'I received a shiver down my backbone': How Roberto Luongo saved a beer league group's season

The Beer League Leafs, a 40-and-over grownup hockey group in South Florida, sat nervously of their dressing room. With their beginning goalie unavailable, they did not have a clue who could be within the web for his or her win-or-go-home semifinal playoff recreation that night time.

Out of the blue, their alternative goaltender waddled into the room. However this wasn’t just a few random beer leaguer. This was a goaltender who starred within the NHL for 19 seasons. This was a Hockey Corridor of Famer, second all time in regular-season video games performed for a goaltender (1,044).

This was Roberto Luongo, now a particular advisor with the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. And he was there to actually save their season.

“I received a shiver down my backbone. I could not imagine it, as a result of that is what I prayed for,” Leafs captain Brad Bargman mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘This man goes to be wonderful.'”

Whereas their playoff recreation befell on August 15, information of Luongo moonlighting in a beer league solely unfold this week when a video of his locker room entrance went viral.

When reached for remark by ESPN, Luongo mentioned, “It is an city legend story and I favor to depart it that manner.”

How did a 45-year-old Hockey Corridor of Famer find yourself enjoying purpose in a South Florida beer league playoff recreation?

It was not by responding to a “goalie wanted” advert on Fb, which was broadly reported by media websites that aggregated the video this week. Terrific anecdote, sadly unfaithful.

“In actuality, it was a mix of them needing a goalie and Luongo being on the apply that day and saying, ‘Hey, I am going to play,'” mentioned Zach Randolph, grownup hockey coordinator for the Panthers IceDen in Coral Springs.

Having present and former NHL gamers strolling across the facility is commonplace, since lots of their youngsters skate on the rink. Panthers gamers have been identified to drop in randomly. On the day of the Florida Stanley Cup parade, three Panthers gamers stopped by to have fun throughout a males’s league recreation. Ahead Ryan Lomberg, now with the Calgary Flames, even dropped the puck for a faceoff.

“Nevertheless it’s not on daily basis that we now have them enjoying within the beer leagues,” Randolph mentioned.

Bargman had identified Luongo for a while. He coached Luongo’s son Gianni, and Luongo now coaches Bargman’s son Bryce. He generally puzzled if Luongo would go well with up for the Beer League Leafs however felt that asking him could be “profiting from our friendship.”

Bargman can also be a giant fan of the Florida Panthers, the place Luongo spent most of his enjoying profession. Again in 2021, Brad and Bryce Bargman wore Panthers gear to a Tampa Bay Lightning recreation in violation of a coverage that restricted followers from sporting gear supporting different NHL groups within the premium seating areas. After Brad Bargman printed a viral video that confirmed two Amalie Enviornment staff confronting them, the Lightning mentioned they’d now not implement the coverage.

Colin Manuszewski is the goaltender for the Beer League Leafs, however he was unavailable for his or her semifinal playoff recreation towards the terrifically named No Regretzkies. That put Bargman in a troublesome spot. The choices for a alternative in the course of August have been restricted. And he desperately wanted a goalie. This wasn’t only a playoff hockey recreation for Bargman — this was private.

As Bargman tells it, the No Regretzkies are comprised of gamers who was once on the Beer League Leafs a couple of years in the past. Issues occurred, disagreements persevered and “they left me and began their very own group,” he mentioned.

A group that might win a number of grownup league championships after forming.

Among the many gamers who left the Leafs was Petr Schastlivy, 45, who performed 129 video games within the NHL with the Ottawa Senators and Mighty Geese of Anaheim earlier than spending the subsequent 14 years in Russia’s KHL.

Bargman mentioned one of many philosophical points between himself and his former gamers was that he did not need to have NHL gamers reminiscent of Schastlivy on his group.

“All people was giving me a tough time about it, saying, ‘You guys cheat, you win each season,’ stuff like that” he mentioned.

Paradoxically, he was about to rely on a Hockey Corridor of Famer to win a playoff recreation towards his former teammates.

The Monday earlier than the semifinal, Luongo and Schastlivy have been each within the Panthers IceDen coaches’ room with Bargman.

“Hey Petr. Huge recreation on Thursday. By the way in which, that is our goalie. Roberto’s our goalie,” Bargman joked to Schastlivy.

Amidst the laughter, Luongo mentioned he’d truly think about filling in for the Leafs.

The subsequent day, Bargman texted Luongo to see if he was critical, with no response. On the eve of the sport, he texted once more. To his shock and aid, Luongo mentioned he was in. Bargman would later discover out that Luongo wished to make use of the sport to arrange for a return to the ice in Montreal throughout his day with the Stanley Cup.

Bargman informed Randolph that he did not have some other goalie choices lined up. Contemplating that the No Regretzkies had their very own ex-NHL participant of their lineup, Randolph felt snug signing off on Luongo enjoying for the Leafs.

“They have been in a pinch and wanted a goalie. And I am not precisely gonna inform Louie ‘no,'” Randolph mentioned. “I used to be certain half of the opposite group was going to be upset about it and the opposite half could be like, ‘Holy s— we now have the chance to attain towards Roberto Luongo.”

Bargman determined to not inform anybody that Luongo was his goalie for the semifinal, whilst his teammates pestered him on recreation day. Luongo was given his personal locker room to go well with up earlier than the sport.

Luongo needed to stroll over from one rink to a different to be along with his group. At 6-foot-3, sporting skilled tools, he did not go unnoticed. “Everybody was simply taking a look at him, being like, “Oh, s—, is that Roberto Luongo?'” Randolph mentioned. “The entire place began buzzing.”

A bigger-than-usual crowd of followers amassed across the rink forward of the lads’s league semifinal. There have been even acquainted chants of “Luuuuuuuu!” throughout the first interval when Luongo would make a save — which he did with frequency in a shot-filled first interval.

“He informed me he was drained and wasn’t going to make it by the entire recreation,” Bargman recalled with amusing.

Luongo surrendered two targets within the recreation. The second was a long-range purpose by Schastlivy. He had confronted Luongo as soon as throughout their respective NHL careers, throughout a 2003 game between the Senators and Panthers. Luongo stopped each Schastlivy pictures he confronted that day, however Schastlivy received the higher of him in beer league play.

The Leafs discovered themselves down 2-1 within the recreation.

“My greatest worry was that Roberto would lose,” Bargman mentioned. “If he loses, not solely does he really feel silly, dropping in a beer league recreation. However I am going to really feel additional silly as a result of it is towards my outdated group.”

Regardless of enjoying shorthanded, as beer league groups are likely to do in the summertime, the Leafs rallied for a 4-2 victory, sending them to the championship recreation and their star goalie to a different victory.

The group celebrated on the upstairs bar afterward with out Luongo, who left for house. Bargman mentioned the ten:15 p.m. begin time made it a protracted night time for the Corridor of Famer.

That was it for Roberto Luongo’s beer league season. Manuszewski returned to the crease for the championship recreation, which the Leafs received to complete atop the league.

Bargman mentioned that even when Luongo had wished to play within the ultimate, he would have gone again to Manuszewski.

“I am not about that. That is our goalie. You lose along with your goalie. You win along with your goalie,” he mentioned.

Luongo’s beer league season was successful. He received some ice time earlier than his day with the Cup. He did what many NHL followers in Toronto dreamed he’d sooner or later do: assist propel the Leafs to a championship. And he allowed Bargman the prospect to get one over on his former teammates.

“The revenge is good. I beat them at their very own recreation. I had an NHL participant,” he mentioned.

Randolph mentioned that Luongo’s viral second has helped give the rink and the grownup leagues extra publicity throughout a time when hockey’s hotter than ever in South Florida, because of the Panthers’ Stanley Cup.

Has the league thought-about commemorating this second? Maybe by renaming an award for greatest grownup league goaltender after Roberto Luongo?

“I imply, he did quit two targets, so I do not know,” Randolph mentioned with amusing.