With eight goals scored in their first two games, the Capitals are well on their way to the explosive offensive season expected of them.
But all the firepower in the world is sometimes not enough against Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo.
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The 29-year-old has succeeded with each of the three teams he has played for during a nine-year NHL career — the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers and now Vancouver — and can quickly leave a red-hot offense shaking its head at his ability to take away scoring chances.
The Caps (1-1) will have to find a way to solve Luongo tonight when the Canucks (2-0) visit Verizon Center at 7 p.m. But that’s no easy task for a team that is 0-7-3 with two shutouts against him since the 2003-04 season.
Luongo earned one of those victories last Oct. 26, helping extend a Washington losing skid that eventually reached 15-of-18 and got head coach Glen Hanlon fired. Luongo finished with 26 saves that night as teammate Taylor Pyatt scored twice. Vancouver has won by a 3-2 score in each of the last two meetings with the Caps, the first a shootout victory in Vancouver in 2006.
Caps star forward Alex Ovechkin has had his moments against Luongo even if the franchise overall has not. Ovechkin notched a goal in each of his two games against the Canucks. But Luongo did thwart several Ovechkin chances to tie last year’s contest in the final minutes and the year before stopped Ovechkin in a shootout — although his shot actually hit the crossbar — to preserve the victory for Vancouver.
“Alex likes to shoot a lot, so I like to challenge him — take away the angle. I don’t know if that’s the reason for the success against them, but things go well against them,” Luongo told The Examiner after last year’s victory in the District. “Maybe I’m in his head a little bit.”
Luongo is so well respected in the Vancouver dressing room that when team captain Markus Naslund departed via free agency for the New York Rangers over the summer, the Canucks broke hockey tradition and designated their goalie as captain. That hadn’t happened in the NHL in 61 years. And Vancouver did it despite league rules that still state goalies can’t perform certain captain duties — like leave the crease area to speak with the referee or wear the actual “C” on his jersey. No worries, though, for Luongo, who simply leads by example. He opened the season with a 6-0 shutout of the rival Calgary Flames.
Ovechkin is coming off the 32nd multi-goal game of his career when he poached two against Chicago in a 4-2 win on Saturday. That helped the Caps put a disappointing 7-4 loss to Atlanta on Friday behind them. But they will need another strong performance from new goalie Jose Theodore, who was awful in the season-opener against Atlanta and struggled early against the Blackhawks.
Theodore eventually righted the ship, however, stopping all 11 shots he faced in the second and third periods as the Caps rallied for the win.
Vancouver has scored 11 goals in its first two games, both wins over the Flames. Twin forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin have already combined for three goals and six assists for a resurgent Canucks offense that finished 24th in goals scored last season.
