Game 8 preview – Which Luongo will Edmonton get?

This year I’m trying something new. I’m trying to be more relaxed when I go to Oiler games. Not that I was exactly a raving lunatic before, but occasionally I’d really let opposing fans or a terrible game from the Oilers – and last season there were many – get to me and when that happened I just didn’t enjoy the game as much.

So far everything has been good. With a couple of last minutes disasters against the Flames and a building full of Habs fans another night I certainly had the opportunity to revert to more neanderthal ways but I didn’t. I’m kind of liking this older, more mature me.

Tonight the new Ryan might need to show up in a big way. With the Canucks in town you know there will be plenty of the fifth most annoying fans in sports ready to scream Luoooo every time he stops a dump in. But tonight I’m trading my seats in Row 48 with the wife for the nice company seats and a night with a client. If he starts getting vocal with the Canucks fans though, when in Rome right.

The team that the Oil will send out tonight should look exactly like the team that beat the Wild 5-2 on Friday night. Hemsky is still sick, Pisani’s back is still bugging him, Staios is battling a concussion, Souray has a concussion too, and Pouliot is out with a hernia. Injuries certainly won’t be an excuse though since the Canucks are without one of the Sedin sisters (I have no idea which one and I don’t care), Salo, Schnieder, and Demitra.

Injuries aren’t going to decide this game though. What this game is going to come down to is goaltending. The Oilers have been getting great games from Khabibulin, the Canucks have been getting random random games from Luongo.

In his three wins this year Luongo has posted a 1.62 GAA and a 0.938 save percentage. In the four losses a 5.19 GAA and a 0.800 save percentage and has been pulled twice. Maybe all the talk about the Olympics has him a little off his game, who knows. I do know that what Luongo shows up tonight in Edmonton will go a long way to deciding who gets two points.

Over the course of his career Luongo has had success against the Oilers posting a 12-6-1-2 record. More good news for Canuck fans is that Oilers also have a great habit of making sure that players break out of slumps when they come to town. I don’t have a stat to back this up but I bet you hear “That was Joe Blow’s first goal in a really freaking long time” or “Johnny Goaltender looks like an all-star out there tonight” more frequently on Oiler broadcasts than any other team in the NHL.

I’m hoping for the sieve Luongo but bracing for the all-star.