The  Buffalo Sabres will need all hands on deck this season if they're to end their Stanley Cup playoff drought at 14 years. And this is why THN.com's Sabres site is beginning a new series in which we analyze every player on the roster and what we should expect from them in the 2025-26 NHL regular-season.

We began the series Friday with a look at veteran goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and in the latest file, we turned our attention to first-year Sabres goalie Alex Lyon. The former Detroit Red Wings goalie signed a low-cost, two-year contract, and  he's essentially netminding insurance for Luukkonen. 

But we want to hear from you -- what should the expectations be for Lyon next year? Weigh in through the comment section below. And feel free to register as a community member.

There is no player on the Detroit Red Wings who more badly wants postseason hockey to return to the Motor City than Dylan Larkin, the longest-tenured member of the team.

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Larkin also is the only Red Wings player left from the 2015-16 roster that most recently played beyond the 82nd game of the regular season; it was also his rookie campaign. 

Larkin was recently challenged by NHL Network Insider Mike Rupp, who said that he needed to essentially put the club on his back and "drag them" to the playoffs.

Will this be the season that the Stanley Cup Playoffs come to Little Caesars Arena for the first time in the venue's existence? 

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Give Credit To Detroit's Foot Soldiers - May 5, 2000 - Volume 53, Issue 34 - Chuck Carlton

All the Detroit Red Wings understand is everybody plays and everybody contributes and that’s why they win. Stars know their roles and role players can become stars.

Consider the first round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings and how the stats turned upside down.

Martin Lapointe scored as many goals as Sergei Fedorov. Kris Draper finished with more goals than Brendan Shanahan. And Tomas Holmstrom got one more than Steve Yzerman.

“Whoever wins in the playoffs gets goals from everybody,” Yzerman said. “You don’t rely on one line or one individual. When we won the two (Stanley) Cups, everybody was successful. If you want to go far, you have to have the depth.”

The Kings concur. They shut down all the marquee names and got burned by the supporting actors. In Game 1, Darren McCarty returned from missing 16 games with a groin pull to register a game-high 10 hits and set the early tone by plastering Garry Galley against the end boards.

Game 2 saw Lapointe net his first playoff hat trick. Draper, with just nine goals in his past 141 games counting the playoffs, added two more.

Holmstrom personally decided Game 3 in less than seven minutes of ice time. He drew Kings’ captain Rob Blake into a penalty with the Kings already down a man to set up the first goal and deflected a Nicklas Lidstrom shot past Stephane Fiset for the winner in a 2-1 victory.

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“I look at this team and say openly, ‘What team in the NHL can match them with skill, scoring, grittiness and tenacity up front?’ And I can’t come up with a team,” said ESPN analyst Darren Pang. “Depth-wise, I think this team is as confident and as good as ever. When you have a fourth line consisting of a Draper, a Lapointe and a (Kirk) Maltby, that’s just remarkable.”

As expected as the contributions have become for the Red Wings, they relied more than usual on the top scoring line of Yzerman, Shanahan and Pat Verbeek in the regular season as injuries and slumps ate away at the depth.

McCarty missed 24 games this season because of groin problems and managed just six goals. A contract holdout saw him miss training camp and the death of his father, Craig, made for a trying regular season.

“Everything that has happened, no matter what, is rubbed clean; this is like a new season, a fresh start,” McCarty said. “Everything is behind me. I’ve come to grips with everything and accepted everything. Now it’s time.”

The challenge was different for Lapointe.

He weighed 234 pounds after last season on a 5-foot-11 frame. He joked that he would “look at a bag of potato chips and gain five pounds.” Room service wasn’t a convenience, it was a way of life.

Now he’s down to a chiseled 210, still as physical and strong, but quicker. He looks more like the guy who scored nine playoff goals in 1998.

Draper might be the best fourth line center in hockey, but was worried about his position just before the playoffs, especially after a broken wrist earlier this season.

Then there’s Holmstrom, who doesn’t enjoy the pain that comes with assuming personal residence in front of the opposing goalie, as much he accepts it. He not only takes one for the team, he takes two or three or four.

Like early in the season against Vancouver, when a Donald Brashear check left him with a sprained knee. Or March 29 against Vancouver, when Holmstrom got cross-checked in the mouth and took a puck in the cheek, suffering a concussion. Or Game 1 of the playoffs, when Blake played target practice with his head. Or Game 3, when Blake cross-checked him in head instead. Holmstrom’s smile looks like the grill of a Plymouth Fury after a demolition derby.

“He’s a beauty, isn’t he?” McCarty said. “How can you not love that guy? Everybody thinks he’s Swedish, but he’s actually Canadian, he’s up from the Arctic or somewhere like that. He’s got a heart the size of Sweden. He’s a valuable guy on our team. You talk about unsung heroes, he’s definitely one of them with the abuse that he takes.”

But he’s not alone.

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The NHL’s 2025-26 season is just around the corner, and here at THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we’ve committed to analyzing every Sabres player and the expectations on them next season. Every Buffalo player has the pressure to get this Sabres team into the playoffs for the first time in a decade-and-a-half, but every player’s outlook is at least a little bit different. 

We began the series with this look at Sabres presumptive starting goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen,and today, we’re moving along to the veteran netminder signed by the Sabres this summer – Alex Lyon.

Player Name: Alex Lyon

Position: Goaltender

Age: 32

2024-25 Key Statistics: 30 appearances, 14-9-1 record, .896 save percentage, 2.81 goals-against average

2025-26 Salary: $1.5 million

2025-26 Expectations: Lyon has spent the past two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, but he failed to make the starter’s job his own each year. Still, Lyon did enough this past season to merit a $600,000 raise from the $900,000 he earned last year.

But Lyon – who has never made more than 44 appearances in a single season – may be called into action for significantly longer if Luukkonen spirals and fails in the starter’s role for a second straight year. And if Lyon does struggle along with Luukkonen, the Sabres may turn to 23-year-old Devon Levi, who will almost assuredly begin the season with Buffalo’s American League affiliate. 

Sabres 2025-26 Player Expectations: What's In Store For Goalie Luukkonen The NHL’s 2025-26 season is now only a handful of weeks away, so it’s as good a time as any for THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site to break down expectations for every Sabres player next year.

In the past two years with the Detroit Red Wings, Lyon did show more promise in the first year, posting a .904 SP and 3.05 G.A.A. But consistency has been a problem for him – and if the Sabres are turning to Lyon in any meaningful way, it’s because the defense corps in front of Luukkonen is also under-performing. So Lyon may be on an island unto himself depending on how the year unfolds.

Lyon’s contract runs through the 2026-27 campaign, and the investment the Sabres have made in him limits their moves if things don’t turn out particularly well. Buffalo doesn’t want to pay anyone other than Jeff Skinner to not play for them multiple years from now. So, for better or worse, Lyon is likely to be a fixture for Buffalo. And buying out the final year of his deal just doesn't make sense for the Sabres.

Still, we’ve already said we like the Lyon signing for the Sabres. They’re not breaking the bank for Lyon, nor are they committing two or three more years to him. Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams needed to bring in goalie insurance, and at a cost that wouldn’t harm the Sabres’ chances to improve the roster in other areas. He did that with Lyon.

Know Your Enemy, Sabres Pacific Edition: Will Improved Golden Knights Be Too Hard To Handle For Sabres?The Buffalo Sabres know when and where every game they'll play in the 2025-26 season will take place. And as part of THN.com's Sabres site's "Know Your Enemy" series, we've been focusing on every one of Buffalo's 31 opponents next year.

Lyon isn’t being asked to be a world-beater. He’s there to provide support to Luukkonen and perhaps Levi, and be a professional whose consistency is something on which the team can rely. 

And if he can do those relatively modest things, Lyon will be considered a successful Sabres signing.

The back-to-back Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers got some unfortunate news on the injury front with the revelation that star left winger Matthew Tkachuk will be sidelined for approximately the next six months with an adductor injury. Tkachuk is an integral component of Florida’s well-oiled machine, and while the Panthers have the type of depth other teams strive to match, Florida clearly will be a lesser team without him.

In addition, what happens if Tkachuk’s absence leads to a significant drop in the Panthers’ performance next year? We all know teams can’t win a playoff spot in November or December, but they sure can lose a playoff spot with terrible showings in the early months. That brings up an intriguing angle to this discussion: namely, forget about clearing cap space right now – should the Panthers add a rental player with the cap space Tkachuk’s injury frees up? And what could happen if they don’t do that and Florida stumbles out of the gate?

According to David Pagnotta, Tkachuk is sidelined until January, so that’s basically half the season that Florida will be without him. But seeing that Panthers GM Bill Zito has shown repeatedly he’s willing to double down on his players, why not help the players out and get back into the trade market to make the team better right away? Even if the player you acquire is a rental under contract for only the 2025-26 year, you’ve protected your long-term picture while still managing to add talent. Thus, it makes sense for the Panthers to bring in another proven commodity, and worry about the cap situation that will come to a head when Tkachuk is ready to play.

Florida is currently $4.5 million over the salary cap, according to PuckPedia. If the Panthers were to place Tkachuk on the long-term injured reserve list, they'd have $5 million in cap space to work with.

When Tkachuk does become healthy, Zito is going to have to move out some bodies. But that shouldn’t scare away Zito from making moves like the one he made last season with the mid-season addition of star defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks. 

Since Jones' arrival from the Blackhawks, he recorded two goals and nine points, while averaging 24:55 of ice time in 21 regular-season appearances for the Panthers. Jones played a huge role when D-man Aaron Ekblad faced a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL's performance-enhancing drug policy.

Remember, the addition of Jones caused some to speculate that Ekblad wouldn’t get a decent new contract from Florida and wind up playing elsewhere next season. But lo and behold, Zito found a way to not only re-sign Ekblad, as well as fellow UFAs Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett.

They found a way to make it work with everyone they wanted to, and as a result, the Panthers are once again the odds-on favorite to win their third straight Cup. Sportsbook BetMGM has the Panthers at 7.00 odds (+600), the highest odds in the NHL. 

This is why the Panthers should be adding talent with their soon-to-be-freed-up cap space when they likely place Tkachuk on LTIR. Because if they slip down the Atlantic Division ranks and wind up fighting for a wild-card spot all season long, they may have other injuries and/or sub-par play that could combine to result in them finishing ninth or worse in the Eastern Conference next year.

That's not a far-fetched potential situation. As we saw with the New York Rangers' disastrous season last year, a once-productive team can go from winning the Presidents’ Trophy and a conference final appearance one year to falling out of the playoffs completely the next year. Even the best teams can be in trouble if they're not firing on all pistons, and while it may be a long shot that Florida misses the playoffs, they wouldn’t be the first team to fall so far so fast. 

We’re not suggesting the Panthers are definitely going to falter significantly next season. But there’s every reason to capitalize on the cap space freed up by Tkachuk’s absence. Florida already has an embarrassment of riches that can still be made better by bringing in another proven veteran, and though Tkachuk will be a key player once again when he returns next year, Zito can figure out how to get out of cap trouble once the 27-year-old is ready to play again.

Really, anything can happen between the start of the season and the midpoint of the year. Some Panthers players might get injured, and other Panthers players may make themselves expendable. Zito has got a lot of time to figure that part out, but right now is the time for him to take advantage of an opportunity and acquire someone else the team can lean on.

Stars And Slugs: How NHL Teams Copied The Florida Panthers This SummerFielding questions from the media in the aftermath of his second consecutive Stanley Cup, Florida coach Paul Maurice had praise for all of his Panthers in their six-game victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

The Panthers are fallible like every other team, so Zito has every reason to strengthen his roster as soon as he can. When you’re a GM who takes big swings, you instill confidence in your group. And the misfortune of Tkachuk’s injury can be converted into more talent in the room. Indeed, no Panthers player will be complaining about having another skilled player on board.

Zito can seize the moment and take control of the opportunity birthed by Tkachuk’s injury by landing another above-average player between now and the point Tkachuk returns. Given their druthers, the Panthers would want Tkachuk in the lineup from opening night through the last game of the year. But they have no choice in that matter, and Zito would do well to turn the issue in his favor by swinging for the fences on the trade front.

It’s easy for Florida to panic because of cap concerns and start trading players they’d otherwise want to retain, but Panthers management isn’t going to be that knee-jerk about it. Better to breathe, exhale, and see how things develop in the time between now and the time they’d be forced to make a decision.

If you do that, you just might make your team a championship-calibre squad once again.

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The NHL Network recently ranked the top 25 players born during the 2000s. Without any surprise, Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard made the cut.

Bedard landed the No. 8 spot on the NHL Network's list, where he ranked ahead of other notable young stars like Adam Fantilli, Matt Boldy, Lucas Raymond, and Cole Caufield. A few players who were ranked higher than Bedard on the NHL Network's list were Wyatt Johnston, Thomas Harley, Macklin Celebrini, and Jake Sanderson.

With Bedard being one of the NHL's most exciting young stars, it is certainly understandable that he has made the NHL Network's list. The 20-year-old center has played very well early on in his career, recording 45 goals, 83 assists, and 128 points in 150 games over his first two seasons. This includes setting new career highs with 23 goals, 44 assists, and 67 points in 82 games this past season.

Overall, Bedard has shown plenty of promise early on his career, and there is no question that he should only continue to get better as he gains more experience. It is going to be very fascinating to see what kind of season he can put together in 2025-26, but it would not be surprising in the slightest if he puts together a big breakout year for Chicago.

Blackhawks Keep or Trade: Dickinson, Mikheyev, Murphy, Foligno, MoreThe Chicago Blackhawks should still be considered rebuilders as they haven't proven otherwise yet. They are going to come out of the rebuild, but just not yet. Their core is either very young and inexperienced or pieces haven't even arrived in the NHL.

Undoubtedly, the person who will have the greatest impact on the 2025-26 Philadelphia Flyers will be new head coach Rick Tocchet.

Tocchet, 61, is heading into his 10th season as an NHL head coach having only made the playoffs twice, and that's the level the Flyers are aspiring to reach.

But the Flyers are aspiring to reach that level as a step, not the endgame or ultimate goal. That's winning the Stanley Cup, which Tocchet has done twice as an assistant coach and once as a player.

The former Flyers forward returns to Philadelphia on the heels of a successful but volatile and tumultuous tenure with the Vancouver Canucks, which was, at the end, marred by injuries, locker room issues between star players, and an overarching failure to meet greater expectations.

For better or for worse, right or wrong, it was under Tocchet's guise that the feud between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller blew up, which led to the former suffering a career-worst 45-point season.

Franchise defenseman and Canucks captain Quinn Hughes is now on the verge of leaving if the team doesn't start winning soon, too.

Again, fairly or unfairly, the team reached this condition under Tocchet, even after an exhilarating 50-win, 100-point campaign only a year ago in 2023-24.

Rick Tocchet's Reaction to Matvei Michkov Only Means Good Things for Flyers' FutureBudding Philadelphia Flyers star Matvei Michkov hates the dump and chase, and new head coach Rick Tocchet loves the talented forward's confidence and approach to making plays.

In his official return to Philadelphia with the Flyers, the affable bench boss will be tasked with developing players and winning games, of which Tocchet's history is questionable.

In Vancouver, players like Pettersson, Hughes, and Miller flourished, but the two forwards later crashed and burned at the hands of each other.

Ex-Flyers forward Andrei Kuzmenko was amazing at first, but flamed out under Tocchet. Top prospects like Vasily Podkolzin and Vitali Kravtsov didn't experience much success under Tocchet, either, and ended up leaving the Canucks.

Tocchet's time with the Arizona Coyotes might be his greatest success story in terms of winning and developing simultaneously, but how you take that depends on your own view.

Flyers' Next Rebuild Step Hinges on Jamie Drysdale's DevelopmentHow Jamie Drysdale plays in the 2025-26 season will, for better or worse, alter the path of this rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers team.

For example, Clayton Keller had a 65-point age-19 season under Tocchet, but failed to crack 50 points in the three following seasons. Then, under Andre Tourigny, Keller has had no fewer than 63 points in each of the last four seasons, including a stellar 30-goal, 90-point campaign with the Utah Hockey Club last season.

Keller developed under Tocchet, but he didn't become a star under Tocchet. There's a difference. Just like how Matvei Michkov developed under John Tortorella, but won't become a star under the now-fired Tortorella.

And we can extrapolate this example for many such cases under Tocchet, for names like Jakob Chychrun, Dylan Strome, Lawson Crouse, and Nick Schmaltz.

With the Flyers, Tocchet is tasked with proving he's the guy who can get young players like Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Cam York, and more over the hump, rather than just showing them where the hump is.

Philadelphia Flyers Have a Top 5 NHL Prospect Once AgainNot long after the graduation of Matvei Michkov, the Philadelphia Flyers once again have a top five NHL prospect in their system.

On top of that is the general expectation of winning games and being better than the fourth-worst team in the NHL, which the Flyers were last season.

The bar starts very low, yes, but to which height is the extent of which the bar can be raised?

Viewed as a long-term solution behind the bench by GM Danny Briere and the Flyers, Tocchet must show that he can win, even though extended success historically been far and few between for the 61-year-old when leading the coaching staff himself.

Even with his age, experience, and playing pedigree, Rick Tocchet is effectively starting over and needing to prove himself all over again as the new Flyers head coach.

The NHL Network recently ranked the top 25 NHL players who were born in the 2000s, and two New Jersey Devils stars have understandably made the cut. 

Devils defenseman Luke Hughes picked up the No. 18 spot on the NHL Network's list. When noting that he is an impactful young defenseman who is continuing to improve, it is not surprising to see him make the cut. In 71 games this past season for the Devils, Hughes recorded seven goals, 37 assists, and 44 points. 

The other Devil who made the NHL Network's list was, unsurprisingly, Jack Hughes. Hughes picked up the No. 2 spot on their list, with Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin being the only player ranked ahead of him. Hughes ranking so highly on the NHL Network's list is completely understandable, as he is one of the game's top young stars. In 62 games this past season, he recorded 27 goals and 70 points. This was the fourth straight season where he recorded over a point per game. 

The Devils certainly have something special with the Hughes brothers, and it will be fascinating to see how the pair performs for the Metropolitan Division club in 2025-26 from here. 

Report: Devils Tried To Acquire Kraken StarThe New Jersey Devils have had a solid off-season so far, but it is clear that they still could use another top-six winger before the 2025-26 campaign is here. According to a recent report, they had an intriguing one on their radar earlier this off-season. 

Welcome to this edition of "From The Archive". In this recurring series, we open The Hockey News' vault and display some of the top Vancouver Canucks related articles from the past. Today's article comes from Volume 60, Issue 22, where Mike Brophy wrote about Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo. 

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My Time Has Come, Volume 60, Issue 22, February 20, 2007

Roberto Luongo generally lets his actions do his speaking for him.

But when he’s reminded – for about the millionth time, much to his annoyance – about the fact he has yet to appear in a playoff game after six NHL seasons, the 27-year-old Luongo makes a Messieresque prediction: “I will be in the playoffs this year. Nothing will stop me!”

That’s a pretty bold statement from a guy who, it could be argued, tends goal for a team that is not significantly better than either the Islanders or Panthers were when he played for them. Not only that, the Canucks play in the tightest division in the NHL, the Northwest, where very few points separate first place from last and the conference’s No. 3 seed is in danger of falling out of the playoffs completely. Although Vancouver has been hot of late, there is still a lot of hockey to be played and the season will end in heartache for at least two, if not more Northwest teams.

Of the eight Western Conference teams sitting in playoff spots as of Feb. 7, Vancouver was tied with Dallas for the fewest goals scored (144) and were tied for fourth in goals-allowed (138). The team’s top scorer, Daniel Sedin, used a five-point explosion against Edmonton Feb. 6 to climb above the point-per-game pace with 55 in 53 outings, which left him trailing the NHL’s leading scorer, Sidney Crosby, by 31 points. Markus Naslund, once a Hart Trophy contender and top-five forward in the NHL, had just 17 goals in 54 games, though he was coming to life playing with the Sedin twins.

On the flip side, the Canucks have an underrated defense and a a rising star in Kevin Bieksa to go with a sixth-year power forward in Taylor Pyatt who is finally showing signs of being a consistent offensive contributor. And their penalty-killing has been utterly superb.

At the end of the day, though, the Canucks will go only as far as Luongo carries them.

“I feel different this year,” Luongo says. “I don’t really know how to explain it, other than to say I just have this feeling this is the year for me. I feel my time has come and that I have elevated my game. Just look at the way our team is playing now. It seems like every year I have been on teams that do OK in the first half, but then fade in the second half. This year, we went on a seven-game winning streak after Christmas and we have continued to play well.”

Indeed, the Canucks won seven straight contests, including five against Northwest rivals and two in Calgary. Not only that, since Dec. 26 Vancouver had 13 wins, three regulation losses, an overtime defeat and two shootout losses. All told, that’s 13-3-3…not bad. And while it appears Calgary is positioning itself to be the power in the Northwest, having scored 26 more goals than the Canucks while allowing three fewer (with a game in hand), we all know what can happen in the Western Conference if a team makes the playoffs and then gets hot.

When the Canucks traded controversial right winger Todd Bertuzzi to Florida last summer, they weren’t just getting rid of a monster migraine. They were, in theory, addressing a problem in the crease that has plagued them since Kirk McLean was the main man back in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

Since then, the likes of Arturs Irbe, Sean Burke, Corey Hirsch, Kevin Weekes, Garth Snow, Bob Essensa, Felix Potvin, Johan Hedberg, Dan Cloutier and Alex Auld stopped the occasional puck, but not the bleeding.

“Having Roberto definitely helps,” says Vancouver GM Dave Nonis. “We’ve seen for a long time that if you don’t have quality goaltending in our league, you don’t have much of a chance to win. We are fortunate now to have somebody we feel we can build around and who can steal games for us.”

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After growing tired of playing deal or no deal in Florida in terms of getting an agreeable contract, Luongo convinced the Canucks he was worth $27 million over four years. Now he has to earn it.

Luongo has enjoyed more than his share of small successes and occasional highs along the way, even if the NHL playoffs have continually eluded him. When the Isles took him fourth overall in 1997, it was the highest a goalie had ever been drafted. He was outstanding for Canada in winning a silver medal at the 1999 World Junior Championship and stopped 37 of 39 shots in the gold medal game to help Canada win the 2003 World Championship. And, in 2004 when Martin Brodeur was unable to play the semifinal of the World Cup because of a sore wrist, Luongo stepped in and played admirably, leading his side to victory.

THE WHOLE REASON YOU PLAY HOCKEY IS TO BE IN THE PLAYOFFS.

Nonis says he had no hesitation handing Luongo the big bucks – as well as four years – on his deal.

“We felt very strongly that he had proven himself at an extremely high level,” says Nonis, alluding to Luongo’s international triumphs.

With the Islanders and Panthers, Luongo was best known for the high number of shots he faced night after night, as much a damnation of the players skating in front of him as a testament to his ability to stop pucks. Consider: In the previous three seasons with Florida, Luongo faced 40 or more shots in a game 45 times. In 50 games with Vancouver, he faced that many just five times.

“That was one of the biggest challenges I faced early in the year, not facing as many shots as I was used to,” Luongo says. “Last year I averaged 35 shots against and suddenly I’m getting 20. The thing is, we were still in tight games, so I really had to learn to stay focused to make sure I was on the ball after going through longer stretches without a shot than I was used to.”

At the start it was tough. He was somewhat inconsistent in the first half. Although, to be fair, the Canucks were a team in transition and it’s often too easy to blame the goalie for losses. The Canucks weren’t exactly a scoring juggernaut. Since the Christmas break, both the Canucks and their savior have been much more consistent.

Luongo has given Vancouver a foundation of dependability that allows them to go out and win. Prior to his arrival, the Canucks were a run-and-gun team that never really had the gunners or goaltending to support that style.

“He has played extremely well since he got used to the new environment,” says Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault. “His play, I think, picked up when he got used to the fact he had a team in front of him that would give him support. I think there is a transition for players when they go to a new team. Now he knows he only has to worry about staying on top of his own game.”

Great goalies steal games for their teams and Luongo has done that this year. The Dallas Stars outshot Vancouver 40-21 Jan. 3, but the Canucks won 2-1 in a shootout. Ottawa dominated Vancouver 35-14 on the shot clock Jan. 18, but Luongo led the Canucks to a 2-1 win. Vancouver was outshot 39-24 by San Jose Jan. 28, but won 3-1.

“Early in the year some fluke goals got past him,” Vigneault says. “In Florida that might not be a big deal, but we are a team that doesn’t score a lot so they are a big deal. Our division is tight so every game, every goal we score and allow counts big. He is a guy who wants to prove he can take a team to the dance.”

Adds an NHL pro scout: “The Canucks now have every confidence they can play in tight games and he has alleviated the pressure on some of his teammates to score.” After 50 games, Luongo was tied for second in the NHL in wins (30), was sixth in save percentage (.920) and ninth in goals-against average (2.36). His value to the Canucks is obvious – he’s 30-18-3 on the season while backup Dany Sabourin is 0-3-1. There even has been talk of his candidacy for the Hart Trophy, although there are fans in New Jersey – there are still fans there, right? – who would argue Brodeur has been the league’s best stopper this season. And the good folks in Detroit are pushing Dominik Hasek for the Vezina Trophy, too.

In South Florida, Luongo could have taken a stroll down Main Street wearing his face mask and a Speedo and nobody would have turned a head, but that’s not the case in hockey-mad Vancouver where he is the face of the Canucks.

“It is definitely different, especially compared to the beginning of the year when I could pretty much walk around town unnoticed,” Luongo says. “Now people are starting to recognize me. You leave your house to run an errand that should take 15 minutes and it ends up taking an hour because people want to stop you to ask for autographs and talk hockey.

“It’s not such a bad thing. You can just feel the passion people in Vancouver have for hockey.”

And now he is on a mission to repay them.

“Last season in Florida we made a push for the playoffs near the end, but it wasn’t enough,” Luongo says. “The whole reason you play hockey is to be in the playoffs. So it has been very frustrating for me. Right now I can tell you there is a whole lot of excitement out there.”

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.