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“I’m still evaluating and I’m not going to get caught up because there are going to be mistakes. But I’d like to see us have the puck more and I want us to play well and win the game, but I also need to watch individuals, too, and hopefully it all comes together.”

It will be a stiffer test against the Oilers who are playing their fourth preseason games and will ice Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, Andrew Ference, Boyd Gordon, Ben Eager, David Perron, Nail Yakupov, Ales Hemsky and Ryan Smyth. The Canucks will have their projected top line intact and give Roberto Luongo the first 40 minutes and will also play centre Brendan Gaunce on left wing with Mike Santorelli and Brandon DeFazio.

“If you can play other positions and do it effectively, that certainly helps,” said Tortorella.

David Booth has recovered from ankle surgery and the winger has been cleared to practise and did with the non-playing group today. He’s expected to play at some point in the preseason.

“He killed us in Florida when I was in Tampa,” said Tortorella. “He can be an asset in how we want to play on the puck. He could be a really good player, but the question is health and it’s out of my control. If he can stay healthy, it slots people in different spots. We get a good player like that in lineup and it really helps us.”

OF NOTE — Centre Jordan Schroeder hasn’t played yet after offseason shoulder surgery but Tortorella said not to read anything into that and that the centre will get his games.

CANUCKS LINE-UP

D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Kassian

Shinkaruk-Richardson-Hansen

Jensen-Horvat-Stuart

Gaunce-Santorelli-DeFazio

Garrison-Bieksa

Andersson-Mullen

Negrin-Tanev

Luongo-Eriksson

Vancouver Province: LOADED: 09.19.2013

717377 Vancouver Canucks

Oilers light up Luongo to rout Canucks in preseason action

David Ebner

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Sep. 19 2013, 12:34 AM EDT

Last updated Thursday, Sep. 19 2013, 1:08 AM EDT

Taylor Hall cracked through on a breakaway and the Edmonton Oilers forward did not get overly fancy as he fired a wrist shot to a spot just inside the far post, only to watch it snagged with a swift glove save. It was, early in the first period, vintage Roberto Luongo.

There was a lot more vintage Luongo on Wednesday night, the kind of astoundingly hapless evening that led the Vancouver Canucks to spend more than a year trying to get rid of him. It may have been only the second preseason game of the year but Luongo’s unlikely return to the ice in Vancouver as a member of the Canucks was awful.

In two periods of play Luongo gave up four goals on 18 shots – two of them beyond dreadful– as Vancouver lost again at home, 4-1 to Edmonton.

The team was atrocious, too, with the likes of Zack Kassian loafing around the ice, the defence often in disarray, and Luongo bringing his Z game. He is a famously slow starter but Wednesday night did not even qualify for admission to a remedial class. One wiseacre on Twitter opined that the Canucks have been relegated to the American Hockey League.

Luongo, after the game, refused to blame his and his team's performance on the fact it is just September. He took blame for "a couple terrible goals," vowed to work out what's wrong, and also cited general confusion among the Canucks.

"I’ve just got to keep working like an animal out there, keep improving every day and making sure that you just build up to be ready for the opening night," said Luongo, and echoed this for the team as a whole: "I kind of felt the first 10, 15 minutes, guys weren’t too sure what to do out there. And as the game went along I thought we got better as a team. You know, I think everybody’s just trying to work out the kinks right now.”

It has to, however, despite being the preseason and all, rattle everyone involved, starting with coach John Tortorella who again watched from the press box instead of behind the bench. The first-year Vancouver coach has repeatedly declared that the Canucks of 2013-14 will go nowhere without strong play from Luongo.

“He’s going to be the backbone of our team,” Tortorella said of Luongo in early July after the shock trade of Cory Schneider. “And he’s got to try to put our team on his back and carry them.”

Make no mistake, winter is coming. And, yes, sure, we can underline that it may only be the preseason – it was indeed a fine late-summer day in Vancouver – but if the Canucks’ play on Wednesday evening is any indication of things to come, it might well be a long, cold and dark winter in Vancouver.

Let us review the worst of Wednesday, a duo of duds, within the same minute.

Moments after the sterling save on Hall, the young Oilers pressed again and Martin Marincin – a 21-year-old who scored seven goals in the AHL last year – lofted a long, soft shot after he entered the Vancouver zone, from near the boards, and it floated in. Maybe you can say Hall put up a good screen on Luongo but that would be beyond generous.

If the Marincin goal was a McSofty, we’re not exactly sure what to call the goal that came 31 seconds later. David Perron, taking a pass on the boards, bobbling it, finally got a hold of the puck and, from below the faceoff circle, flicked it at the net. It somehow beat Luongo on the blocker side, catching the inside of the far post.

Luongo’s four goals on 18 shots can’t help but spark a bit of a memory from the worst-of-Tortorella lowlight reel, his real ugly side, emasculating his own in public. During 2006 playoff game Tampa Bay goaltender John Grahame allowed four goals on 16 shots, bad, obviously, but not as awful as Tortorella postgame. “You need a damn occasional save,” said Tortorella, before conducting some quick math: “four goals in 16 shots,” pausing, and then concluding: “I’m a little tired of the 25-per-cent rule.”

One has to suppose Tortorella, in his effort to be a wiser/calmer version of his old madcap self, will resist lambasting his starting goaltender, at least for now.

Luongo, for all his greatness, has always suffered from a Jekyll-Hyde nature. His play is often brilliant. He has, so often, carried the Canucks. But he can also be horrible. The culmination of this puzzle was June, 2011, in the Stanley Cup Final when Luongo played some of his worst hockey and some of his best, the latter being two shutouts, which has been accomplished in one Cup final by only six goaltenders since the Second World War. Too bad for Vancouver one of those other fellows was Tim Thomas and his second shutout came in Game 7.

Fans, obviously, hate erratic goaltending, no matter how amazing the best nights are. But coaches and general managers – whose jobs rest on the fragile pillar of their players’ play – hate it even more. That is why the Canucks were so quick to anoint the steady-and-sure Schneider and eject Luongo, the man who just two years earlier was himself anointed with a 12-year, $64-million contract.

Now, there is no safety net. The Luongo-Schneider, Schneider-Luongo duos of the past two seasons ranked among the very best in the National Hockey League. This year, the Canucks backup will be – barring the addition of some journeyman veteran netminder no one else really wants – a rookie with zero games of NHL experience.

Perhaps Luongo’s traditionally poor October is excised in September and Wednesday night is an aberration, an awful dream. One can hope. That’s what the preseason is for: hope.

Globe And Mail LOADED: 09.19.2013

717378 Vancouver Canucks

Healthy Booth would help balance Canucks’ scoring attack

DAVID EBNER

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Sep. 18 2013, 6:23 PM EDT

Last updated Wednesday, Sep. 18 2013, 6:27 PM EDT

David Booth, after a half-year of convalescence, is back on the ice for the Vancouver Canucks – and he feels he will be ready for the team’s season-opener on Oct. 3 on the road against the San Jose Sharks.

The winger went down in mid-March when he slammed against the boards chasing a puck on an icing call, smashing his ankle. He had surgery soon thereafter and screws were used to reconnect the tibia and fibula bones in his calf.

On Wednesday, Booth practiced with the Canucks for the first time in training camp. He skated with teammates who are not playing in tonight’s preseason game against Edmonton. Booth had been, from later August onwards, skating several hours a day, as well as putting in a couple hours in the gym.

There had been chatter about buying out Booth’s contract – two years remaining with a cap hit of $4.25-million per season – but it was never a possibility because he was on injured reserve through the summer. Now the Canucks can only hope the 28-year-old regains some of his earlier form. Last season was a complete failure. He hurt himself, a groin injury, at the start of training camp and in the 12 games he played before his ankle injury he scored one goal- an empty-netter.

Coach John Tortorella cited consistent health as his foremost concern for Booth, but is well aware of the offensive flare the winger can bring to the ice when healthy. Tortorella coached Tampa Bay when Booth was a hotshot scorer for the Florida Panthers. Booth’s best year was 2008-09, when he scored 31 goals and 72 points – his breakout season that got him his current contract. A concussion wrecked much of the next season but he did put up 23 goals and 40 points in 82 games in 2010-11.

In Vancouver, he was hurt in his first season here, too, but did manage 16 goals and 29 points in 56.

Booth had been told by his doctor that it can be up to a year to be 100-per-cent back to where he stood before the injury. For the first several months he could do little and in the summer only upper body work – increasing his weight to nearly 240 pounds (compared with his listed 212). The summer spent healing could slow Booth this fall.

“Even in mid-, late-August, I was still very frustrated with how long this injury takes,” said Booth in an interview on Sept. 3, when he was skating at an informal practice with some fellow Canucks and appeared strong on his skates.

“The summer is where I make my biggest strides for my game, with my strength and my speed and my power. I pride myself on my skating, the strength in my lower body.”

A Booth revival will be a key part of a renewed offensive attack from the Canucks. Last year, with Ryan Kesler and Booth out for long stretches, Vancouver was an easy team to defend, a one-line song. This year, the first line looks to be the Sedins with Zack Kassian, and then Booth and Alex Burrows as wingers for Kesler on the second line. If the Canucks are to generate more success than last year, they need to reasonably expect at least 20 goals from Booth, whose size – 6-foot-2 and the noted 212 pounds – was also missed last year.

However, an intriguing rookie has emerged, in Booth’s absence. Hunter Skinkaruk, the Canucks’s second first-round this past June, scored in his first National Hockey League game on Monday night, a highlight-reel beauty from a near-impossible angle. Skinkaruk is only 5-foot-10 and 181 pounds but impressed Tortorella from the first day and on Monday played in Booth’s spot with Kesler and Burrows.

On Wednesday, hosting the Edmonton Oilers, Shinkaruk again gets the best assignment of the team’s rookies, playing on the team’s second line again with free-agent centre Brad Richardson and winger Jannik Hansen. It seems, at this stage, Shinkaruk could be the one rookie to crack the lineup, possibly as a 13th forward who could add scoring spice and a live-wire personality. He has a ready smile and has been described by assistant coach Mike Sullivan as having “moxie.” This is precisely what Tortorella – who mentored young skaters in New York – wants to inject into the ageing team.

Notes: Wednesday night, Bo Horvat – the No. 9 pick acquired in the Cory Schneider trade – will centre rookie Nicklas Jensen and journeyman Colin Stuart. Horvat probably will end up back in junior in London and Jensen might make the team. Stuart is probably destined for the American Hockey League affiliate in Utica, N.Y. Meanwhile, 2012 first-round pick Brendan Gaunce, a centre, will play wing on the fourth line.

Globe And Mail LOADED: 09.19.2013

717379 Websites

ESPN / Highs and lows of #NHLrank

By ESPN.com staff

ESPN.com

Scott Burnside, Craig Custance, Pierre LeBrun and Katie Strang break down the player rankings to tell you who they think was overrated, who was underrated and what surprised them in the panel's voting:

OVERRATED PLAYERS

Forwards

Custance: No. 14 Corey Perry, Ducks -- He has a Hart Trophy and isn't a guy who is enjoyable to play against, but his lone 50-goal season also came during a year in which he had a 17.2 shooting percentage. His career stats suggest he's more of a 30-goal scorer, which is a nice asset to have on your team, but not better than both Sedins, Martin St. Louis, Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa or Phil Kessel -- all below Perry in the rankings.

LeBrun: No. 64 Johan Franzen, Red Wings -- I don't know what it is, but I always feel like Franzen leaves me wanting more. I just feel like he's always had the talent to be a 40-goal scorer in this league given his 6-foot-3, 223-pound frame, his soft hands and wicked shot. He scored 28 goals in 2010-11, 29 goals in 2011-12 and 14 goals in 41 games last season in the lockout-shortened year. Those numbers are good, but I feel like his talent should produce more.

Strang: No. 44 Chris Kunitz, Penguins -- This pains me to write because there is a lot to like about Kunitz's game. He's an undrafted underdog with a great story who's easy to pull for, but I can't in good conscience rank him in front of players like Milan Lucic, Andrew Ladd and Ilya Kovalchuk. Kunitz had a spectacular season last year, but don't forget that he posted those dazzling numbers in 2013 -- 22 goals and 52 points in 48 games -- while playing alongside Sidney Crosby for a significant portion of the lockout-shortened season. Kunitz is the type of complementary player who flourishes while playing with top talent -- not just in Pittsburgh, such was the case in Anaheim as well -- but he's not a franchise guy you build around or the type of piece that will make or break your lineup.

Defensemen

Burnside: No. 6 P.K. Subban, Canadiens -- Hey, I know he's the defending Norris Trophy winner. Fair enough. I had Ryan Suter as my best defenseman last season and didn't think Subban was in the same area code when it came to the award. I would simply like to see a better-rounded player as high as sixth in the rankings. Subban finished sixth in average ice time per game while killing penalties among defensemen on his own team, which suggests Montreal head coach Michel Therrien does not have the confidence that Subban has a mature enough game to get on the ice when the Habs are shorthanded. Doesn't diminish what Subban accomplished offensively, as he finished tied for the league lead in points among defensemen, but if we're talking the top defenders in the game, I would like a little more complete game at that ranking.

Custance: No. 20 Kevin Shattenkirk, Blues -- You have to appreciate the strides Shattenkirk has made defensively in St. Louis along with his more disciplined play. And his advanced stats are strong -- a 10.0 Relative Corsi led all Blues defensemen last year -- but I still am not ready to rank Shattenkirk ahead of more complete defenders such as Francois Beauchemin, Jay Bouwmeester or Dan Hamhuis.

LeBrun: No. 14 (tied) Dan Girardi, Rangers -- Girardi is part of a solid defensive pairing with Ryan McDonagh, but I still wouldn't put him ahead of guys such as Kimmo Timonen and Keith Yandle.

Strang: No. 9 Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Coyotes -- Ekman-Larsson was one of my dark-horse candidate for the Norris Trophy at one point, as the 22-year-old had a terrific season in Phoenix with 24 points while defending against the opposition's top lines. The only knock on him is that his body of work is still too small for me to feel comfortable placing him above veterans such as Mike Green, Dan Boyle, Dion Phaneuf, and Keith Yandle.

Goalies

Custance: No. 4 Sergei Bobrovsky, Blue Jackets -- He would have been at the top of my Hart ballot if the Blue Jackets made the playoffs last season and certainly deserved the Vezina, but one outstanding stretch of 38 games doesn't put you in my top five overall. It was only two years ago that he had a save percentage of .899, and he has only one season in which he's played more than 50 games. By comparison, the guy he's ranked immediately in front of, Pekka Rinne, played in 73 games in the last full NHL season and has a higher career save percentage (.919) in 172 more games played.

LeBrun: No. 20 (tied) Viktor Fasth, Ducks -- The debate last season was whether Fasth or Jonas Hiller was better. The answer: John Gibson is Anaheim's best goaltender. Whether the young American netminder has to wait another year to make his NHL debut remains to be seen. Once he does, it's lights out in the Anaheim net; Gibson is not going to relinquish it.

Strang: No. 9 (tied) Cory Schneider, Devils -- I still think it was a shrewd move for Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello to acquire Schneider; the Devils need to groom someone as Brodeur's successor, and I think this could be a fantastic opportunity for the former Canuck. But, the 27-year-old netminder has never handled the workload of an NHL starter -- he has a combined 98 regular-season starts over the past five seasons -- so it's hard to draw conclusions about what he can do until he's proven capable of doing that. Schneider does seem keen on accomplishing that, however. His Devils' debut could not have gone much better, as he turned away all 22 shots faced in his first exhibition game against the Rangers, including one spectacular stick save that robbed Brad Richards of a goal in the second period of the Devils' 2-1 win over the Rangers.

UNDERRATED PLAYERS

Forwards

Custance: No. 82 Justin Williams, Kings -- This spot could have gone to Loui Eriksson, the perennially underrated Bruins winger, but that's too easy. And Jamie Benn gets consideration, but I didn't want our underrated section to be too Stars-centric (see Lehtonen, Kari) so we'll go with Williams. Not necessarily because of his regular season, where he's usually good for a 20-goal season, but instead for his propensity to come up big in big games. It was his two goals that finished off a really good Sharks team last spring in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals, and he's the first player in NHL history to score in each of the first four Game 7s in which he played. He doesn't have two Stanley Cups with two different teams by accident.

LeBrun: No. 47 Andrew Ladd, Jets -- He had more points last season than the likes of Henrik Sedin, Nazem Kadri, Alexander Semin, Matt Duchene, Nash, Anze Kopitar and Thomas Vanek, among others, but I doubt few people outside of Winnipeg knew that about Ladd. The Jets captain is a terrific, well-rounded player who continues to push his game to new heights, a great leader oozing with character and has the ability to protect his teammates while leading the team in scoring. That's the one guy I'm sure Chicago wishes it didn't make part of the salary-cap purge of 2010.

Strang: No. 37 (tied) Loui Eriksson, Bruins -- It was a hard choice to pick between Jamie Benn and Loui Eriksson, both of whom I feel are so often overlooked, perhaps because of where they play. Ultimately, I put a lot of stock into what a player's peers feel, and there is a reason Eriksson is a consistent appearance among the NHLPA's poll of most underrated players. Teammates love him and opponents hate playing against him. He's the type of heady player whose game is understated but absolutely vital to the success of his team.

Defensemen

Burnside: No. 27 (tied) Jay Bouwmeester, Blues -- Always a little hard to figure where to slot the former third overall draft pick. He has never had the impact at the NHL level most assumed he would, yet he became such an important figure for the St. Louis Blues when he was acquired at the trade deadline last spring. I'm a bit surprised he was only 28th on our list of defensemen. Bouwmeester averaged 23:23 a night in ice time after coming over to the Blues, and he chipped in seven points in 14 games during the regular season. If, as some believe, the Blues are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender this season, Bouwmeester will be a key part of any championship run.

Custance: No. 59 Jason Garrison, Canucks -- He's got a big shot and quietly got better as the season went on in his first year with the Canucks. He has 24 goals the past two seasons and, after finishing second among defensemen in goals during his final year in Florida, only six defensemen had more goals than Garrison did last season. He's never going to be mistaken for a shutdown defenseman, but it's hard to believe there are 58 better players on defense.

LeBrun: No. 11 Alex Pietrangelo, Blues -- Pietrangelo is an all-world blueliner and people need to realize it. The depth and talent of the Blues' defense is unmatched in the NHL, and Pietrangelo is a big reason for that. Pietrangelo led the team's defensemen with 24 points -- five goals and 19 assists -- and was among the league leaders with an average of 25 minutes per game. After all, there is a reason the Blues gave him a seven-year, $45.5 million contract with a no-trade clause over the final three years after a brief holdout.

Strang: Marc Staal, Rangers -- Granted, Staal has missed significant time over the past two seasons with a couple of frightening injuries -- a serious concussion that sidelined him for 36 games in 20011-12 and a frightening eye injury that forced him to miss 27 games last year -- but when healthy, I believe he's the best defensemen of the Rangers' back end. Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi have proved to be a tremendous tandem during Staal's prolonged absence the past two years, but the 26-year-old blueliner still has all the tools of a top-10 defenseman in the league. His game isn't flashy and he'll never be a major points-producer, but his steady presence is critically important to the Rangers' success.