The Canucks are 21 18 3 all time on opening night, and against the San Jose Sharks are 1 1 on Game One. Vancouver will look to pick up their first win in their last five opening games.

Tonight will also mark the re alignment of the Vancouver Canucks into the newly formed Pacific Division. The Sharks, Kings, Ducks, Coyotes, Oilers and Flames now comprise the seven team division, so the days of Vancouver toiling in the 'soft' Northwest Division are over.

Head Coach John Tortorella will make his debut behind the Canucks bench. Tortorella will make Vancouver his third stop as a NHL Head Coach, after stops in Tampa Bay and also most recently in Manhattan with the New York Rangers.

Tortorella's all time record as a Head Coach is 410 330 37 67, with a Stanley Cup Championship won with Tampa Bay back in the 2003 2004 season.

Canucks GM Mike Gillis spoke of a reset this past off season and the need to start playing younger playersgoing into tonight's game, 15 of the 20 players played on last year's squad, with Zack Kassian (suspension), Jordan Schroeder (ankle) and Andrew Alberts (healthy scratch) making the number 18 of a possible 23 players returning from last year's club.

Key players not returning from last year's team are Cory Schneider, Mason Raymond, Maxim Lapierre, Derek Roy and Keith Ballard.

Replacing those spots on the roster will be Eddie Lack, Mike Santorelli, Brad Richardson, Zac Dalpe and Ryan Stanton. The Canucks discarded overpriced and under performing players, (with the exception of Schneider) for better priced unproven players.

The trade off for Vancouver from a payroll point of view was substantial, as Vancouver jettisoned 12.4 million in potential salary this year with 3.5 million for the five new players, a net savings of just under 9 million dollars, which was required for Vancouver to sign key personnel off season.

From savior to captain to goat to exile to fill in the blankthe next chapter of the Roberto Luongo saga is about to play out as the Canucks mercurial goaltender starts this evening.

Luongo admitted to being stunned and shocked when Cory Schneider was dealt to New Jersey at the NHL Draft and has had a summer to reflect on returning to Vancouver. Vancouver's all time leader in many statistical categories has yet to say he is happy to return to Vancouver, simply stating that he is a starting goaltender here in Vancouver and he looks forward to the upcoming season.

The San Jose Sharks enter this season wanting to build on their 2013 campaign which saw them vanquish the Canucks and take the LA Kings to seven hard fought games before falling out of the playoffs.

This is Logan Couture's team now and he will be looked upon to lead this team along with Joe Pavelski. Last season Couture led the Sharks in goals with 21 and was second in points with 37 in 48 games.

It is impossible to look at the Sharks without discussing Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, as well as defenseman Dan Boyle. While these three players are on the back end of their careers, they have been proficient at handing Vancouver a stinky diaper on a number of occasions. Thornton, Marleau and Boyle are all in the final years of their current deal and tie up 20.5 million dollars in salary for the Sharks this season.

Antti Niemi will start in goal for San Jose.

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