After the Vancouver Canucks maintained for two days that their star goaltender was not injured, Roberto Luongo revealed after missing Monday's game against the Los Angeles Kings that he has a rib injury and is unsure how soon he'll return to his National Hockey League team's lineup.

"It's been injured since last Sunday in Minnesota," Luongo said after backup goalie Curtis Sanford was rushed in to play what turned out to be a 4-2 loss against the Kings. "The last few days it got worse. I've been in pain all day. Not good enough to go.

"It hurts when I breathe, hurts when I move. It's tough to do your job."

• Canucks lost with Sanford in goal (Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province)
• Long grind seems to be taking toll (Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province)
• Hot issues (Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province)
• Kesler's shadow knows how (Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province)
• Little value in practice (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun)
• Kings cruise to victory (Lisa Dillman, Los Angeles Times)
• Kings avoid cellar with win over Canucks (Matthew Kredell, Long Beach Press-Telegram)

• Battle of California, A Queen Among Kings and Purple Crushed Velvet for the La-la Land side of things.

Next game:

Wednesday night against the Ducks

Labels: game recap, Kings, Luongo

Labels: game day preview, Kings

• Start strong and don't give up momentum.
• Don't give the kids - Cammalleri, Frolov, Kopitar and Brown - too many scoring opportunities.
• Can we still draft Kopitar?

• Puck possession has to get better. (Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province)
• Raymond's Manitoba stint minor. (Gordon McIntyre, Vancouver Province)
• Salo saddles up for little steps at practice. (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun)
• Can't duck the puck. (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun)
• Morrison soldiers on. (Grant Kerr, Globe and Mail)

Labels: game day preview, Kings, Morrison, Raymond

"Our start wasn't good enough and sometimes you have to mix and match to create execution and intensity, and it seemed to work out," said Vigneault, whose season-long willingness to juggle lines could pay big playoff dividends.

Accountability and honesty are just two of the traits Vigneault has brought to the Canucks after replacing the fired Marc Crawford. The team's success has Vigneault being touted as a coach-of-the-year candidate.

"Nobody predicted we'd be close to winning our division," Luongo said Tuesday, prior to the Canucks playing the Los Angeles Kings. "It's amazing how he implemented a system and got everyone on the same page in the short amount of time we had."

• Breaking up is easy to do. (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
• Vancouver in comeback victory over LA. (Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun)
• Canucks within game of clinching first. (Grant Kerr, Globe and Mail)
• Always improving Luongo nominated for Masterson award. (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
• How to really prepare for the playoffs. (Tony Gallagher, Vancouver Province)
• No more run-and-gun. (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun)
• Schneider to face potent North Dakota. (Matt Kalman, Boston Herald)

• Canucks Fangirl and The Chief Canuck recap the game.

1. Daniel Sedin (VAN): A couple more assists for the team's scoring leader.
2. Henrik Sedin (VAN): A couple of assists as well.
3. Bryan Smolinski (VAN): Scored the goal that started the comeback. Had a strong game playing with the twins.

• Scoresheet
• Stat Sheet
• Shift Chart

Labels: game recap, Kings

• Say hello to Salo. (Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun)
• Canucks re-assign Tremblay to the AHL. (Vancouver Sun)
• Sedins provide a twin killing. (Jim Morris, Canadian Press)
• Luongo is most deserving of MVP award. (Ross McKeon, San Francisco Chronicle)
• BC's Schneider in Frozen Four focus. (Nick Tarnoff, The Heights Boston College)

Labels: Bulis, game day preview, Kings, Schneider

Somewhere in a reverse engineering class, someone should be studying the Vancouver Canucks.

They seem to be defying physics and the most basic laws of nature with their current pattern: No matter how poorly they play they can't seem to lose.

Nearing the end an abysmal final period, Kevin Bieksa scored off a feed from Markus Naslund to give the Canucks a 3-2 win. The goal went in at the 16:04 mark of the third period.

At the time, the Canucks were getting outshot 13-2.

"It was a game plan well executed in the third -- spend the whole period in our zone and make sure the goalie's cold on the other side so we can get one," Roberto Luongo deadpanned.

The Canucks insist all these one-goal games are not part of their master plan. They'd like to win big, but can't seem to put teams away until near the end of games.

"I don't think that's part of the plan," said captain Markus Naslund, who set up Bieksa's winning goal as well as an earlier one by Brendan Morrison. "I didn't think it was a well-played game, especially us taking way too many penalties, but it's another win and you have to be happy about that."

• Brendan Morrison's first game as a Vancouver Canuck was in March 2000 when he had a goal and an assist. He hasn't missed a game since, and last night, broke Trevor Linden's franchise record of 483 consecutive games played in a Canucks uniform. - Ed Willes (Vancouver Province)
• After Tommi Santala drew into the lineup last night - centering Markus Naslund no less - everyone is asking the same question. - Jason Botchford (Vancouver Province)
• Vigneault's wishlist - and mine - includes another top-4 defenseman before the trade deadline. - Jason Botchford (Vancouver Province)
• Here's a postgame piece from La-La land's point of view. - Chris Foster (LA Times)
• Anze Kopitar, rookie superstar and new face of the Kings' franchise. Will forever be the comparison point for Luc Bourdon. - Brad Ziemer (Vancouver Sun)

About the game around the blogosphere

• The Chief Canuck and Waiting For Stanley give their postgame recaps.

My 3 Stars of the Game

1. Lubomir Visnovsky (LA): Loved the way he moved the puck. One goal and five shots.
2. Sami Salo (VAN): Solid, solid, solid especially on the PK.
3. Michael Cammalleri (LA): Won 66% of his faceoffs and was dangerous around the net. One assist and six shots on goal.

Official Statistics

• Scoresheet
• Stat Sheet
• Shift Chart

Labels: game recap, Kings

Alain Vigneault wanted to put an end to any goalie controversy before it began.

"Louie's playing [tonight]," Vigneault said with a laugh after Wednesday's energetic practice.

The truth, of course, is there never was a doubt.

Despite Dany Sabourin's impressive win, Roberto Luongo will be back in net trying to regain the rhythm that helped him to a 17-3-2 record in his past 22 games with a 2.18 GAA and a .935 save percentage.

Centre Tommi Santala, who hasn't played for the Canucks since Dec. 8, will likely dress tonight. He skated on a line Wednesday with Markus Naslund and Jan Bulis, although Vigneault said he hasn't decided exactly where he will play Santala.

"I think Tommi is going to go in tomorrow," Vigneault said. "I'm not sure where yet. I wanted to see how he fit in there."

He's had more linemates than he cares to count. He's been playing on the third line.

But Canucks captain Markus Naslund isn't complaining.

"He hasn't said a word," coach Alain Vigneault said.

"It's been, 'Whatever you want, Coach.' That's the attitude you want. When you have a team-first attitude, he's proving without a doubt that he's a great leader and a very good captain for this team. He knows what he needs to do. He wants to win like everyone else."

Naslund endured a 17-game goal drought earlier this season and his offensive game seemed out of sorts. Lately, he has been a more consistent contributor to a Canuck offence that seems to finally be living up to that scoring-by-committee mantra we heard so much about at training camp.

In his last 18 games, Naslund has eight goals and 21 points.

"I'm feeling better and better about my game and I'm feeling that the confidence is coming back, which I think is such a huge part of anyone's game and especially if you are an offensive player," he said. "It's fun. It's fun to win and it's fun to be on a roll like we are right now."

A poll on nhl.com in this age of electronic ballot stuffing isn't exactly hard science, but there is enough recent anecdotal evidence to support the results from the one the league had up Wednesday.

The poll question was simple: Who deserves the Jack Adams award as coach of the year?
Three were running away with it -- the Pens' Michel Therrien, the Predators' Barry Trotz -- and Vancouver's Alain Vigneault.

Canuck defenceman Sami Salo admitted he, personally, wouldn't have made the trade, and winger Matt Cooke warned: "You can criticize [a GM] for not pulling the trigger, but you give up that much, it better work out."

Later, Cooke added: "The best mindset [for Canuck players] is to approach the deadline like nothing will happen and prepare yourself to win with the guys we have here. That's what we're doing. It's expensive right now. We don't agree with giving up everything for one guy."

So in the short term, the Canucks may not be thrilled to see Forsberg in a Predator uniform for the rest of this season. But in the bigger picture, there's no question that Dave Nonis made the right move by making no move at all—at least as far as paying through the nose for a guy like Forsberg.

That's not to suggest for a moment that Forsberg wouldn't have looked good in a Canuck uniform. But the timing of such a move wouldn't have made any sense for an organization that appears to be two years away from being in the position to make a big-ticket purchase at the trading deadline.

When it became abundantly obvious Mike Johnston's interview to become head coach of the Vancouver Canucks was nothing more than a courtesy waste of his time, he followed Marc Crawford to L.A. where they both knew the going with the Kings was going to be tough.

Labels: game day preview, Kings