SUNRISE, Fla. -- It is not just that Roberto Luongo swapped the brisk temperatures of Vancouver for the Florida sunshine in coming to the Panthers at the trade deadline in March. Or the fact he has gone from one of the most hockey-rabid markets to one that, by comparison, seems rather sedate.
Mentally, he is in a different place altogether.
At 35, Luongo is coming off a summer that for once was not fraught with uncertainty.
He'll be the Florida Panthers' starting goaltender when they open their season against the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday at Amalie Arena, and there is no doubt about that. He already knows the lay of the land, having spent a few months at the end of last season acclimating to a new locker room and an entirely different set of personnel after spending eight seasons in Vancouver.
He won't be facing the daily cavalcade of reporters scrutinizing the team's goaltending hierarchy, speculating about who might leapfrog him on the depth chart. In fact, he may go three or four days without having to speak to the media at all. After all, this is a sports town in which even the local sub shop near the rink, a favorite of team staffers, is decorated with posters of the championship Miami Heat squads, with a framed jersey of former goalie John Vanbiesbrouck sitting between the order counter and the bathrooms the lone reminder of the team that plays less than two miles away.
Luongo has roots here, and not just friends from his first tour with the Panthers from 2000 to 2006. It was here that he met his wife, who relocated to the area from New York when she was 5. Luongo's family has always spent the offseason in the area, making the transition practically seamless. They have a place to live and Luongo's kids have already settled into school, even though he admits that his wife "may have cried more than my son" when their youngest, almost 4, recently entered preschool.
While it's technically not his home -- Luongo hails from Montreal -- it's pretty close.
Distractions are limited and there is a certain comfort factor here.
"Now, I'm just playing hockey," Luongo told ESPN.com. "It's all I have to worry about. I just have to stop the puck and enjoy the game. That's all that matters for me."
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It was just near 3 p.m. local time on April 3, 2013, when Luongo was called off the ice in Vancouver. He was sitting in then-Canucks general manager Mike Gillis' office, having just signed a trade waiver, elated and relieved at the thought of finally getting a fresh start after years of goaltending controversy dogging him in Vancouver.
Then Gillis walked in and told him that the trade discussions with the Toronto Maple Leafs fell through. Luongo was shocked. Mentally, he was already out of Vancouver. He considered himself traded. Overcome with emotion and frustration, he broke down.
It was just minutes later that Luongo was thrust in front of a throng of cameras for a news conference in which the embattled goalie memorably declared: "My contract sucks."
On first impression, outsiders may have seen that as petulant, ungrateful. It's difficult to feel sympathy for someone playing on a 12-year, $64 million deal that runs through 2021-22.
But the money meant little to Luongo by that point. In fact, he would later consult with the NHLPA on whether he could void that deal and sign somewhere else on the cheap (several sources confirmed this to ESPN.com). He was just so exhausted by the daily turmoil that came with being Vancouver's favorite whipping boy, an odd phenomenon considering Luongo was, and is still considered, an elite goaltender.
Maybe it was a product of the market, the fans' frustration about a team that made it to the Stanley Cup finals in 2011 (Luongo had two shutouts that series) and coughed up a 2-0 series lead. This was the same city that rioted when the Boston Bruins won the Cup in the seventh game in a 4-0 shutout. Expectations were ridiculous.
"In Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, you have to put up with a lot of bulls---," one league source remarked.
But Luongo didn't turn sour or nasty. He didn't take it out on the other goaltenders who pushed him for the starting job -- first Cory Schneider, then Eddie Lack last season -- even though he was constantly pitted against them.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for [Luongo], just the grace and humility he showed," Schneider said in a recent telephone conversation. "He never said a bad thing to me, about me. He supported me as a young player, even when his job was at stake."
A funny thing happened during Luongo's rocky tenure in Vancouver. While he was handling the numerous blows in what felt like a never-ending saga -- Schneider's stunning trade to New Jersey at the 2013 draft and Lack's controversial start in the 2014 Heritage Classic -- with both class and professionalism, he found another way to deal with the circumstances.
He learned to have fun with it.
Though at points Luongo had been portrayed as both brooding or aloof, his rumored Twitter account @strombone1 (which he only slyly acknowledges) revealed a completely different persona. Witty and self-deprecating, Luongo beat every pundit to the punch. The result? A legion of followers (he now has 377,000) and a dramatic shift in how he was perceived. He single-handedly reinvented his image without even intending to do so.
"People saw him in a completely different light," said TSN broadcaster James Duthie, who has a strong professional relationship with Luongo.
It was not orchestrated, Duthie insists, but completely organic. This wasn't the plan, it was just what happened when Luongo let go of what he couldn't control and coped the best way he knew.
"I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't easy," Luongo said. "At the end of the day, I was trying to make the best out of a situation that, you know, was tough not only for myself but also whether it was [Schneider] or [Lack] last year. Everyone was put in a tough spot there. I think moping around wouldn't have really solved anything. It would've made things worse.I was just trying to make the best of it. For me, the best way to do that was to make jokes and make fun of it."
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This is not to say that Luongo is someone who takes his job lightly, however. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
"I don't want people to mistake his humor for lack of caring," said Schneider, who still keeps in touch with Luongo and plays in a fantasy sports league with him. "No one cares more about winning than Luongo."
Sometimes, that desire borders on obsessive, teammates say.
"[Roberto Luongo] never said a bad thing to me, about me. He supported me as a young player, even when his job was at stake."Devils goalie Cory Schneider on playing with Luongo
"I remember in the playoffs, looking at him, and he almost has a tear in his eyes because he wants it so bad," said veteran defenseman Willie Mitchell, who played with Luongo in Vancouver and is now reunited with him in Florida. "He's that guy."
That competitive fire is likely what has allowed him to sustain such a high level of play for as long as he has.
Luongo is entering his 15th season in the NHL. He has two Olympic gold medals, two All-Star appearances and is a three-time Vezina Trophy finalist.
He has posted a 2.51 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage in 803 career games in the NHL.
Luongo knows his game and plays to his strengths.
Said one NHL goaltending coach: "He doesn't do any one thing spectacularly. He's not huge, not super-quick. What he does well, he reads the game. He always seems to put himself in the right position. He doesn't ever get out of the play. He's always in control."
Luongo has not lasted this long by staying satisfied with his strengths, though.
"He works so hard at his game all the time. He's never complacent," Panthers goaltending coach Robb Tallas said. "He never just settles for being Roberto Luongo. He always wants to evolve his game and be better at the position. I find that amazing."
Tallas said Luongo is always looking for new techniques and new wrinkles to incorporate into his arsenal, but he has also honed a surgical precision when it comes to how he chooses to stop the puck.
"One thing with him, there's a consistency in his save selection and I think that's rare," Tallas said. "For example, a shot off the wall or the wing, you can stop that puck three or four different ways. Louie will stop that puck the same way every time."
That consistency will be important, especially considering the rebuilding Panthers are a squad with a bevy of young talent that includes some bright defensive prospects.
The 2014 first overall draft pick, Aaron Ekblad, remains with the Panthers and likely will get at least a nine-game look before possibly being sent back to his junior team.
"He's a first-class guy," Panthers general manager Dale Tallon told ESPN.com. "And with a young defense, it's so important to have someone back there who you know can bail you out when you make mistakes."
The Panthers may still experience some growing pains this season with so many changes over the past year and a team that remains relatively inexperienced, but Luongo will only help to steady the ship, according to one league source.
"He'll be the last of their problems," the source told ESPN.com.
Unlike previous years for Luongo, there will be a clear delineation between starter and backup (which will be occupied by Al Montoya -- who, funny enough, had Luongo playing as a Panther as his screen saver on his computer while attending school and playing at the University of Michigan).
"I don't want our backups to ever give up the notion of being a No. 1," Tallas said, "but while they're here, they clearly have an understanding that they are the No. 2 guy and that's their role."
As for Luongo, he wants his role to include being a leader inside the locker room, augmenting the veteran presence that includes Mitchell, Shawn Thornton and Dave Bolland.
Don't count on him wearing the "C" again as he did in Vancouver ("Goalies can't be captains," Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said with an incredulous chuckle last week) but he wants to set a good example, to instill a winning mentality with the team's crop of youngsters.
"For me, that's one of the most important things you want to have, that right attitude, not necessarily on the ice but away from the rink and make sure that losing is not acceptable," Luongo said. "There was a little bit of that going on when I was here during my first stint. Usually that comes from the veterans and unfortunately kids learn from that being brought up in that culture. I think it's important this time around not to have that because we have a lot of talent with our young group of players. We want to instill [the] right culture right away to have them grow up in the right setting."
Meanwhile, this setting can't be any better for Luongo. He seems at peace with himself, comfortable in his surroundings and ready for the season ahead.
It will be a fresh start, and Luongo has been waiting for that for quite some time.
"Everybody's got their path and that was mine," he said of his career coming full circle with the Panthers. "I don't regret anything. If I had to do it over, I wouldn't change anything."