Canucks 2 - 3 Oilers
Final
  for this game

Booth makes debut for Canucks in Edmonton

Oct 25, 2011 - 2:52 PM (Sports Network) - A different climate isn't the only change new Canucks forward David Booth is going to have to get used to. The Michigan native is going from a team in the midst of an epic playoff drought to one that fell just short of a Stanley Cup championship a season ago.

Expectations will be on the rise for Booth, who makes his Vancouver debut this evening against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place.

The 26-year-old spent his first six seasons with the Panthers, a club that hasn't made the playoffs since 2000. Booth now goes to a city that expects its club to bring home a title and will count on the forward being a big part of that.

"I don't know what it's like. It's my first time in this situation," said Booth of going to a hockey-crazy city. "My whole career's been in Florida ... it's polar opposites. It's a new challenge for me and I'm excited for it and I'm ready to go."

Booth, who has battled concussion problems in the past, scored a career-high 31 goals in 2008-09 and posted 23 goals and 40 points in 82 games last year. However, he had just one assist through Florida's first six games prior to the trade.

"I know I have to be better. I just hold myself to my highest expectations. That's higher than what anyone else expects. That's something I've always done in my life and my career, is hold myself to my own," Booth said.

The Canucks made the move to get Booth and Steve Reinprecht following Saturday's 3-2 overtime win over the Wild, the club's third in four games. Vancouver dealt Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm to get the pair, though Reinprecht was sent to the minors after the deal.

Defenseman Sami Salo scored a power-play goal with 21 seconds left in overtime on Saturday, while Jannik Hansen scored a game-tying goal in the third period. Cory Schneider made 21 saves in the win.

"Everybody has picked it up," said Salo after playing in his 700th career game. "I think everybody has really worked hard on their game."

Salo scored twice, including the game-winner, in Vancouver's 4-3 victory in Edmonton back on Oct. 15, giving the Canucks a win in nine of the past 12 meetings in this series and four of the past six at Rexall Place.

Oilers rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tallied a hat trick in the loss and has five goals and two assists over his first seven career games. He notched a goal and an assist in Saturday's 2-0 victory over the Rangers.

That was more than enough support for goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who made 19 saves in his 44th career shutout. The netminder has been sharing duties with Deven Dubnyk early on this year and improved to 2-0-2 with a 0.72 goals- against average and .969 save percentage in four starts.

"I don't expect anything, I just expect effort from myself and to fight for playing time," Khabibulin said. "Whatever happens, happens, but it's nice when it happens this way. It's nicer to start well then not well and trying to catch up."

Corey Potter also scored on Saturday for the Canucks, who snapped a two-game slide and moved to 1-0-1 on a four-game homestand.






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