Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo is shelved by a groin muscle strain – not that the team would admit it.

“With what happened in the Buffalo-Boston game there, I'm going to just say it's an upper body injury," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault told the Vancouver Province. “We're not quite sure what's allowed on the goaltenders and what's not allowed. I'm very serious. I always in the regular season tell you what's going on with the players.”

Yes, well, NHL goaltenders are on red alert after Bruins power forward Milan Lucic plowed Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller and knocked him out of action with a concussion.

Elsewhere on the NHL injury front:

Florida lost winger Scottie Upshall for upward of two months with an unspecified lower body injury suffered last week. So the team would like to get Mikael Samuelsson back from his sports hernia. He has yet to play for the Panthers since coming over from Vancouver in a trade. Samuelsson is skating on his own but not practicing with the team.

Pittsburgh superstar Sidney Crosby looks ready to return. He looked fine playing on a line with Evgeni Malkin and James Neal during Monday’s practice, but still wasn’t activated for Tuesday’s game. He is truly day-to-day now with his post-concussion syndrome.

Capitals defenseman Mike Green returned after missing six games with an ankle injury . . . only to suffer a groin muscle strain. It’s been a tough couple of years for Green.

Devils winger Ilya Kovalchuk looked ready to return this week from a lower-body injury, but he missed his fifth game Tuesday night against the Bruins. Teammate Travis Zajac (Achilles tendon tear) is skating on his own but not especially close to returning to action.

Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov may finally be recovering from knee surgery. He has been able to go full tilt in practice for the Canadiens and stay on the ice afterward to scrape rust off his skills. Now he needs to see how the knee holds up during full-contact bumping and grinding.

Detroit defenseman Ian White will miss at least several games with a facial fractures suffered while blocking a shot against Dallas. Mike Commodore will move into the lineup in his absence.

Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook suffered a lower body during a 6-3 victory over Edmonton. He left that game early, but traveled with the team to Vancouver for its next game.