TORONTO — Armed with only a piece of paper, the opposite side of the page seemingly marked with official Florida Panthers letterhead, Roberto Luongo spoke from the heart during his Hall of Fame speech at Meridian Hall.
Luongo’s speech stood in contrast with the other prepared remarks on Monday night, where the text was clearly shared ahead of time with the show’s producers and interspersed with visual imagery.
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This speech was different. It was delivered extemporaneously, off of the cuff.
This is how Luongo has typically preferred to operate when speaking in public — even if it’s nationally broadcast. He’s willing to trade off a bit of polish in exchange for authenticity.
“I just kind of like to let it ride during my speeches, it makes it more natural,” Luongo told The Athletic last week, in advance of the Hall of Fame weekend. “I’ll hit a couple bullet points, hit everybody I want to thank, tell a few jokes, make fun of myself and just go.”
I recall working with Luongo in preparing for his “Enough is enough” address at a Florida Panthers home game following a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in February of 2018. That night Luongo similarly prepared with bullet points — rather than a full speech — based on some key themes he wanted to hit about senseless violence in his community, and the need to end gun violence.
That speech was personal to him, and it showed. His children, attending a neighboring school, had spent time in lockdown that day.
Monday night’s speech, given after he accepted a plaque from Dominik Hasek and was formally inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, was given under very different, far more celebratory circumstances.
Welcome to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Roberto Luongo!
Dominik Hasek #HHOF2014 presents Roberto his Honoured Member plaque. #HHOF2022 | #HHOF | 📸 Dave Sandford/HHOF@strombone1 | @FlaPanthers | @Canucks | @NYIslanders
— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) November 15, 2022
Once again, however, you could tell that it was deeply personal to him. It’s that natural sensitivity, the rough edges and the natural delivery that made it riveting.
Beyond that, there was the focus of the speech, which was telling and said everything you need to know about Luongo, the person — even as it touched somewhat fleetingly on Luongo, the puck stopper.
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It was really a speech about family, the focus driven home numerous times over a multitude of stories, Dominic Toretto style.
Luongo can seem like a complicated athlete from a distance. He’s got the zany Twitter account, the contract that “sucks” and the complicated legacy in Vancouver.
In his prime, which coincided, perhaps inconveniently, with the rise of social media, Luongo was arguably the most debated and picked-apart athlete in the history of hockey.
At the end of the day though, there are two prime, simple elements that fundamentally animate who Luongo is: a love for competition and a love for family, and both were front and center of Luongo’s address.
On his list was the family he was born into — including his grandfather, who recently passed away, and his parents whom he credited with instilling in him a hard work ethic. He talked admiringly about his brothers, Fabio and Leo, his fellow goaltenders growing up, who pushed him to realize his hockey dream, though their own NHL ambitions fell short.
He discussed the family he found along the way: the coaches that bet on him and his billet families, who made the transition to playing major junior far away from home so straightforward — for both him and his mother.
“I don’t know if you understand what Italian families are like,” Luongo joked, “but you don’t leave home at 15. You don’t leave home until you’re married. I have friends that still live at home!”
And he dwelled at length on the family he chose — his wife Gina, his son Giani and his daughter Gabriella. He spoke of the pride he feels watching his daughter dance, the competitiveness he feels rooting for his son in net, and his awe for his wife’s dedication to them.
“We were away playing cards — winning at cards, at least for me,” Luongo joked while thanking his wife, that sense of competition at the forefront even as his speech reached its emotional crescendo, “and you were holding down the fort at home.”
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As I watched the speech from the media room adjacent to the hall, that’s what stuck with me. Luongo loves to compete, he loves pizza, but most of all, he’s a family man through and through.
It’s that focus that explains why Luongo always wanted to return to Florida, and only to Florida ideally when his time in Vancouver was at an end. He prominently thanked his second agent, Pat Brisson of Creative Artists Agency, for helping to facilitate that deal back in 2014.
It’s why Luongo traveled to and from his family home repeatedly during his second season in Vancouver, while his wife was undergoing a difficult pregnancy.
It’s why Luongo has remained in Florida after his playing career, in the place his family calls home, working with Panthers goaltenders as part of his front-office role with the team that retired his number.
So it was fitting that as Luongo received the indisputable exclamation mark of being a first-ballot Hall of Famer, it was family foremost on his mind.
Not the game, not the saves, not the gold medal, not his accomplishments, but the family he was born into, the family he found and the family he chose.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
