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VANCOUVER — Growing up in the Montreal suburb of Saint-Léonard, Roberto Luongo resisted rooting for the hometown Canadiens.
As a burgeoning goaltender, Luongo idolized Grant Fuhr and cheered for the Edmonton Oilers during their high-scoring heyday of the 1980s.
This season, Luongo may know what Fuhr felt like.
Those Oilers, after all, were known to outscore – not outcheck – their opponents. If it meant taking chances and leaving Fuhr to fend for himself more often than a skittish coach would prefer, the Oilers would do so, confident they could win 6-5 games more readily than 2-1 affairs.
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Nobody is ever going to confuse the 2008-09 Vancouver Canucks with the 1980s Oilers, but if new general manager Mike Gillis's desire to play a more aggressive brand of offence takes shape, they might occasionally win high-scoring games and not be slaves to the tight, low-scoring contests.
That means Luongo might see more pucks, and may have to stop more good chances against. It also might mean that his personal statistics – a career 2.60 goals-against average and .919 save percentage – take a hit.
“As long as we score, it's fine by me,” Luongo said Monday, as his team embarked on its NHL preseason schedule with road game against the Oilers.
Head coach Alain Vigneault said Luongo will play 31/2 – precisely half – of Vancouver's seven preseason games. He will start tonight against the Oilers at home in GM Place.
Vigneault added Monday that Luongo will play at least 70 regular-season games, a heavy workload that the netminder prefers so he can stay sharp.Luongo, 29, will have to adjust to new equipment. During the off-season, the NHL ruled the small flaps Luongo and other goalies had attached to their leg pads to protect knees were no longer allowed.
Luongo said he has discovered new knee pads that are permitted and he isn't concerned about his safety.
He is also no longer concerned with the health of his wife and child, who were living in Florida all last season. Gina Luongo went through a difficult pregnancy and a Caesarean delivery of the couple's daughter, Gabriella, on March 27.
Luongo missed a January game after the All-Star Game to be with Gina, and so much was made of the distraction that many believed it affected his play. Most certainly, Luongo struggled after the unofficial midpoint of the season, including a home stretch where the Canucks lost seven of their final eight games and missed the playoffs.
This season, Gina and Gabriella will live in Vancouver.
“It's just the comfort of having them here, but it for sure won't affect my performances,” Luongo said. “[Last season] was hard but, in a way, I was okay. What happened was I started struggling a little bit after the holidays, and I think the media kind of blew it out of proportion a little bit.”
Vigneault has no plans to blow up his emphasis on defensive responsibility, but he has said he and Gillis have talked about finding the right mix of “defence and offence and grit,” in the forthcoming season.
That could mean that Vancouver centres don't have to stay as high in the offensive zone, and that defencemen will be freer to jump into the rush, both of which leave Luongo with less company defending the Canucks goal.
“[Luongo] is either the best, or one of the top two or three, in the league,” Vigneault said. “That's what he wants to be. He doesn't need me to tell him that and I don't think he needs anyone to remind him.
“He puts that pressure on himself to be the best every game. That's what we expect. That's what he expects. That's what we're going to get.”
