Canada benches Brodeur!! It's up to Luongo now against Germany...

Well, you asked for it, so you got it.  Luongo will be starting for Canada against Germany tomorrow, and most likely for the rest of the tourney.

Luongo to start against Germany instead of Brodeur

(http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/769848--luongo-to-start-against-germany-instead-of-brodeur)

"Coach Mike Babcock tabbed the Vancouver Canucks goaltender on Monday to take over from struggling veteran Martin Brodeur for as long as Canada can go at the 2010 Games.

Luongo said he was told of the change after Canada was beaten 5-3 by the United States in their final preliminary round game Sunday night...

Luongo started Canada’s first game of the Olympics, making 15 saves for the shutout in an easy 8-0 win over Norway, but then ceded the net to Brodeur, the NHL’s all-time leader in wins and shutouts, for the next two games."

Personally, I might have stuck with Brodeur.  Yes he screwed up a handful of times in the last game, but, I would expect that one of the best goalies of all time would come back in this next game "with a vengeance".  That's the one thing that separates the best from the rest, it's that ability to bounce back..

Anyway, I like Luongo as well.  If it had to be anyone other than Brodeur, then Luongo sounds great to me.  And being that the fans there in Vancouver are all Luongo fans, that definitely helps!  Luongo also started against Germany in the previous Olympics, and defeated them 5-1; so he already has their number.

I took the liberty of grabbing the NHL stats for the current season (from NHL.com) for Brodeur, Luongo, -and I even threw in Fleury for the hell of it!   Here they are next to each other so you can decide for yourself if it was the right move:

(http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20102ALLGAGAll&sort=wins&viewName=shutouts)

By the way, it's a tight schedule now, with Canada facing Germany tomorrow, and then hopefully facing Russia on Wednesday...

GO CANADA GO!!

--jackandcokewithalime