Roberto Luongo always seems to have a little surprise for his fans in Vancouver, and his coach Alain Vigneault is always willing to put him in position to pull off his usually welcome little pranks.

He's supposed to be a slow starter every season. But in the first season in his career in which he was supposed to be Cory Schneider's backup, he decides to come out of the blocks like Ben Johnson in his famous Olympic run and by all indications take back his number one spot — against all odds.

“It's January anyway,” joked Luongo when asked about his usual slow start. “I wasn't very good in practice in October.”

A guy who was supposed to be shuffled out of town by this point now appears to be the team's top performer.

When formerly he would have treated the kind of scrutiny that always follows him around in an awkward, sometimes unwilling way, now he's suddenly as smooth as David Letterman on his own show. He laughs, he jokes, he has fun, he picks people out of the scrums, he relaxes to the point where he leaves the impression he might just be ready to win something, unlike his less mature postures of the past.

Stoked by training long and hard with his old guru Francois Allaire for seven weeks preparing for this season, Luongo has left all those old stereotypes behind — for this season, at least. He's forgotten about his obligation to have a slow start and he's forgotten that he's supposed to have trouble as a backup after all these years of absolutely dominating the opportunities to play goal on whichever team he played. Now it appears he can come out of mothballs and play well enough to put himself into contention to be the starter again Friday in the meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks, the Western Conference team that has taken points from every game it's played this season and has given Luongo so much grief in his career.

This doesn't mean he'll play, of course. Trying to guess what Vigneault will do is virtually impossible. And judging by the kind of goaltending the head coach has been getting from these two starters since they've been together, there's no point in worrying. No matter how counter-intuitive his decisions may appear, they seem to work out pretty well whether or not the Canucks end up winning.

Luongo was remarkable Wednesday night, a study in relaxation and positioning in stopping the 24 shots he faced, two qualities that haven't always been great strengths. Granted he wasn't exactly pitted against the '87 Oilers Wednesday night in recording his 61st career shutout, with the Avs having all manner of difficulty scoring goals against anyone. But Luongo looked like he could have stopped far more challenging shots easily and appeared to welcome whatever opportunities to stop what may have been directed his way.

Where this leaves Schneider is anyone's guess. Most athletes would view this situation to be about as depressing as a Henrik Sedin slap shot. The job was supposed to be his. Instead, he finds it seemedly snatched away, watching as much as he's playing even though he's only had one shaky start. One of the most mentally adept athletes ever to play in this city will certainly be challenged to handle this latest coaching decision to start Luongo in his place Wednesday, particularly given the Avs are such a get well card for the Canucks given they haven't beaten Vancouver in their last eight tries. If he really was the No. 1 guy, he would have played.

But with everyone around Luongo in the Vancouver dressing room, Schneider made himself scarce, nowhere to be seen. Are we to presume that he is once again the backup, albeit the highest paid in the league?

“I'll tell you tomorrow,” said Vigneault when asked who his starter for Friday will be, the coach evidently enjoying this twisted situation whereby management's plan — whatever that may have been in the first place — continues to shift, entertaining the entire league in the bargain.