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Pressure from within driving Roberto Luongo to succeed

Pressure from within driving Roberto Luongo to succeed

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Roberto Luongo is surrounded by some of the biggest names in the NHL during All-Star weekend. Stanley Cup champions. Scoring leaders. Players currently on the top teams in the league at the moment. Whenever he's bumped into one of them, the friendly greeting is followed by compliments.

The kind words vary from opponents impressed with the Florida Panthers’ success this season to noting just how tough it is to play against the Cats.

The last four games, however, have put the Panthers in a hole. They sit seven points behind the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins for a wild card spot. But the fact that they’re even in a position to chase a playoff berth is a testament to the team built by general manager Dale Tallon and coaching job by Gerard Gallant. But it also wouldn’t be possible without Luongo’s presence in goal.

“We still have a long ways to go,” Luongo said during NHL All-Star Media Day on Friday. “We know we want to get to the playoffs and we have the toughest part of our season coming up for us.”

The Panthers sunk their way to the the draft lottery with Tim Thomas, Scott Clemmensen, Jacob Markstrom and Dan Ellis in goal for most of last season. Luongo arrived in March after the long-anticipated trade was consummated with the Vancouver Canucks. He was back in South Florida, away from the circus. He was in his happy place.

So has that happiness been the driving force behind Luongo’s All-Star calibre play?

“I don’t know. It’s tough to say,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of it that plays into it. Maybe that’s a little bit of it. Nothing wrong with Vancouver, I had gone to the point with all that had happened.

“Like I said many times, I needed a fresh start. Just start with a blank page and not have to worry about anything else. I think it has a little bit to do with it. There’s more than that. There’s a lot of factors that factor into that.”

The contract (The one that "sucks," remember?). The emergence of Cory Schneider. The inevitability that he would be traded. But Luongo found that while he was hoping for a resolution, what was going on around him didn't serve as a distraction on the ice.

“The toughest times is where I found I had the easiest time dealing with it for some reason,” he said. “It just took me a while to know how to handle that kind of stuff and unfortunately maybe it was a little bit too late when I did realize how to do it. You know, it’s life, and things happen for a reason. You just try to just learn from your experience.”

Now in Florida, Luongo’s happy, away from a situation where the pressure to win loomed large. Had the Canucks won the Stanley Cup in 2011, who knows how this story would have played out. After he didn't start the 2014 Heritage Classic, that chapter of his hockey career swiftly came to an end and he was dealt to the Panthers three days later.

But to Luongo, the pressure to win is the same in Florida as it was in Vancouver, only because it’s internal, not external.

“The pressure doesn’t come from outside, it comes from within,” he said. “We’ve just lost four in a row and I’m as mad as I would be if I would be anywhere else.

“To me, winning is where the pressure comes from. It doesn’t matter what market you’re in.”

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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