A bumpy start for Luongo

Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo said he expected to see the Ducks feature an assortment of techniques to distract him in Game 1 Wednesday night.

And he was right. When Andy McDonald scored the Ducks’ first goal of the series, it came on a first-period power play that featured defenseman Scott Niedermayer and forward Chris Kunitz parked in front of the Canucks’ goal.

That only set the stage for more scoring fireworks later from the Ducks, who won, 5-1, to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.

Luongo faced 31 shots and gave up four goals before replaced by backup Dany Sabourin in the third period.

“Even though they outshot us, we were still in it after two periods,” Luongo said. “They had a lot of guys in front of the net. This was probably the most traffic that I’ve seen so far.”

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The Ducks’ Bob Murray, senior vice president of hockey operations, has a long history of working with General Manager Brian Burke in Vancouver and Anaheim, and his contributions have not gone unnoticed.

“My biggest fear is that one of these GM job searches that are out there, someone will call and ask for permission to speak to Bob Murray,” Burke said.

It was Murray who recommended that defenseman Francois Beauchemin be included in a trade that sent Sergei Fedorov to Columbus.

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For those seeking omens that will foretell the series winner, there’s always the ex-King factor to consider. So many Kings seem to thrive once they are ex-Kings.

The Canucks have an edge here with defenseman Brent Sopel and forwards Bryan Smolinski, Josh Green and Jeff Cowan. The Ducks have two, George Parros and Sean O’Donnell.

“That’s a good thing, I guess,” Smolinski said, laughing.

lonnie.white@latimes.com

helene.elliott@latimes.com