Will Roberto Luongo Bounce Back?

After having the worst season since his rookie year statistically, the big question in Vancouver is "Can Luongo lead this team to a Stanley Cup?". The real question, in my view, is why he had such a bad year in the first place. Last season his goalie coach was on a part time basis, so much so that when you heard Ian Clark was in town helping Luongo, you knew he was going to be the Luongo the Canucks expect - a brick wall. With a new full time goalie coach, Luongo should have a more consistant year at the very least.

 The single biggest reason for his statistical drop? The style the Canucks play, and the lack of quality defensemen (due to injury) allowed high quality shots to get through to Luongo, resulting in more goals scored. Combine this with a lack of consistancy due to a part time goalie coach and I think it's obvious why he seemed to struggle from time to time last season. The re-tooled defense should help, not because of skill (honestly I do believe Mitchell and Salo are more talented than Hamhuis and Ballard), but because of durability. Statistically, Luongo has a trend. Here are his career stats:

YEAR  TEA  GP  GS  MIN   W   L    T  OL  GA   GAA    SA       SV     SV%  SO
99/00    NYI   24   20   1292    7    14   1   0      70    3.25     730     660    .904    1
00/01    FLA   47   41   2628   12   24   7   0     107   2.44    1333   1226   .920    5
01/02    FLA   58   56   3030   16   33   4   0     140   2.77    1653   1513   .915    4
02/03    FLA   65   61   3627   20   34   7   0     164   2.71    2011   1847   .918    6
03/04    FLA   72   72   4252   25   33   14 0     172   2.43    2475   2303   .931    7
05/06    FLA   75   73   4305   35   30   0   9     213   2.97    2488   2275   .914    4
06/07    VAN  76   75   4490   47   22   0   6     171   2.28    2169   1998   .921    5
07/08    VAN  73   73   4233   35   29   0   9     168   2.38    2029   1861   .917    6
08/09    VAN  54   54   3181   33   13   0   7     124   2.34    1542   1418   .920    9
09/10    VAN  68   67   3899   40   22   0   4     167   2.57    1915   1748   .913    4
CAREER       612 592 34937 270 254 33 35   1496 2.57   18345 16849  .918    51 

He's only had 2 consecutive years where his stats rose, from 2002-2003 through 2003-2004. He trends from high, to low, back to high, etc. Last year was a trend down year, history tells us this year will be his 'up' year. All that matters will be his performance in the playoffs in the end, but if he has a strong season, one would hope that it would carry over to the playoffs.