In the wake of the Canucks' Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, fans in Vancouver will start laying blame on different players for not getting the job done against the Boston Bruins.
While Canuck players didn't point any fingers post-game, the NHL on TSN panel said there were players that will get more of the blame than others.
“When you get to Game 7 of a Stanley Cup championship, you need your big guys to come up large,” TSN hockey analyst Ray Ferraro said. “Kesler came up with nothing. The Sedins were both minus four, Luongo gave up three goals, and it was curtains.”
"People are going to point the finger at Luongo - he gives up three goals on 10 shots in this game," said TSN hockey analyst Bob McKenzie.
"He's certainly not going to get the benefit of the doubt because of the debacle in Boston in Game 6 where he gave up three goals on eight shots and the game got completely away from him on a night when Vancouver could have clinched the Stanley Cup. Back-to-back [poor] games, it's going to be difficult for Roberto Luongo to dodge the bullet on that one."
"And fair enough. He's a marquee goaltender, he makes a lot of money, they've got him signed to a long contract, and the expectation is that he needs to be better."
"The play on the second goal starts with a 60-foot wrist shot and though Luongo has never been a great catcher of the puck - he's been a blocker - you've got to be able to catch this puck so the play is dead," said Ferraro. "Seidenberg takes a long wrist shot and it hits Luongo right in the Orca Bay crest, falls in front and Marchand gets to keep the puck alive and does great work to earn a goal."
"Luongo was not able to get out of his own way and after the Game 6 debacle; you know this was going to be a challenge for him. In this game he wasn't worse than average, but it wasn't good enough."
And while Luongo will certainly be the biggest lightning rod for criticism in Vancouver, McKenzie said that the Canucks lack of offense is also to blame for the Canucks Stanley Cup failure.
"The flip side of that is how good would [Luongo] have had to be to win Game 7? He can't go out and score goals. There is going to be a double-barreled attack on the Vancouver Canucks after Game 7."
"Roberto Luongo at one end, and it will be the twins - Daniel and Henrik Sedin - that take the bullet on the other end, because they simply didn't get the job done offensively. These are back-to-back scoring champions - Henrik last year and Daniel this year - and this is the highest scoring team in the National Hockey League and they scored the fewest goals ever in the Stanley Cup Final."
But while Ferraro said many players will get blamed - whether deservedly or not - they weren't the only reason for the team losing in Game 7.
"I think Vancouver showed up. They had a nice start to the game," said Ferraro. "But I think the Bruins played a virtually perfect road game, and on the stage of Game 7 I would say it was perfect."
