Worst seat in the house

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Roberto Luongo has a privileged view these days, but he sure doesn't like it very much.

Injured for the first time as a member of the Vancouver Canucks, Luongo is seeing far too much of press-box seating, and he can only hope the situation will be resolved sooner rather than later.

Luongo re-aggravated what the team is calling a day-to-day rib injury on Saturday night and he missed his third straight game Thursday. Luongo isn't suiting up as the backup – he's reporting to games in street clothes and trying to make the best of a personally frustrating situation.

"I hate it," said Luongo, who receives daily treatments of ice in the hopes of reducing pain and swelling. "Even today, just being in the locker room when the guys are on the ice is a feeling I don't enjoy."

Originally hurt when he stopped a slap shot off the stick of Minnesota's Aaron Voros on Dec. 2, Luongo got dinged again six nights later against visiting Pittsburgh and couldn't get through Monday's skate in Los Angeles.

Told to return home and rest, Luongo nixed that idea and remained with his teammates on a trip that concludes with Saturday's stop in Edmonton. The earliest the Canucks can expect Luongo to be game-ready is Tuesday night when they host New Jersey.

"Honestly (Monday) is the first time I felt I was struggling to move around and having trouble breathing," Luongo said. "I don't know if I pulled something against Pittsburgh, but that's when it started feeling that something was wrong."

There might not be a player in the league who is more important to his team than Luongo is to the Canucks. They're not nearly as dynamic offensively as when they featured a Markus Naslund-Brendan Morrison-Todd Bertuzzi top line, which left the Sedin twins – Henrik and Daniel – to anchor a strong second line. In addition, Vancouver received more production from its defense and really, the team was considered more of an offense-first unit than the current group.

That's not to say these Canucks are not as good. Quite the contrary: Coach Alain Vigneault is well respected and Vancouver plays in one of the most balanced divisions in the league. Naslund isn't the offensive threat he once was, and the Sedins have inherited top-line status.

Clearly, everything revolves around Luongo, who has been the centerpiece of two lopsided trades. Drafted fourth overall by the Islanders in 1997, Luongo was packaged with Olli Jokinen by New York general manager Mike Milbury to Florida in exchange for forwards Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Five non-playoff years with the Panthers were capped by Luongo getting shipped along with Lukas Krajicek and a draft pick to Vancouver for Bryan Allen, Alex Auld and Bertuzzi.

Luongo appeared in a career-high 76 games last year, winning 47 times, and hushed the critics by finally leading a team into the Stanley Cup playoffs where the Canucks won a round before losing to the eventual champion Ducks in the conference semifinals.

He was on a similar pace to start this season before injury struck. Luongo rested once in each October and November, two vastly different months in terms of results.

The 28-year-old native of Montreal was only average at the outset of the season, logging a 2.94 goals-against average and .903 save percentage while going 4-7. He wasn't receiving a lot of offensive support, but Luongo wasn't playing the way he did as a Vezina Trophy finalist last season.

"Compared to last year, when I felt I really was struggling at the beginning, this year was a bit weird for me because I didn't feel like I was letting in bad goals," Luongo said. "But, at the same time, the results were not there."

That all changed when the page was turned on the calendar. That, and the fact the Canucks made an adjustment to their system of forechecking to ensure better defensive-zone coverage.

Luongo flourished, surrendering only 19 goals during his 12 starts in November, and finished the month with the best stretch of goaltending this franchise has ever witnessed. Funny how the guy standing in front of the net looks so much better when he gets more help.

"Goalies are like a quarterback in football," Luongo started, "you need to have a good player at that position to be successful. A lot of the time the focus of the game is going to come down to the goaltender."

Luongo shut out conference rivals Chicago, Anaheim and Columbus. Only the 4-0 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks was comfortable. Both goose eggs thrown at the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets included only two goals each of support from his teammates.

In all, Luongo went a team-record 210:34 without allowing a puck to slip through to cap an 8-2-2 month that featured a 1.57 GAA and .940 save percentage.

"I think a lot of times in the first month teams are just trying to find their way," Luongo said. "Good thing for us is we found that … compared to last year where it took us after the Christmas break to get our game going."

For now, it's St. Louis Blues castoff Curtis Sanford being asked to carry the goaltending load in Luongo's absence. Stanford was pulled midway through Thursday's 5-2 loss to the host Sharks after he allowed a third goal. Recent call-up Drew MacIntyre made his NHL debut in relief.

Standing 5-feet-10 and weighing 187 pounds, Sanford displays a far different goaltending style than Luongo, who at 6-3, 205, not only covers far more net because of his size but also has to be considered possibly the most athletic netminder in the business.

"It's been a wild ride," Sanford said. "We all love the game, but there's a passion that drives us beyond just loving the game. We love the competition of it, to go out there and compete. You want to get out there and win. I'm not just going out there to spend my time in the net."