Having already hosted an Olympic gold medal game this year, General Motors Place will be the site for Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals between the host Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings.
Team Canada won gold at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo was in net for the Olympic champions. Luongo's club enters the 2010 postseason off of a second straight Northwest Division title and is the third seed in the West.
In addition to Luongo, arguably the game's top goaltender, Vancouver also boasts the league's leading scorer in Henrik Sedin, who became the first Canuck to win the Art Ross Trophy with 112 points this year.
While they would like a repeat of last year's conference quarterfinals -- a four-game sweep of the Blues -- the Canucks were then ousted in the semifinals by Chicago and haven't made it past the second round since reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in 1994.
"I think we're a little more confident this year," Canucks forward Kyle Wellwood told the team's official site. "Playing LA, they're a really tough matchup for us first round. I think it's going to be a really hard series, and we're excited to start."
The 31-year-old Luongo went 40-22-4 with a 2.57 goals-against average and .913 save percentage in 68 games for the Canucks this year. He has had mixed success in the playoffs though as he holds a 2.09 career GAA in 22 games, but is just 11-11 in that span.
He'll get offensive help from the Sedin twins. Henrik posted career highs with 29 goals and 83 assists to set a club record for points. Daniel Sedin finished the season with 29 goals and 56 assists. The two also helped the Canucks endure the strain of an NHL-record 14-game road trip that was made necessary by Vancouver hosting the Winter Olympic games, a trek in which the Canucks went 8-5-1.
The club also had one of the best home records in the league at 30-8-3.
Vancouver got plenty of offense from players not named Sedin, finishing second in the NHL with 268 goals, trailing only Washington's 313. Alex Burrows netted 35 goals playing alongside the Sedins, while center Ryan Kesler did his best Henrik impression with 25 goals and 50 assists.
Vancouver tied for 11th in the NHL with 218 goals allowed, and is a bit banged up at the blueline. Sami Salo (leg), Shane O'Brien (shoulder) and Aaron Rome (undisclosed) are all questionable for Game 1 with various injuries.
Meanwhile, the Kings, the West's sixth seed, are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2002, when the likes of Ziggy Palffy, Jason Allison, Adam Deadmarsh and Felix Potvin were leading Los Angeles.
The Kings had their best season since a 102-point campaign in 1990-91, collecting 46 wins and 101 points this year. Los Angeles' third-place Pacific Division finish was also its best since the lockout.
The long playoff drought did come with one advantage and Los Angeles is reaping that now. The Kings have been steadily rebuilding their team through the draft and the selling off of veterans, with five of their top six scorers 27 years of age or younger. That includes 22-year-old Anze Kopitar, the Kings' 2005 first-round draft pick who set career highs across the board in goals (34), assists (47) and points (81).
Kopitar is joined by 20-year-old and 2008 second-overall selection Drew Doughty, who notched 16 goals, 43 assists and was second on the club with 59 points in his second NHL season. He also led the club with an average of 24 minutes and 58 seconds of ice time per game, teaming with 23-year-old Jack Johnson (8 goals, 28 assists) on Los Angles' young blueline.
Doughty and his fellow defensemen will try to keep things clear for 24-year- old goaltender Jonathan Quick. Quick had one of the best seasons in franchise history, setting new records with 39 wins, 4,258 minutes played and 72 games. Quick ended the season 39-24-7 with four shutouts, a 2.54 GAA and .907 save percentage. However, he will be making his playoff debut and enters the postseason knowing he went 0-3-3 over his final eight starts and was pulled early twice in that span.
The Canucks season-long success at home was evident to the Kings, who dropped both tests at GM Place this year by a combined 7-2 margin. Los Angeles lost three of four to Vancouver, but did post an 8-3 home victory in the final meeting on April 1.
The Kings and Canucks have met three times before in the postseason, with Los Angeles winning two of those series, but not since 1993, when Los Angeles was led by some guy named Wayne Gretzky.
Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Saturday night in Vancouver.
The Kings, who will host the third game of this set on Monday, had a solid 24-14-3 road record this year.
