A distinguished 19-year career as a goaltender in the NHL never led to a Stanley Cup title for Roberto Luongo. He was only one win away in 2011 while playing for the Canucks, but Luongo spent 11 of his NHL seasons with the Florida Panthers. Nowadays, the six-time All-Star serves in the Panthers’ front office. It had to be as gratifying to him as anyone in the organization that Florida brought home the Cup for the first time in franchise history.
To get the job done despite blowing a 3-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final must make it even sweeter for Luongo. Although his closest brush with the Cup came in Vancouver, he was part of a Canucks club who squandered 2-0 and 3-2 leads to the Bruins and ultimately lost Game 7. The Panthers thankfully spared Luongo another heartbreak of that variety when they beat the Oilers 2-1 and shut down Connor McDavid.
Suffice it to say, Luongo has had a long time to think about what he’d do with the Cup once he finally got his time with it. All due respect to anyone else who’s possessed the hardware — shout out to Matthew Tkachuk for taking it into the Atlantic Ocean — but Luongo is the winner of the “most creative use” superlative at least for this year, if not all-time.
The man got a full-on pasta dish served up in Lord Stanley’s Cup:
ROBERTO LUONGO IS EATING PASTA OUT OF THE STANLEY CUP 🏆🍝
(via @strombone1) pic.twitter.com/dcMpEx7Pwy
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 27, 2024
Something about the cheese grater garnish makes this even funnier. The verdict on the dish? “Pretty good.” I would hope so. If that tasted like nothing less than the sweetest victory, I’d feel bad for Luongo.
It’s got to be so emotional and overwhelming. Working so hard toward one goal and being so intimately involved with an organization for so long. The Panthers were on the verge of a historic collapse. No wonder why Luongo seemed almost at a loss for words to describe how he felt when Florida finally got it done in Game 7.
Long time coming for Roberto Luongo. 🥲 pic.twitter.com/bZGauWQUvL
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 25, 2024
Ya you did, Roberto Luongo! 😂
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(Via: @strombone1 / 🎥: @espn) pic.twitter.com/6cFcFhjmMv— JayOnSC (@JayOnSC) June 26, 2024
Luongo was such a stud back in his heyday. Those early Panthers teams he played for weren’t good. For a little context, he had a .931 save percentage in 2003-24 — best among goalies with at least 50 starts — and was still eight games below .500. Nice to see him bask in the glory of the first-ever Stanley Cup for the P’s.
Even better that he played a part in helping them get over the hump as an exec.
