VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) The Vancouver Canucks will have a new second line Sunday when they attempt to stay alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Los Angeles Kings.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Roberto Luongo was the talk of the town as the Vancouver Canucks hoped to build on the momentum of their Game 4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

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The Vancouver Canucks went looking for Big Mo on Sunday night, but he was nowhere to be seen as the Canucks fell 1-0 to the Los Angeles Kings in the third game of their first-round playoff series.

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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media. • Meet "Mishka," the 2013 IIHF U20 world champions mascot and the Russian word for pedo-bear …er, teddy bear. [ IIHF ] "The Rangers and Boston College junior Chris Kreider, the 19th overall pick in the 2009 draft, have agreed to terms on an entry-level contract, the Record has confirmed.  Kreider will join the Rangers for practice tomorrow. By doing so, he'll automatically burn up the first year of his three-year entry deal regardless of whether he plays in the playoffs." [ Rangers Rants ] • St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott is out with an upper-body injury that Ken Hitchcock said makes him "day to day." Said Hitch: "We've been nursing it for a week or so. He got a lot of work in the first 45 minutes ... It's more maintenance. It's not a big deal. We knew how long this day was going to be and we just felt like, 'Man, why cool a guy down?'" [ STLToday.com ] • No Daniel Sedin at Vancouver Canucks practice today, which calls into question whether he'll play in Game 1 or whether he's just wearing Henrik's kit to throw off everyone. [ Vancouver Sun ] • Roberto Luongo's meta tweeting spree continues. [ PITB ] • Attention New Jersey Devils fans: DUCK! "The City of Newark has reduced its police presence at The Rock in the latest in the fight between Booker and Vanderbeek. Turns out the city has paid $10.8 million on police protection at the Prudential Center since 2007." [ NJ.com ] • Your odds for the 2012 NHL Draft Lottery, which will be held at 8 p.m. and feature a live blog via your pals at Puck Daddy. [ NHL ] • The Leafs made the world safe for Jay Feaster and Brent Sutter to apologize for the Calgary Flames missing the playoffs. [ Flames ] • Congrats to Tim Peel for being a playoff ref, and to Steve Miller for the chance to "misplace" more series winning pucks. Better luck next year, Stephan Auger.   [ NHL ] • Does regular-season success mean anything in the postseason? Via Fancy Stats Greenberg: "Since the lockout, teams that have a better head-to-head regular season record over their first-round playoff opponents (measured here as win percentage) have won 77 percent of those series — quite a hefty margin." [ WaPo ] • What if the Stanley Cup Final is the Bruins and the Red Wings? [ What If Sports ]

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The Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP has been given out every postseason since 1965, and for the most part it reads like the invite list for a Hockey Hall of Fame mixer: Bobby Orr, Patrick Roy, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Mario Lemieux and so on. But occasionally, players with less star wattage can win MVP. Think Claude Lemieux's clutch scoring in 1995 or Jean-Sebastien Giguere's stellar goaltending in a losing effort for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim or, perhaps the greatest example, Butch Goring's 1981 Conn for the Islanders. Which players in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs might have Conn Smythe potential, if not the hyp,e entering the postseason? (FYI: The focus here is on higher-seeded teams. Why? Because as Yahoo! Sports NHL writer Nick Cotsonika notes, only one bottom four seed has won the Cup since the League started seeding the conferences one through eight in 1993-94 — the 1995 Devils, in the shortened season. Plus, only three eighth seeds and only two seventh seeds have won a first-round series since the lockout. Good luck, California.) Kevin Bieksa, Vancouver Canucks The Canucks defenseman is coming off his best offensive season in the NHL and plays in every situation. In the playoffs last year, he was in beast mode: Playing 25:40 per game to lead Vancouver, and rightfully earning Conn talk entering the Final. If neither Sedin nor Luongo/Schneider offer a clear MVP during a Canucks' Cup run, Bieksa could be the guy. Ryan Callahan, New York Rangers One assumes that if the Rangers win the Cup, it'll be on the back of Henrik Lundqvist or on the stick of Marian Gaborik or Brad Richards, who won the Conn in 2004. But when Callahan scores, he scores significantly: 9 game winners, seven first-goals, two OT winners and 29 goals on the season. Factor in what the captain does defensively, and he could he a heart-and-soul choice for the Conn.

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As a Buffalo Sabres fan, it's always difficult to see the team not make the playoffs - but chances are many of the other series have a former Sabre or two in them to cheer on throughout the playoffs. The Vancouver Canucks are one such team, following their pick-up of Zack Kassian and Marc-Andre Gragnani at the trade deadline. The first-seeded Canucks will be taking on the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings in the first round of Western Conference NHL playoff action, beginning Wednesday, April 11 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault usually dispenses all medical information during the season, except for the occasional nugget from GM Mike Gillis.

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Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media. • Hey, remember Deron Quint? Played for the Phoenix Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks among others? He's with Traktor in the KHL now. And he looks like this. • Not sure if Cory Schneider was a political science major, but boy does he know how to play the game in speaking about Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks' starting job. Schneider said Luongo's the starter, case closed. "I'm competitive. Trust me, I would love to play. I would love to play every single game I could. But Roberto has been one of the best and most consistent goalies the last decade. If it was a scenario that was grossly unfair or one that wasn't the right decision, then I'd probably be more upset. But what [Luongo] has done speaks for itself and I have a tonne of respect for him, I'm behind him 100 per cent and he deserves everything he gets." [ Province ] • Meanwhile, why is there a goalie controversy? Schneider's better. [ Fan Attic ] • Jeff Carter skated for the Los Angeles Kings, but would only indicate he'd be ready for the start of the playoffs. Even though his absence could potentially cost them that chance. Tough break. [ LA Kings Insider ] • Jose Theodore isn't the only ex-Capital looking to take down Washington tonight. [ Capitals Insider ] • Scott Harntell on the Buffalo Sabres: "You play games and it comes down to this is their Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to get in. They're gonna be hitting, they're gonna be skating, they're gonna be fighting." [ CSN Philly ] • The Boston Bruins wide their collective brow as Johnny Boychuk has but a mild knee sprain. [ Bruins Blog ] • Incredibly, Adam Proteau believes there's virtue and honor to being a Lady Byng winner: "If the Byng is such a terrible comment on the caliber of a player's game, why don't we create the anti-Byng award? We could present it to the thinnest-skinned NHLer, the mega-macho hothead who can be thrown completely off his game with a couple whacks across the ankles or a cross-check in the small of the back. That sounds like a player every Stanley Cup contender could use, doesn't it?" Actually, it sounds like Tim Thomas and/or Milan Lucic. How'd that work out? [ THN ] • Bourne explains why Doc Emrick needs to be more of a prick. [ Backhand Shelf ] • This Macleans piece on the CBC and NHL negotiations should be called "When Gary Bettman got all Gary Bettmany on the CBC and got on their nerves." [ Macleans, via Allan Walsh] • The 10 longest title droughts in the National Hockey League. No. 1 is ... a tie? [ The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit ]

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It's subtle, but occasionally the Vancouver Canucks and their constituents have been known to traffic in an us-against-the-world mentality when it comes to treatment by NHL officials. They're also a franchise that, once in a while , has been characterized by opposing fan bases as a "dirty" team. That established, Thomas Drance of Canucks Army offers a surprising observation: The Canucks are actually the NHL's cleanest, most sportsmanlike team this season through one significant measurement. No, not in penalty minutes: The Canucks (13.0 PIM per game) are the fourth most-penalized team on average in the NHL this season. (Cut to Stephane Auger, sitting in a large chair, petting a white cat, cackling maniacally.) Rather, the Canucks are one of only eight NHL teams not to have a player suspended by Brendan Shanahan and the Dept. of Player Safety this season: The Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders, Winnipeg Jets and New Jersey Devils round out that list entering Tuesday night's play. Those seven teams, however, share a common thread that the Canucks do not: They've all had players fined this season for various supplemental disciplinary reasons, ranging from slashing to boarding to leaving the bench to partake in a fight (hello, Steve Downie). Which means the Vancouver Canucks are the only team in the NHL this season, through 79 games, not to have a player fined or suspended.

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It's subtle, but occasionally the Vancouver Canucks and their constituents have been known to traffic in an us-against-the-world mentality when it comes to treatment by NHL officials. They're also a franchise that, once in a while, has been characterized by … Continue reading ?

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