Lotta people think something's wrong with his back, they say he injured himself in one of the earlier playoff games.
But for Roberto Luongo, that ain't nothin' compared to this.
The Chicago Blackhawks have gotten into Luongo's head.
This is from a story in a Canadian paper, thestar.com:
"Local sports psychologist Paul Dennis, the former Maple Leafs coach who teaches the subject at both Toronto and York Universities, said the beleaguered netminder must focus on the “challenge and thrill” of playing a Game 7 and avoid thinking about the pressure he is under.
“He might be thinking about, ‘my poor record against Chicago, what are my teammates thinking about me, what are the coaches and management thinking about me, am I letting everybody down?’” said Dennis.
“If he is in fact thinking those thoughts, he’s going to implode. What’s he’s doing is bringing tension to an already tense situation. That’s very unhealthy. It’s not going to help his game. He will have trouble sleeping. His sleep patterns will be off. His diet will be different. If he’s beating himself up mentally, he’ll feel drained. He’ll feel tired, he’ll feel lethargic, even though he’s in great shape.”
Good God!
How would that make you feel if you were Luongo?
You know the story - the Canucks won the first 3 games, series is over, right?
But in the last 3 games, the Hawks have scored 16 goals to Vancouver's 5, and along the way Luongo got yanked in games 4 and 5, and then sat for game 6 until Cory Schneider did complete cheerleader splits and had to be helped off the ice (I think they're calling it "cramps" in Canada, but I'm tellin' you that guy shouldn't be allowed to walk for days).
So you gotta stay up late tonight and see what happens.
It's been very physical, and a ton of fun to watch.
At 7 you can start with the Bulls squashing out the Pacers, or see another dreary/cold/wet Cubs game with poor James Russell starting again.
We went last night, and in the first you thought man do the Cubs have Esmil Rogers' number.
Darwin Barney got his first homer, a 2-run shot into the left field basket, and we were 10 rows behind the Cubs dugout so it was fantastic to see the joy on his face when he came back to the dugout.
I'm sure everyone's gonna be talking about Castro's triple-E inning, and all I gotta say is the conditions absolutely sucked and he's our kid so cut him some slack.
Kosuke Fukudome went 5 for 5, just smacking the ball wherever the pitch told him to.
If he lives up to his reputation, we've got about 4 more days of that and then...well nevermind.
The Cubs lost 5-3.
Whatever.
Here are some shots I took with my i-phone and some camera app with weirdly cool filters:
Nobody was in back of Bernie's. Had a lonely brat anyway.
The sign. Pretty cool filter, eh?
Here's Darwin Barney rounding 2nd after his 2-run homer in the first.
Poor winless Matt Garza throws.
Barney bats.
Reed Johnson steps up to the plate.
