Surging Canucks host struggling Wings

The Vancouver Canucks and the Detroit Red Wings are two teams moving in different directions heading into Tuesday’s game at GM Place.

After a slow start, the hometown Canucks (6-5-0) have rallied to win three straight and four of the last five, despite injury troubles.

Vancouver dropped its first three games to start the season, but has shown signs of the defensively responsible team from a year ago.

The change has a lot to do with goaltending.

Roberto Luongo(notes) registered his first shutout of the season in a 2-0 win at home over Edmonton, turning aside all 27 shots to pass Kirk Mclean as the all-time shut out leader in Canucks history.

“We’re really starting to play well systems-wise and defensively,” Luongo said. “It makes my job a lot easier and I am able to focus on the shooter more and just challenge him and not worry about any of the backdoor stuff.”

Luongo has allowed a mere six goals over his past five starts and enters Tuesday’s game with a .905 save percentage and 2.57 goals against average.

The goaltender’s resurgence has been a timely one as Vancouver is arguably the most injured team in the National Hockey League.

On Saturday, they lost forward Kyle Wellwood(notes) to a broken big toe. Defenceman Sami Salo’s(notes) sprained knee will keep him sidelined for another two weeks and Pavol Demitra’s(notes) shoulder is still recovering following surgery.

However, the biggest loss for Vancouver is last season’s leading goal scorer, Daniel Sedin(notes).

The Swedish star — who signed a long-term deal with the Canucks in the summer — went down with a broken foot Oct. 10.

Daniel’s twin and linemate Henrik is in need of some brotherly love.

Although leading the team in points, Sedin is struggling to find the score sheet with only one goal and six points since Daniel’s injury.

Vancouver is also without Rick Rypien(notes) (groin) and Jannik Hansen(notes) (broken hand) but defenceman Mathieu Schneider(notes) returned from injury in Sunday’s win.

The Red Wings (3-4-2) stumbled out of the gate and have continued to sputter as a lack of scoring and inconsistent goaltending has plagued the perennial powerhouse.

Besides the injury to Johan Franzen(notes) long-term, Detroit is relatively healthy. But it’s the losses to free agency that are hindering the normally potent Wings attack.

Marian Hossa(notes) decided to leave Detroit for Chicago after his second straight Stanley Cup finals defeat. The Czech sniper buried 40 goals during his one and only season in Motown.

Another Czech, forward Jiri Hudler(notes), opted to jump ship and cross the pond returning to KHL, formerly the Russian Super League. Hudler had 23 goals and 57 points last season in Detroit.

The loss of key offensive contributors is big problem, but another season of an inconsistent Chris Osgood(notes) is even larger.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion has been less than average to start the year. With a 3-2-2 record, 3.17 goals against average, and .890 save percentage, Osgood has not stolen any games for the Detroit thus far.

Back up goaltender Jimmy Howard(notes) has not done any better, as the 25-year-old has lost two games and is allowing 3.31 goals against per start.

Their latest defeat came Saturday, a 4-3 shootout loss to Colorado.

“I think we played pretty well. We had a lot of opportunities,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought we squandered the four-minute power play.”

Vancouver enters Tuesday contest fourth in the Northwest division with 12 points, Detroit sits fourth in the Central with eight, just one point ahead of Nashville.

The two teams split the season series 2-2 last year with every game decided by one goal.