A solid debut

by J.J. Guerrero · January 2, 2009

Jason LaBarbera won his first game in a Canucks uniform, stopping 31 of 32 Nashville shots. Needless to say, he did a lot to try and strip himself of the LOLBarbera monicker that some Kings fans had given him. (BTW… good to see the Burnaby J nickname catching on.)

Some quick thoughts on his first game:

Burnaby J is a big boy. Like Lui, he covers up a lot of net.
I noticed he was well outside the crease on a few of his saves. For one game at least, he was confident challenging the shooter and that was good to see. On one play, he even managed to stretch back and swipe the puck out from what could have been a Nashville goal.
He’s good at making the first save, but he also gives up a lot of rebounds. This is obviously something the Canucks defense needs to be aware of.

Overall, LaBarbera played a pretty solid game. With him however, the trick is to play solidly more consistently. He won’t have to wait long to prove he can do that; The Province reported this morning that Burnaby J expects to get the start again tonight.