Monday Mailbag LIVE EDITION: Roberto Luongo and Ian Clark, the latest on the Canucks’ COVID-19 situation, and more

Another week, another mailbag.

Although, this isn’t any ordinary mailbag.

As you may have guessed by the title, this is a LIVE mailbag and will be updated throughout the day.

We haven’t done a live mailbag since the first day of training camp, and much like we did then, I’ll try to answer as many questions as possible from the comments section throughout the morning.

I’m planning on answering questions for the next three hours, so here’s the tweet to ask questions! Fire away!

Let’s do this!

Let’s see what our first question is:

The Florida Panthers have constructed a goaltending department with former Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo at the helm.

Luongo was brought in as a “Special Advisor to the General Manager” shortly after he retired, and was given the task of creating a goaltending department. Luongo has brought in some key names, including Francois Allaire, his brother Leo (for those that think that’s nepotism, just run a quick google search on Leo’s track record then come back to me), and Rob Tallas as the club’s goaltending coach.

Luongo is a smart hockey mind who is clearly well respected beyond the goaltending community, as he was just recently named the GM for team Canada at the World Championships this year in Latvia.

It’s not entirely fair to compare him to Ian Clark given that they don’t work in the same position, but if your question is asking if Luongo is starting to garner the same respect around the league as Clark, the answer is yes.

The latest on the Canucks’ COVID-19 situation is that the league hopes to have the club play a full 56 games. That appears to be becoming less and less doable, and it’s hard for anybody to evaluate the situation when the Canucks were still reporting new positive cases as of yesterday.

I’m not so sure that there’s a magic number that the league is looking at as an indicator that it’s time to call it quits. What I do know is that some have begun to wonder if playing is even worth it after catching this brutal sickness:

The Canucks are currently hoping that yesterday will be the last batch of positive tests they have to report. We will know for certain by around 2 PM If that is indeed the case.

That will be the biggest factor in the league’s next moves. Thankfully, as was reported yesterday, most of those affected have begun to recover. The key for the league will be no new positive tests.

It’s been a weird time with no Canucks hockey. It feels weird to write anything about the team that isn’t about their COVID recovery and current situation. These are real people and they’re facing a really tough time with a sickness I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I’ve been reading more, and have recently started doing work for dailyfaceoff.com. The Blue Jays have started their season and I’m a massive baseball fan, so I’ve been watching a ton of that. Speaking of which, how good is Shohei Ohtani? He has to be an early favourite for AL MVP right?

I mean, a guy who can slice up hitters while on the mound, then go hit bombs for you in the same inning as well? Does it get any more valuable than that?

I’m very intrigued to see how the divisions shake out, and can’t wait for the first Padres/ Dodgers series of the season.

Interesting question. It’s tough to smell much since I’m wearing a mask for the entire time I’m in the building, but the smell inside Rogers Arena is just how you all remember it.

It’s difficult to describe, but I know what Rogers Arena smelled like from my time there pre-COVID, and I’m happy to report the aroma inside the arena has not changed.

Thanks to everybody who got a question in this week. Stay safe out there folks!