Olympic Odds: Canada Turning to Luongo in Net

Canada's Roberto Luongo wasn't challenged much vs. Norway. (AP Images)

Martin Brodeur is one of the best goalies in NHL history, but the pressure that the Canadian men’s hockey team is facing in these Vancouver Olympics is such that even a Hall of Famer can be benched if it might help the team. That’s exactly what Team Canada coach Mike Babcock has done to Brodeur for Tuesday’s qualification game against Germany – get Olympic odds at Bodog.

Indeed, there’s panic throughout all of Canada in the wake of Sunday night’s 5-3 loss to the Americans, in which Brodeur allowed four goals on only 22 shots. After watching tape of the game, Babcock announced Monday that he was going back to hometown hero Roberto Luongo, who started the Canadians’ Olympic opener, an 8-0 win over Norway. He then sat as Brodeur allowed two goals in a shootout win over Switzerland (stuffing all four Swiss shots in the shootout) and then Sunday’s effort against the U.S. where he clearly struggled. It should also be noted that Brodeur came into the Olympics having won just five of his past 16 games with the New Jersey Devils.

This move isn’t unprecedented. At the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Team Canada pulled Curtis Joseph after he lost the tournament opener to Sweden and inserted Brodeur, who led Canada to the gold medal. If the move is surprising at all, it’s because of Brodeur’s history of stellar efforts in big games, while Luongo really doesn’t have that on his resume.

And Canada faces an incredibly tough path to the finals should it beat Germany, which it should considering the Germans are 0-3 in this tournament and only have three total goals. Canada would face Russia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday and then potentially defending Olympic champ Sweden in the semis on Friday. The Americans, who are now the top overall seeds heading into the quarterfinals, catch a major break in that they would have to face only one team among Sweden/Russia/Canada (the three pre-tournament favorites) to win the gold.

Tuesday's other qualification games are Switzerland vs. Belarus, the Czech Republic against Latvia and Slovakia against Norway. On Wednesday, the United States will play the Switzerland/Belarus winner, Sweden will the Slovakia/Norway winner, Finland gets the Czech Republic/Latvia winner and Russia faces Canada or Germany.

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