GRAND ACHIEVEMENT
Panthers goalie Luongo hailed after 1,000th NHL game.
Roberto Luongo has eclipsed yet another career milestone.
When the 39-year-old goaltender took the ice Thursday night against Boston, Luongo became just the third goaltender inNHLhistory to play in1,000 games, joining the legendaryMartin Brodeur and Patrick Roy.
Luongo has played for three teams in his career, but has spent the most time in Florida during two separate stints with the Panthers. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in games played by a goalie, wins, losses, shutouts, shots faced, saves and goals allowed.
As Luongo hit the 1,000-game threshold, the South Florida Sun Sentinel spoke to dozens of people in his life— family, friends, former and current teammates and coaches, and more— to deliver stories you’ve never heard before, and perhaps another look at ones you have.
First a forward
Leo Luongo, brother: “Hewas a forward and actually couldn’t skate verywell, but he had like 50 goals. He got cut andmymomwas telling me this story yesterday, he got cut and hewanted to quit, actually. He’s like they cut him for another kid whowas the son of the coach, actually. He said ‘If hockey’s like this with coaches like this, I’d rather not play anymore.’ Mymomconvinced him to stay with it and keep playing. He alwayswanted to be a goalie, and the goalie quit
and he ended up going in net. In his first game, I think he had a shutout. He snowballed fromthere.” PeterWorrell, former
Panthers forward: “When we played him in junior, I was on a powerhouse team and hewas on not so good of a team. In all fairness, I used to light him up. But even then, when hewas a 16-year-old goalie, you go ‘Holy crap, this kid is special.’ Whenwe traded for him, originally Iwas a little bit disappointed. He got traded forMark Parrish, whowas one ofmy good friends and whowas really successful for us. But it probably took one practice to realize ‘I thinkwe robbed the Islanders here. We got something pretty good here.’”