Luongo should be 'really proud of' 1,000 games, Brodeur says

VANCOUVER -- The names on the list joined by Roberto Luongo on Thursday say it all:
Patrick Roy
.
Martin Brodeur
.

And now Luongo, who became the third goalie to play 1,000 NHL games when he helped the Florida Panthers get a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
That's it. The short list is a testament to how difficult and significant an achievement the milestone is.
RELATED: [Luongo produced many highlights on road to 1,000 NHL games ]
"When I was going through it, that's exactly what I was thinking; you start to look at the history and like nobody has done it," said Brodeur, who played his 1,000th game Oct. 3, 2009, and finished his career in 2015 with 1,266 games played, the most by a NHL goalie. Roy played 1,029 NHL games. "Now for [Roberto] to be part of that group, it says a lot about how successful you are, how durable you are, and it's not something that happens every day for a reason.
"There are a lot of goalies that played and had a lot of success but never achieved that. It's something to be really proud of."
It's easy to understand why fewer than 1 percent of the 322 players in NHL history to reach 1,000 games are goalies. Goaltenders can't play every game like a skater. Injuries can chip away at games played, as can a hot backup who takes over the net for short periods.

"I always thought it's was one of the ultimate goals," said Grant Fuhr, the goalie Luongo grew up idolizing and imitating.
Fuhr played 19 seasons, including an NHL-record 79 games in 1995-96 at age 33, and is ninth among goalies with 868 games played.
"You have to play a long time at a high level and you have to stay healthy. Both are hard to do, so I think that says a lot about how good he has been," Fuhr said.
It's no coincidence the 1,000-game list includes two first-ballot Hall of Famers consistently in the conversation as the game's greatest. Unlike a forward who can drop to a lower line late in his career or a defenseman playing on a third pair, there is no place to hide as a No. 1 goaltender.
Goaltending coach Francois Allaire, who worked with Luongo and Roy, said the drive of each to be the go-to guy was at the foundation of their success.
"You cannot reach that point without having the drive to be a No. 1 goalie," Allaire said. "Sometimes it's fun to be a No. 1 but it's tough too because you have to carry the team, you have to be there for the good, for the bad, you have to play injured, you have to play sick. You have to have the drive to say, 'Hey, I'm the No. 1 guy and I want that spot and I want to play as many games as I can.' They are a special breed."
Luongo has shown that this week, saving 45 of 46 shots in a 2-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday playing through a rib injury. It was his second win in as many nights, and the back-to-back starts left him in need of IV fluids on the eve of his 39th birthday Wednesday. On Thursday, he won his third game in four nights, against the Bruins, to keep the Panthers in the hunt for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with two games remaining in the season.

"You can just tell he wants to be the guy all the time, even at his age," Brodeur said. "He battles for his ice time, he battles to get back from injury as quick as he can. That passion is important, the joy of playing and wanting to be the guy over and over and not just say, 'Oh, I don't have it now, I'll take a seat.' You fight through all that stuff, and Luongo has been doing that for years now."
Luongo has a passion for a position that is constantly evolving. Whether it was updating his skates to get a better edge from his knees this season or modernizing his post-play techniques in 2013, Luongo is always trying to get better.
He reaches out to former goaltending coaches Allaire and Ian Clark, who was with Luongo for one year in his first stint in Florida and for four of Luongo's six seasons with the Vancouver Canucks. Each August, Luongo starts on-ice workouts with Panthers goalie coach Rob Tallas.
"[Roberto] is such a student of the game that he had a variety of people throughout his career that he leaned on," said Clark, now with the Columbus Blue Jackets. "He continued to lean on them, knowing each had a different perspective on the position and he almost rotated through like a carousel, grabbing information as he went, plucking information to continue to evolve his game.

"He never stuck and only listened to one person; his ears were always open, his mind was always open to what he could apply to his game to keep him at the forefront of the position."
With a .929 save percentage that ranks fourth in the NHL this season, Luongo has done that, continuing to improve on a career .919 percentage that is tied with New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for third behind Dominik Hasek (.922) and Jacques Plante (.920) among goalies to play more than 500 games since save percentage became an official statistic in 1955.
"He's been good all his career," said Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, 33, who has played 736 NHL games. "I tip my hat to the guy. He's a guy I looked up to when I was younger and I still do. I love to watch him play and I'm happy for him."