Canucks put the past behind

VANCOUVER -- There is every chance we could be back here eight months from now. Watching the magnificently talented Pittsburgh Penguins, and the equally skilled -- and now equally steeled -- Vancouver Canucks play for it all in June.

But let’s not fixate on the future for now, particularly after a summer spent stressing over how those last two games played out for the Vancouver Canucks. And the riot. Don’t forget the riot.

On Thursday, it was time simply to play some hockey, after a long B.C. summer spent talking about the game, and the disappointment it can bring.

"It’s really nice," defenceman Dan Hamhuis said of finally seeing a puck dropped in anger. "There has been so much talk, concern and worry about our team. It’s nice to start playing, put an end to last year and focus on this year."

The tendency when you sit back down inside Rogers Arena, the site of so much blood-‘n’-guts hockey just a few months ago, is to try and visualize how high the mountain is; how long the road between now, and the only "now" that is really going to matter for this Canucks team, long after the tulips have bloomed.

With hockey this good however, can’t we just let it play out?

"It was definitely faster than a first game of the season, I’ll say that," said Penguins sniper Matt Cooke, who had two goals. "They have a great squad. I know that the expectations for their team is to be there in the end and that’s similar to us. Those were two good teams going at it at a pretty good pace."

No, it’s not every day you get a season opener between two legitimate Cup contenders, a tilt that ebbed and flowed through 65 minutes plus a shootout. Pittsburgh owned the starts of the periods, Vancouver the latter halves. Cooke stole the show early with a pair of goals, but then Henrik Sedin reminded us that he is a world-class passer, assisting on the two Vancouver goals that sent a 3-1 game to a shootout.

Alas, the muscle memory that just won’t let us move on belonged to Roberto Luongo, who found himself standing in front of a bank of microphones and copping to having been out-goaltended. So much for the theme of change.

A notoriously slow starter — and finisher, it seems — Luongo opened his season by letting one in from south of the goal line. "Went off my stick, and my leg. Obviously, not the goal you want to be giving up early in a game."

Then Cooke blistered one far-side past Luongo from the outer edge of the circle. It was a sniper’s goal, released slickly through Kevin Bieksa’s feet, but as Luongo would admit, "there’s no way the guy should score from there. I’ve got to make that save.

"I’ve got to do a better job, as far as those goals are concerned."

Luongo was beaten twice in the shootout, on nearly identical backhand dekes by Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin — "I’ve got to stop at least one of those," Luongo said — while Mike Samuelsson and Alexandre Burrows were denied by Marc-Andre Fleury.

In the end, there was little to choose between these two powerhouses, shy of goaltending. Fleury was better, and his team gets the extra point — a 4-3 shootout win — because of it.

So on a night when Luongo struggled in the redemption department, Cooke — who is being touted as a man trying to remake an image from cheap-shot artist to useful, third-line winger — made some gains. He is trying, it seems, to contribute more to this game than simply Rule 48.

"It’s weird how things work and weird how the world works sometimes," the former Canuck said after the game. "Obviously it (felt good). When you go through tough times and you’re in a situation that’s desperate … when you have success early it makes it that much easier to feel good about what you’re doing."

Another player with change on his mind was Vancouver defenceman Keith Ballard, who became Dr. Ballard last spring, so many nights did he spend in coach Alain Vigneault’s doghouse. He scored a beauty and rushed the puck well all night long, skills that will force Vigneault to soften his stance on a player that even this fine defensive corps must find room for.

For Ballard, like the rest of the Canucks, it is time to stop talking about the past. Clean the slate. You might like what you see.

"We’ve been waiting for quite a while now, for the start of the season," said Sami Salo.

After the summer this game had, Sami, so have we. So have we all.

Mark Spector is the senior columnist on sportsnet.ca