I'm a big fan of Lu.... but sometimes I look at the numbers and I wonder how much an all-star goalie really means these days
Flordia w/Luongo:
Between 2000/01 season and 2005/06 season with Lu between the pipes, they averaged 71.2pts per season and missed the playoffs every year.
Florida w/o Luongo:
Since Luongo left and they've had shitty goalies, Florida has averaged 88pts per season (still missed the playoffs) but that's substantially better than when Luongo was there and that's with really shitty goalies like Auld and whatnot.
So one has to wonder, between stuff like this and teams with marginal/lower salary/younger goalies winning the cup every year.... how much does an all-star calibre goalie bring to the table? I think in this day and age you just need a competent goalie and spend the rest of your money and whatnot on D-men and forwards. The era of a Patrick Roy type goalie carrying a team to the Cup is over IMO. We *just* missed with Cloutier and he was absolutely terrible under pressure.