Pass it to Comics is a regular collaboration between PITB and cartoonist Chloe Ezra, whose Tumblr page, Blue Soup, is a must-follow for any Canuck fan with an appreciation for quirk. Today, Roberto Luongo is the victim of a misunderstanding.

Just three days ago, Roberto Luongo indicated that he would be willing to waive his no trade clause, if he was asked to. I thought this was a mature, magnanimous response that was a further indication of his professionalism, but didn’t think much else would come of it. It was good to know that he wouldn’t hold the team hostage if they found the right deal, but to me it didn’t mean all that much.

It didn’t mean that Gillis had asked him to waive his no trade clause, nor did it mean that Gillis would ask him to do so. I certainly didn’t think it meant that Luongo himself would ask for a trade.

According to reports, however, that’s exactly what he did. Nick Kypreos reported that Luongo said in his exit meeting that he wanted out, while James Duthie and Dan Murphy started tweeting teams that were on Luongo’s list of eligible bachelors. It was a startling revelation that Mike Gillis denied, albeit weakly. So, unless the reports are erroneous or some sort of ploy, it seems that we already have the answer as to which of the Canucks’ two very good goaltenders will be traded.

But I have to admit that I do have one big concern about keeping Cory Schneider rather than Luongo. The issue is fairly simple: there have been a lot of young goaltenders in the NHL that have experienced tremendous success in their first full season in the league, then faltered badly afterwards.

Alain Vigneault announced this morning what everyone already expected: Cory Schneider will start in the Canucks’ must-win game four in Los Angeles. While he faced fewer shots in Sunday’s game three than Roberto Luongo faced in games one or two, the fact remains that Schneider allowed just one goal, played solid, and deserves the chance to repeat his performance.

I’m thrilled for Schneider, who has had a phenomenal season, finishing second in the league in save percentage and third in goals against average, with a 20-8-1 record. He’s hard-working, has a great personality, and has been an exceptional teammate, so it’s great to see him rewarded. At least, it’s mostly great.

For the same reason that it’s been hard to enjoy his success this season, it’s hard to enjoy seeing him rewarded, because every success for Schneider has been treated like a failure for Luongo.

Now, despite plenty of convincing evidence, we can’t say for certain that @strombone1 is the Twitter account of one Roberto Luongo, but this no doubt how the Canucks’ netminder prefers it. Considering the way Canuck fans treat him these days, not to mention the way they chased Mike Duco off Twitter, or the horrible, misogynistic garbage they said to Theo Fleury and, more recently, Brittany Carnegie, you can understand why Luongo might choose to keep his Twitter account shrouded in mystery.

It’s also just funnier that way, and Luongo knows it.

Despite months of superb goaltending, some fans just don’t seem willing to cut Roberto Luongo any slack. His (and the team’s) rough start against the Sabres on Saturday reignited the old goaltender debate in some corners. Heck, it didn’t even take a bad start by Luongo for the Team 1040 to ask which goaltender should get the start in the playoffs in their daily poll question just over a week ago.

On Saturday I wrote a post about how our perception of players changes the more we see them. Because Luongo gets more starts than Schneider and has been playing in Vancouver for a longer period of time, Canucks fans are far more aware of his flaws than they are of Schneider’s. But that argument likely won’t sway everyone, which means it’s time for something more flashy and visually stimulating.

It’s time for a fan video. Fortunately for us, KingOfTheIce71 made a great one.

One of the main reasons I love sports is that they have the power to surprise. The absurd and unexpected are almost commonplace in sports, particularly in a fast-paced and chaotic sport like hockey. Roberto Luongo provided one of those absurd and unexpected moments on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.

I expected much more fuss to be made of his incredible save on Colin Wilson, but it seems to have passed by largely unnoticed. In my mind, it’s the save of the season.

I honestly don’t have much to say about it. It was so flabbergasting a save that I can only point at it repeatedly while saying, “Look! See? Do you see it?”

Byron Bitz came one element short of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick against the Predators. Surprisingly, that missing element was a fight. Who saw that coming? Other than Alain Vigneault, of course, who started Bitz on a line with Henrik Sedin.

The leading theory was that Vigneault was sending Henrik a message by putting him on a line with the 6’5″ winger; turned out he was just trying to get Henrik going. It worked. Henrik had his first multi-point game since January 10th thanks to a couple nice plays by Bitz. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I watched this game.

Roberto Luongo debuted a new mask in Monday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers. Since the mask is meant to be paired with the Canucks’ third jersey that features their original stick-in-rink logo, it echoes the mask of former Canuck goaltender Curt Ridley.

Ridley’s mask combined four stick-in-rink logos for an eye-catching cross design. It’s a gorgeous design and with the Canucks bringing back the stick-in-rink logo it was just a matter of time before it was revisited. Thing is, Luongo’s not even the first Canuck this season to wear a Ridley-inspired mask. Cory Schneider’s been wearing one all season.

We get a lot of mileage out of Chloe Ezra here at Pass it to Bulis (such as the Pass it to Comics series, which will return in the new year, we promise). But our defense is a simple one: Chloe rules. She has a great style and great ideas, and when the two come together, well, the results tend to be pretty great.

As yet another example, we present Chloe’s completely original and completely adorable “Hanging Canuck tree things,” original creations that feature members of the Vancouver Canucks drawn hanging by their sweaters, to be strung up anywhere your heart should so choose.

It was clear that Roberto Luongo felt bad for his hometown Montreal Canadiens, who had only one win in their last six games going into their Thursday game against the Canucks, so he decided to spot them a three-goal lead. While charity in the NHL is appreciated when it’s the Sedins donating to BC Children’s Hospital or Paul Bissonnette taking homeless families to hockey games, it’s significantly less awesome when it’s helping out the already-privileged.

Fortunately, Luongo read some Ayn Rand during the second intermission and forswore charity in favour of the virtue of selfishness. I watched the Canucks come back like Dagny Taggart when I watched this game.

I was listening to a sports radio station in Toronto the other day and the question put forth by the host was simple—if you ran the Vancouver Canucks what would you do with Roberto Luongo?   I thought he was asking a rhetorical question but no he actually wanted to know.   I thought it was rather [...]

Roberto Luongo met with the media after Monday’s practice and everyone was eager to hear what he would have to say about Cory Schneider starting his sixth straight game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Luongo was unexpectedly poised and prepared, as he has frequently misspoken or said things in interviews that can be misinterpreted in the past. This time, Luongo wisely steered clear of any attempts at jokes and stuck with sincerity.

“The guy’s been working hard for two years and never said a word,” said Luongo, “so he deserves every minute that he’s getting right now and I’m one hundred percent behind him. He’s been behind me since the start and there’s no reason why I wouldn’t be behind him one hundred percent.”

If Schneider continues to play the way he has over his last four starts, Luongo might end up behind him for a while. Oddly enough, that doesn’t mean that he’s no longer the Canucks’ number one goaltender.

The latest “Cabbie Presents” from TSN features everyone’s favourite beleaguered goaltender, Roberto Luongo. Cabbie is brilliant. I’ve been a big fan of his since his days doing “Cabbie Unlimited” and “Cabbie on the Street” with The Score. The guy has an uncanny ability to put professional athletes at ease and get them to answer questions they normally wouldn’t from the mainstream media.

If you picked up yesterday’s edition of The Province, I’m obligated to advise that you bought the wrong paper. Also, you might have seen an editorial about a proposed solution to the well-publicized relationship problems between Roberto Luongo and a certain segment of the Canucks fanbase. If not, you can still read the editorial on The Province’s website. I encourage you to do so, if only to marvel at the absurdity.

This is a news editorial by “The Province”, not a columnist’s take. It represents the paper, not one particular thinker, which basically means I’m going to hold all of them responsible, particularly since it uses plural personal pronouns throughout: “Here’s our solution” and “we need a power forward.” So what’s their solution? What power forward are they targeting? Their proposal:

Trade Luongo straight up for Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Let’s ignore for the moment that it seems incredibly inappropriate for a mainstream media source to call for a trade, let alone a very specific trade. In fact, let’s not even address this as a newspaper article, especially since it barely manages to rise above the level of a hastily thrown together and ill-considered blog post. So let’s judge it at that level: as a blog post.

On a night where the Bronx cheer was reserved for incumbent Vezina Trophy finalist Roberto Luongo instead of New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist, the goalie controversy was clearly back on again (after a respite that lasted maybe two periods). Luongo, getting his second straight start for the first time this season, got plenty of support [...]

One of the major issues with analyzing Roberto Luongo statistically is that what his critics point to as his “flaws” or “issues” are difficult to measure with numbers. A player’s “issues with the mental aspects of the game” don’t show up on a boxscore, and can’t be quantified easily (though I’m about to make an cursory effort).

On the eve of the Canucks’ forty first NHL season, it will be nearly impossible to top the performance of the 40th anniversary edition. That team put up not only the greatest regular season performance in franchise history, but arguably one of the best regular seasons of any team anywhere. Don’t believe us? Well, it’s [...]

So now that the fires have stopped burning we can begin to look into the reasons behind the destruction, and analyze exactly why the fate of the hockey team invades the souls of the Vancouver populous and drives them to injure their city.

And while we had hoped this headline might apply to the Canucks’ franchise 40 year Stanley Cup drought, we are relieved that this season (the longest ever in team history) has finally come to an end. And while, upon reflection, it will become a season to celebrate, right now it’s impossible to feel anything but disappointment. [...]

After another decisive road loss during a post season that has had its share of dizzying heights and now back-breaking lows (with all apologies to Mason Raymond), the members of good ship Canuck were all heard to declare they had once again turned the page and were only thinking about game 7.  At this time [...]

So what kind of Canucks’ blog goes two days between posts with a Stanley Cup hanging in the balance?  Well, this one.  And for that we apologize.  But these are almost unprecedented times, and Friday’s game left us a little speechless.  And our weekend at Hockey Night in Canada’s “Play-On 4 on 4″ street hockey tourney had [...]

In light of the Canucks’ disastrous trip to Boston, we expect some significant line-up tweaks from the occasionally esteemed Coach Vigneault. During the last Canucks’ meltdown (the first round near suicide swoon against Chicago), we threw out some ideas for roster changes (see our April 23rd posting where we recommended reuniting Ryan Kesler and Alex [...]

Clearly, there is no easy path to the glory.  And if there is, the Canucks mostly refuse to follow it.  And when they do, they get dragged into the alley. Yes, there is plenty wrong in Canuck land right now.  Roberto Luongo seems incapable of making a big save to bail out a team that [...]

With the Canucks in full command of a series that they could just as easily be trailing two games to nothing, you have to like their chances to finish off the Bruins sooner rather than later. No doubt the Boston faithful feel that their team is most unlucky to be returning to Beantown without at least [...]

Okay, so there’s only been three.  But they’ve all been memorable and entertaining games decided on literally the game’s final play. Last night’s tilt ended in somewhat similar fashion to the Canucks’ last game one Stanley Cup Final appearance, when another Greg Adams overtime winner earned the Canucks (and mostly Kirk McLean with 52 saves) [...]