VAN VS LACanucks' Luongo puts team first, backs Schneider

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Roberto Luongo will not mope around his teammates even though the veteran goalie's future with the Vancouver Canucks is in flux after he lost his starting job to Cory Schneider in the first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings.

"I'm a competitor," said Luongo after Canucks practice on Friday. "It's tough, but at the same time, this is about the team and I'm not going to put myself ahead of the team. We're in this together. We work hard all year to be in a position and right now I'm going to do the best I can to be ready in case I'm needed, and I'm 100 per cent behind Cory and my teammates.

"The attention needs to be focused on the Canucks and Game 5 and what needs to be done to win that game. The last thing I want to be is a distraction for my teammates."

The Canucks find themselves down 3-1 to the Kings in a NHL Western Conference quarter-final with Game 5 set for Rogers Arena on Sunday (CBC, CBCSports.ca). Luongo was in goal for the opening two losses in Vancouver, but played well enough to win.

Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault decided to go with the younger and less experienced Schneider for the two games in Los Angeles.

This led to rampant speculation that the 33-year-old Luongo will be moved this summer instead of the 26-year-old Schneider, a soon-to-be restricted free agent who would fetch more in a trade because of Luongo's restrictive contract.

Luongo has a no-trade clause and still has 10 seasons remaining on his deal that has a $5.33-million salary cap hit.

Panthers, Lightning in mix?

The early favourites to land Luongo in a trade appear to be the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

"Cory has worked extremely hard since he's been up," Luongo said. "I think, you know, he deserves what he's getting. Obviously he's going to be a top-notch goalie in this league for a long time and I'm happy for him and hopefully we can get the job done."

Luongo remarked that he had no resentment towards Vigneault since he made his difficult decision, a verdict that wasn't an easy one for the Canucks coach.

"It's not a cut and dry decision," Vigneault said. "I don't want to get into the reasons why I made that call. But at the end of the day, we've got two great goaltenders, two quality individuals, two guys that obviously want to play, one that has all the records that a Canuck goaltender can have.

"He been here a real long time, a real solid individual, but as a coach you've got to do what you feel is best for that game, for the team, and that's what I felt was the best for us in the last game."

Luongo is in his sixth season with the Canucks and has had some turbulent times in the past year due to his inconsistent play in the 2011 playoffs. He was asked if he has developed a thick skin playing in Vancouver.

"You mean in the last five minutes or six seasons," he joked in his scrum with reporters. "I'm much better than when I got here."

Schneider is a media darling in Vancouver. He's articulate, polite and always has time for reporters. He also is a popular teammate.

Stitched inside the cuff of his blocker are the words, "Don't fear failure. Compete 100%. Enjoy the process. Play for others." He uses these words of wisdom to stay focused before and during games.

He certainly was focused in Games 3 and 4. His .969 save percentage and 1.02 goals-against average is tops in the league in the playoffs.

Schneider has outplayed his Kings counterpart Jonathan Quick and has gained confidence from his play in the regular season, when Vigneault started him over Luongo in key games in Boston and Chicago.

Schneider was asked about all the Luongo speculation, too.

"I don't have any thoughts," he said. "I don't read the paper. I'm not going to speculate on next summer or next season. We still have a season to play. We still have a game to play. I don't know what everyone's talking about and I think the focus should be on Game 5, not on what's going after the season."

Series odds and ends

Mason Raymond was demoted to the fourth line at Canucks practice on Friday. He skated alongside Manny Maholtra and Dale Weise. The other top three lines were similar to the way Game 4 finished in Los Angeles on Wednesday: Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-David Booth; Maxim Lapierre-Ryan Kesler-Alex Burrows; Chris Higgins-Sami Pahlsson-Jannik Hansen ... Start time for Game 5 on Sunday has yet to be determined by the NHL. But it appears it will either be late afternoon or early evening local time in Vancouver ... After two days of skating, Kings fourth-liner Kyle Clifford did not skate on Friday. He suffered a head injury when he was hit by Canucks forward Byron Bitz in the series opener on Apr. 11. Bitz was suspended two games.

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