With the Canucks ousted, some idle off-season Leaf chatter: If Roberto Luongo ends up “on the market”, would you like to Leafs to take a run?

If you missed recent posts, check out:

• Results from last week's VLM NHL commentators' "poll"
• Your input on 10 NHL playoff questions

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Playoffs are inevitably revealing for a host of reasons.  Some individuals play “over their heads” –that is, they perhaps play to their actual optimum potential, perhaps invigorated by unique the competitive environment.  When this occurs, fans of the team in question naturally hope for even better things to come from the player.  However, sometimes these playoff performers can’t in fact maintain that performance level in the years to come (Joel Ward, last year’s surprising playoff sensation with the Predators, now with the Capitals, may be an example of this phenomenon…).

Quite often, though, from an overall team perspective, this is the time of year when flaws become apparent, some subtle, some more obvious.  The pace is so fast, the checking so close, the determination in each stride so evident, that only the strongest, most determined—and best—teams tend to survive.  Everyone is giving their all but even that is sometimes not enough.  Only one team can advance.

It’s also a time when goaltending typically plays a huge role.  Oh, I know in the past few years we’ve started to think that you maybe don’t need a big-time, big-name goalie to capture a championship.  But I’m not sure that’s true, unless you have a team that is simply so much better than everyone else.  And in this day and age, that just doesn’t happen much any more.  The cap has, in all likelihood, finally killed any thoughts of another "dynasty" era and has instead brought us eternal parity, which I realize some people like.

Yes, goaltending is almost always the difference-maker.  And it almost always has been.  When I was just a toddler in the mid and late 1950s, Jacques Plante in Montreal was the man.  Plante (pictured above left in a great old late 1950s photo with Montreal teammates Bob Turner and Donnie Marshall on the far left helping out...) helped backstop the Habs to five consecutive Stanley Cups.  That was a great team, of course, maybe the best collection of talent of any team in any era.  (It was either that squad or the mid and later ‘70s Habs, in my view…)

In the ‘60s, Glenn Hall, longtime Maple Leaf legend Johnny Bower (right) and Gump Worsley, Hall-of-Famers all, captured every single Cup won- shared between the Hawks, Leafs and Habs.  (For Leaf fans, Bower was the vital cog in all four of those 1960s Stanley Cup wins, though ironically, he was only between the pipes in the Cup-clinching game twice in those four championship seasons.)

In the ‘70s, one could argue that Eddie Johnston and Gerry Cheevers in Boston were not “all-time” (though certainly highly competent) ‘keepers when they won two Cups with the Bruins.  But Ken Dryden and Bernie Parent, both remarkable goaltenders, shared all the other Cups in that decade.  Both were well-deserving Hall-of-Famers.

In the early ‘80s it was Billy Smith on Long Island, the backbone of those four Islander Cups in succession.  Then Grant Fuhr stood tall during all those Edmonton championship run.  In the ‘90s, Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy helped capture the most important hardware of all for Jersey and Colorado.  (Lefty Tom Barrasso also won two Cups in a row in goal for the Penguins, when he was on top of his game.)  Detroit has spread out four Cup wins over the past fifteen seasons, and while critics suggest they didn’t have great goaltending, I think it’s hard to argue against Mike Vernon, or Hasek or even Chris Osgood being significant contributors.

In any event, I guess that’s my long-winded way of saying I believe that goaltending still matters—a lot.   And when it comes to the Leafs and their current state of affairs, well, folks have been kind of campaigning in Leafworld for a veteran ‘keeper, someone who can come in and steady the ship, as it were, until the James Reimer we figured we knew re-surfaces healthy and confident in the (hopefully) foreseeable future.

It may be that some Leaf supporters would be happy to wait for Scrivens or one of the other promising Marlie goaltenders to step up at camp next fall.  Others like the idea of a modest UFA signing like Josh Harding.  I may be as well, though I sense most Leaf backers, despite being somewhat numbed by almost a decade without a single playoff series victory, still kind of long for a bigger "play" here- you know, someone like an Eddie Belfour (who won it all with Dallas in ’99) or Curtis Joseph, an all-time favorite Leaf goalie for many Leaf loyalists.

That kind of goaltending tends to get you places, including in the playoffs.

In any event, when I look at what the first round has “revealed” in the spring of 2012, it is, for me, simply this: not that many NHL teams who are in the mix of serious contenders at the moment  really need a goalie badly, though some do.  The same applies to non-playoff teams.  Some would like an upgrade.  Others are pretty solid in goal.

Of the teams still playing, Ottawa seems satisfied with Anderson (why wouldn't they be, eh?) and the young guys (two of them, actually) they have by the ready.  Washington must be captivated by young Holtby, though we’ve seen this movie with other young goalies in the past who didn’t necessarily stay the course over time.  But he's been awfully impressive in the playoffs so far.  The Rangers and Bruins couldn’t be happier in goal.  I know people have been pointing at Fleury in Pittsburgh, but the guy has been mostly brilliant in recent years, and that includes a well-earned Stanley Cup.  So he’s the man in Pittsburgh going forward, despite their early elimination this spring.

Now, New Jersey will soon have a need, assuming Brodeur finally steps aside at some point.  Philadelphia spent a ton thinking (hoping?) Bryzgalov would solve a 20-year old matter of negligence and mismanagement. (Some good teams were somewhat wasted there under Bobby Clarke because they did not have elite playoff goaltending…).  I'm not convinced Bryzgalov is the answer, but I guess we'll see as the playoffs move forward.

Of the non-playoff teams in the East, Buffalo, Winnipeg, Montreal and Carolina already have top-flight netminding.

Out west, Chicago has shown vulnerability in net during these playoffs, and they may be looking for answers this summer.  I wonder if Detroit really sees Jimmy Howard as their long-term solution.  But of the contenders, my guess is Vancouver is in the most confusing spot.  As in, what do they do with Luongo, since Schneider emerged as the new “go-to”, number-one guy against the Kings?  (He is a younger, much more cost-effective presence in goal, as well, without the attendant negative buzz that seems to accompany Luongo every year at this time…)

It’s all idle speculation, but if Luongo does become “available” this summer, which NHL teams would be serious about acquiring him?

Would Leaf fans have an interested in a very, very high-priced goalie with a great regular-season pedigree—and a long-term contract that would likely be an albatross for quite a number of years yet?  More importantly, does Leaf management even start to consider a phone call to Mike Gillis in Vancouver, or do they wait for him to make the first move?  Can Vancouver move forward with two number-one quality goaltenders in the same dressing?  I doubt it.  They need to make a move.

I've discussed my concerns here before (and here as well) about Luongo's inability to be consistently outstanding at playoff time.  I expect a guy who demanded to be paid like the best goalie in the world, to play like the best goalie in the world when it matters most- and that's in the playoffs.

Again, as I mentioned above, there are other NHL teams with goaltending needs, or at least who might be seeking an upgrade of sorts.  Edmonton, Columbus, the Islanders, Florida and the aforementioned Hawks and Flyers are likely in that category, but I wonder if anyone wants to pay any goalie the kind of dollars and term that Luongo has to be paid for the next decade.

When it comes to the Leafs, where do you stand?  Do you want him?  If so, at what cost?