The NHL season kicks off in high gear on Saturday as the lockout-shortened season begins with a number of games around the league.
The Anaheim Ducks will travel to Vancouver to take on the Canucks to kick off their schedule and will look to start the season on a positive note by beating the two-time defending Presidents' Trophy winners.
The Canucks enter the season as the four-time Northwest division champions, but will be dealing with some injuries earlier in the year with both center Ryan Kesler and wingman David Booth sitting out.
"We're going to have to do a good job, especially at the beginning, of spreading the ice time around and making sure that the minutes our players are giving us are quality minutes," coach Alain Vigneault said to the Associated Press.
The Canucks came into 2012 as the defending Western Conference champions after making the Stanley Cup and were poised to do that once again, but the team suffered a surprising upset by the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
The team went down 2-0 to the Kings behind bad play from goalie Roberto Luongo, forcing Vancouver to go to Cory Schneider, who won one of the next three games as Los Angeles advanced after winning Game 5.
Luongo will be the biggest name in trade talks this season, as the Canucks have a great deal of money invested in the position with him and Schneider. His play as steadily declined over the past few years and the Canadian could be a hot commodity for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are trying to rebound from a number of disappointing seasons of missing the playoffs.
Schneider is set to begin the season as the starter, while Luongo will serve as insurance before the team figures out a trade. The Ducks will look to attack the net early in the game and will rely on Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf as well as veteran Teemu Selanne for scoring.
The team has had a few down seasons, but coach Bruce Boudreau is optimistic about the 2013 campaign.
"I love it. I've got six months bottled into me," Boudreau said. "It's what we do. This is my 38th year (in pro hockey), and to miss the first part of it was killing me. I can't wait for the games to get on."
The Ducks will continue their Canadian tour on Monday against the Flames in Calgary and will look to get off to a better start than last year when they lost 15 of their first 17 road games.
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