Alex Burrows #14 of the Calgary Flames celebrates with the bench after scoring against the Vancouver Canucks during an NHL game at Scotiabank Saddledome on October 8, 2014 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Photograph by: Derek Leung , Getty Images

One game into his resurrection, Alex Burrows has the blood out of his mouth. It actually tasted better than last season.

“Seven stitches,” the winger said Friday, showing the sutures required inside his lower lip after the Vancouver Canucks’ season-opener two nights earlier. “I just rinsed my mouth a couple of times and carried on.”

If only it had been that easy a year ago for Burrows when a bloody mouthwash would have been a drastic improvement on the three separate bone fractures — foot, jaw and hand — that ruined his National Hockey League campaign.

Between injuries, Burrows went 35 games without a goal, didn’t score until March 12 and finished the season with only five goals in 49 games.

Things went so badly, there was a report John Tortorella — this was before he was fired as coach — asked management to buy out Burrows’ contract one season into the player’s four-year, $18-million-US deal. Tortorella called Burrows to tell him it wasn’t true, and Burrows and new general manager Jim Benning flatly rejected later media conjecture that the Canucks had asked the 33-year-old from Montreal to waive his no-trade clause.

Scoring in Game 1 on Wednesday when the Canucks beat the Flames 4-2 in Calgary puts Burrows on pace for 82 goals this season, heading into Vancouver’s home-opener Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers. Burrows also led the Canucks with five hits against the Flames, including a seismic jolt on Calgary defenceman Dennis Wideman.

He finished the game with blood in his mouth after getting hit by the puck in the third period. He did not miss a shift. After last year, he doesn’t dare.

“You always want to score the first one early, especially after what happened last year,” Burrows said after Friday’s practice at Rogers Arena. “I knew I wasn’t going to go through a stretch like last year ever again — knock on wood. I put in the work this summer and I feel good right now and just have to keep going.

“I had a few injuries (last year) and tough luck around the net and the team was losing — all super disappointing. But you look at what’s going on around the world, people have it way tougher than what I did last year when you look at the big picture.”

Burrows said he simply worked harder in the off-season, doing more skating than he had previously, to come back better. New coach Willie Desjardins has remarked since training camp began how quick Burrows looks, and he was fast to the puck in Calgary.

With his right-wing job on the first line given to free-agent acquisition Radim Vrbata, whose right-handed shot and natural offensive instincts made him a better candidate to play with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Burrows experimented in the pre-season with playing left wing.

After more than four years with the twins, however, Burrows looks much more comfortable on the right side, which Desjardins has discovered. Burrows played there against the Flames with centre Nick Bonino and left wing Chris Higgins, and the second-line trio were almost as cohesive together as the Canucks’ identical twins.