"If it were September, you'd say Sami Salo was just coming out of camp. But March is just around the corner, then the playoffs, before you know it.

For Salo, the 2010-'11 NHL season is a sprint, not a marathon.

"That's kind of the feeling I have," Salo said Saturday night after his fifth NHL game this season, on top of three AHL conditioning games.

"The body's a little tight, you feel a little heavy on the ice. That's how you feel in training camp."

Alain Vigneault would have preferred to ease Salo back into playing shape more slowly.

But, the way Vancouver Canucks defencemen have been falling like needles off a Christmas tree in January, the veteran has been forced to play minutes near his average of the past couple of seasons in the NHL.

It hasn't bothered him, he's happy to report.

"The first game and a period and a half of the second game -St. Louis? -yeah, that was getting used to playing again," he said.

"But I've felt good, I didn't feel tired at all in Minnesota, my third game in four nights. That was really encouraging because I didn't know how I'd feel after such a long layoff."

The concern whether his Achilles would stand up was pretty well abated in his first of three games with Manitoba on his conditioning stint with the Moose.

Scoring two goals in his first game didn't hurt, either.

"I was really nervous going into Wilkes-Barre [home to Pittsburgh's farm team], that first game," Salo said.

"You can skate as much as you want or do weights or ride the bike, but you never know in a game situation how it will respond.''

He got 20: 01 of ice time against Dallas on Saturday night.

Overall, since the lockout, his ice time has diminished from 24: 29 a game in 2005-'06 to 20: 40 last season."