve on, just make sure we brush up on some things. We talk about obviously the game and what I can do to be better on a nightly basis. That’s the type of stuff you want to hear when you’re a goalie. You always want to know what you can do to be better
.
Q. Do you think you would need a goalie coach there on a daily basis?
ROBERTO LUONGO: Well, I mean, I don’t think I absolutely need one on a daily basis because, you know, I’ve never really had a guy there my whole career. But it is something I would enjoy. I like having somebody there that I know I can talk to at any time or ask a question about if I’m not sure about certain plays and stuff like that.
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