Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Despite a rather large outcry from the “hockey establishment” (and that can mean media, management, players, starry-eyed fans..actually, really any hockey sycophant, and there are many up here north-of-the-border), I think it’s great that the Vancouver Canucks have named All-World goaltender Roberto Luongo as their captain.

About time a team took this step.  What took so long?

Apparently there have been almost a half-dozen goalie captains in league history.  Most of us know that Hall-of-Famer Bill Durnan was captain of the Montreal Canadiens during the 1947-48 season, but lost that distinction when opposing teams complained about length of time it took for Durnan to skate out to the officials, and beef about a myriad of calls.  It seems the netminder was giving his team a TV timeout decades before it’s actual implementation.  Butch Bouchard would wear the C for Montreal the following season.

No doubt those teams had a legitimate point, but in this age of seemingly every player whining to the referee, what harm would there be in allowing a goaltender to wear the C?

As I understood it, the Captain or Alternate Captain was assigned the right to be able to engage with the on-ice officials and register a complaint or an objection.  The funny thing is, I don’t recall seeing a big bold capital letter on the front of the sweater of most of the guys who are crying a river during a stoppage in play.

I have always wished that a referee would turn around and call an unsportmanlike penalty or a delay-of-game penalty on one of these letterless whiners, thus handing the responsibility of officially complaining back to the proper players.

The whole notion of a team captain has always seemed a tad overblown to me, particularily living here in the city of Toronto.  Once Doug Gilmour abandoned the good ship Maple Leaf and engineered his move to New Jersey, management saw fit to anoint Mats Sundin as the next captain.  In a city where hockey fans practically worshipped a talented, yet two-dimensional player like Wendal Clark, one would have thought someone just gave women the right to vote, the manner in which the average hockey fan (male, Anglo-Saxon, middle class) reacted with shock and disgust.

That is not meant to be taken as a shot at Clark.  If anything, he was a throwback to the old-time N.H.L. captain; tough, respected, maybe not the most gifted player on the team, but he led by example.  And he was as friendly with management as he was with the guys in the dressing room

Clark fit all those attributes, and the Leafs’ captain was, more-often-than-not,  one of the few shining lights during a rather dark period for the franchise during the late 1980′s.  The thing is, most teams saw fit to make their best player, their franchise player, the captain.  Following that trend, it was only fitting that Sundin be given the C.

It took years for the fickle fans of Toronto to warm up to the big Swede, and the current cry to have Sundin return for one more year in the blue-and-white would have been unimaginable back in the mid-90′s.

Regardless, what does a captain do, besides vent at the on-ice officials?   Take the draw during ceremonial faceoffs.  That’s a big one.  Represent the team in the community.  That’s a good thing, though one doesn’t have to wear the C in order to contribute.  How about take charge in the dressing room?  No doubt true, but many ex-players will tell you that a successful team has a number of leaders in the room, and they can lead in a number of ways.  Some may use words, some may use intimidation, others talk softly and carry a big composite stick.

So why can’t goaltenders be part of that club?  When one thinks of a stellar goaltender who thought he knew more than anyone else on the ice, the name Patrick Roy leaps-to-mind.  He would have made a great captain, not that the Avalanche were hurting for leaders.  Still, imagine Roy leaving his crease to partake in a mid-ice scrum with the ref.  Folks, we have may missed some must-see TV.

And hey, it’s not like some goalies haven’t already tried to take matters into their own hands.  Remember Curtis Joseph leaving the Toronto net and accidently taking the feet out from under the referee Mick McGeough during a game against the Ottawa Senators?  Cujo wanted to discuss the finer points of crease interference with the ref, and his exuberance to engage in conversation got the better of him, as he went barrelling into McGeough.  For his efforts, Cujo got a misconduct penalty, but was not suspended, as his intention was not to take out the ref…though many over the years probably have harboured that desire.

The hockey world won’t stop spinning because Luongo is the captain of the Vancouver Canucks.  The games will still take place.  The thing is, Captain Luongo doesn’t get the wear to extra C on his sweater, and he won’t get to take any ceremonial faceoffs, which frankly disappoints me.  Nor can he take any extra-long bathroom breaks just because he’s now The Man.

In keeping with naming your best player the team captain, the Vancouver Canucks haven’t so much broken with tradition as they have followed it.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s