"Roberto Luongo's body language and tone of voice suggested the guy behind the bench might be on to something if faced with a similar circumstance.

Instead of agonizing over the prolonged process to get to opening night, the Vancouver Canucks goaltender spoke in anticipation of his first preseason start on Wednesday in Anaheim. With coach Alain Vigneault purposely holding back the majority of his veterans until the final three exhibition games following a marathon 107-game season and short summer, an accent on skating and systems has been replaced by an itch to play.

"Even though it's preseason, you still get a little nervous which is kind of weird if you think what we went through last year," Luongo said Tuesday following a UBC practice. "I'm just excited to play and just get a feel for game action. That was the whole point of the way we set it up. We wanted to make sure we got some good work in and obviously these next couple of games for me are going to be very important."