VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Canucks did some yoga Monday to help them relax after a disappointing loss in Detroit, but a potentially stressful question still needs to be answered.

Coach Alain Vigneault must decide whether to go back to Roberto Luongo, who allowed all of the goals in an 8-3 loss to the Red Wings. Vigneault was not around to field reporters' questions and add a new chapter to Vancouver's season-long goaltending saga.

Goaltending has been a hot topic since Cory Schneider displaced Luongo as the team's starter in last spring's playoffs, but the team did not trade the latter as expected.

Luongo was not available Monday, either, but teammates were quick to defend him after the shellacking in Motown.

"Goaltending has been excellent," said Daniel Sedin. "That's one game, and everyone can have an off night. That was one for Lu, and he's going to come right back and be good again."

Bounces off defencemen, shooters left wide open, and a poor penalty-killing effort, which enabled Detroit to convert three of five power plays, did not help his cause. The outing contradicted his 23-save effort in a 1-0 win in Nashville two nights earlier.

"(Luongo) and (Schneider) have been our best players this year," said Henrik Sedin. "That's the bottom line."

He said forwards and defencemen can go without scoring and generate little discussion, but everybody talks about the goaltenders even if they have an average performance.

Accordingly, fans and some media types were questioning Sunday and Monday whether Luongo should have been pulled rather than being left in for all eight goals. Luongo saw his goal-against average fall to a highly respectable 2.11 after he led the league. He suffered his first regulation-time loss of the season and sports a 5-1-5 record, including two shutouts, along with three overtime losses and two shootout setbacks.

Schneider has a 2.68 goals-against average with a 5-3-2 mark and one shutout.

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Yoga session help Canucks relax, but goaltending question remains to be answered