Florida panthers News

Two days after his 35th birthday Roberto Luongo gave his former Vancouver Canuck teammates a gift by beating the Dallas Stars, 3-2, on Sunday. The Canucks have a slim chance of making the Stanley Cup playoffs and a Dallas win would have eliminated them.

So take that coach John Tortorella! Roberto Luongo, dissed by his former coach, who gave a key start to his back-up, got lots of respect in his first game after being traded back to the Florida Panthers. Lou got the club's first shutout in two years.

When it comes to hockey opinions and the NHL, any pundit with a forum likely to reach others - hey, I got one! - is sure to have a take on a trade the magnitude of the Roberto Luongo deal. It was a newsworthy exchange of NHL goods, no question.

Toronto - Ben Scrivens made 37 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs improved to a 10-6-0 record with a convincing 3-0 victory over the Florida Panthers.

Roberto Luongo talked to the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper Monday and said what some media, Digital Journal included, have said all along: he wants to go to Florida. He spoke to the paper as Scott Clemmensen and Jose Theodore worked out on nearby ice.

Forget about show business, truth is there's no business like business, it supersedes all else because all else flows from it. In hockey the business of a new contract between the NHL and the NHLPA is of such import it may be holding up a trade.

The desperation being felt by Canucks GM Mike Gillis must surely be mounting. Yes, his Canucks won their second straight President's Trophy but a window to winning the Stanley Cup is closing and he needs the Roberto Luongo trade to keep it open.

Vancouver - Let us get this right out in the open: when we don't have hockey we fans, especially Canadian ones, consider the next best thing to be hockey trade rumors. And this off-season is a great one for rumors, with the Roberto Luongo trade-saga leading the way.

The latest of a flurry of trade rumors concerning Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo comes courtesy an American magazine called The Fourth Period. The magazine says Roberto Luongo is only willing to go to the Florida Panthers.

The NHL season is finally over and the playoffs are set. The Eastern Conference lineup features a few perennial favorites as well as a resurgent New York Rangers team.