Puck

New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal suffered a gruesome injury Tuesday night, when the puck hit his right eye after a hard slapshot by Philadelphia's Kimmo Timonen. Timonen's shot from the blue line clipped the stick of Flyers forward Jake Voracek and caromed up into Staal's eye, causing a cut with some blood visible on the ice. The sixth-year player squirmed on the ice and held his face but was able to skate off on his own. There were no details on Staal's injury after the game, a 4-2 Rangers victory.

ST. LOUIS - Jonathan Quick's stellar goaltending was the reason the Kings made it to overtime in the opener of their first-round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. He coolly turned away 40 shots while his teammates were outmuscled and outhustled, yielding only a first-period power-play goal to Alex Steen off a rebound. When the Kings tied the game with 31.6 seconds left in the third period on a goal by Justin Williams after they'd replaced Quick with an extra skater, it seemed Quick's excellence would be duly rewarded.

John Giannone, a sideline reporter who covers the New York Rangers for the MSG Network, took a puck to the face during the Rangers' 4-1 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday, but it barely made him flinch. Rangers defenseman Marc Staal lifted the puck over the boards and accidentally hit Giannone on the nose. He received treatment from the Rangers trainer for a nasty-looking cut while still on the air. Staal came over and apologized to Giannone after hitting him. You can watch a video of the incident above.

It's starting to feel a lot like last season for the Kings. After a rocky start and adjustments on defense made necessary by injuries to Willie Mitchell and Matt Greene, the Kings have rediscovered the formula that a year ago boosted them from the No. 8 seeding in the West to winning the Stanley Cup. They're blending strong goaltending, punishing defense, good special-teams play and unshakeable resolve, and they've calibrated it to come together at...

Kings fans, your nightmare is over. The New Jersey Devils' Patrik Elias returned from his long vacation, unpacked his equipment bag and there it was, the missing puck from the closing moments of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Bounty hunters, feel free to stand down. Elias had told the Newark Star-Ledger on Wednesday that he thought he did not have the puck but would check again. The Kings organization, trying hard to recover the memorable puck from the Cup-clinching game on June 11, heard from Elias on Thursday.

Louisville guard Kevin Ware has a broken right leg after landing awkwardly when he tried to block a shot by Duke guard Tyler Thornton. Replays showed that Ware's lower right leg appears to snap as he lands from a lengthy leap to contest the shot. A video of the play is attached below (warning, images are graphic). The injury occurred with 6:33 left in the first half. Thornton's shot was good, cutting Louisville's lead to 21-20 at the time. Louisville was leading at the half, 35-32.

Just when it seems the Kings finally have everything - the Stanley Cup, the love of a city, the respect of a league - it turns out something is still missing. It's three inches in diameter, weighs about six ounces, and is absolutely huge. The Kings may have discovered their championship soul, but they still can't find their championship puck. Two weeks after winning their first Stanley Cup in the franchise's 45-year history, the Kings don't know the whereabouts of the puck that was on the ice when the final game ended.

The Ducks have lost captain Ryan Getzlaf for the next two games ? and maybe longer ? after tests revealed he suffered nasal sinus fractures when he was hit on the forehead by a puck in Tuesday's game at Phoenix. Getzlaf required 10 stitches at the time of the injury, and tests Wednesday revealed the broken bones in his face. He is scheduled to see a specialist Friday to determine whether further treatment is required and how long he will be out. But by placing him on injured reserve, the Ducks ruled out Getzlaf ?

Jeff O'Neill didn't let a severely swollen right eye keep him from giving the Carolina Hurricanes another overtime victory. After being hit by a puck below his right eye earlier in the game, O'Neill instinctively knew where to go--to the net. And that's where he was, cruising in from the right circle, in time to convert Ron Francis' kick-pass 6:01 into overtime, lifting the Hurricanes to a 2-1 victory over Toronto in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday.

Had the Kings looked up to the rafters of the United Center, they would have seen a shiny new banner commemorating the Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup triumph. Had the Kings looked in the mirror after their 3-1 loss Wednesday, they would have had to acknowledge the distance they must cover before they can be a serious Cup contender. The Kings controlled the puck for long stretches late in the second period and early in the third and dominated in shots, 34-28. But they gave in to the temptation to make pretty passes instead of scrambling for ugly goals, a weakness that contributed to their second loss on a five-game trip that concludes Thursday at Dallas.

Tom Lasorda, legendary former Dodgers manager, always had quite the competitive streak, and it showed Thursday night when he dropped the ceremonial puck before the Kings played the Columbus Blue Jackets. Lasorda, as you can see in the video above, walked the carpet from the edge of the rink to center ice where Kings captain Dustin Brown and former King and Blue Jackets assistant captain Jack Johnson waited for him. The man who bleeds blue never made eye contact with Johnson, said a few words to Brown and then dropped the puck, which Brown collected.

Louisville guard Kevin Ware has a broken right leg after landing awkwardly when he tried to block a shot by Duke guard Tyler Thornton. Replays showed that Ware's lower right leg appears to snap as he lands from a lengthy leap to contest the shot. A video of the play is attached below (warning, images are graphic). The injury occurred with 6:33 left in the first half. Thornton's shot was good, cutting Louisville's lead to 21-20 at the time. Louisville was leading at the half, 35-32.

Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins' high-scoring captain, was hit in the face by the puck Saturday when a teammate's shot was deflected. Crosby lost several teeth and needed oral surgery. Crosby, who was a few feet to the right of the goal, couldn't react fast enough when Brooks Oprik's hard slap shot from above the slot was redirected by an Islander in the first period of a 2-0 victory over visiting New York. Crosby, who has struggled with concussion problems the last two seasons, is leading the NHL with 56 points, 10 more than Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos.

SAN JOSE -- The Ducks confront not just the problem of overcoming four consecutive losses. They could also be revealing the script opponents should follow to clinch their demise. "We have to find the crux of the problem of our starts sooner or later because every team in the NHL sees this and will say, 'Get on them in the first five minutes, they're never ready,'" Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said. Turning in what could be strongly argued as their worst performance of the season, the Ducks were beaten by the San Jose Sharks, 4-0, Wednesday night at HP Pavilion, giving up three goals in the first 9 minutes 20 seconds.

  There is no one in the history of the world quite like Mr. T. What other person has ever had a mohawk, starred in a No. 1 TV series, starred in a "Rocky" movie and main-evented two WrestleManias? No one else, that's who. Now you can add one more item to the legend of Mr. T: Hockey star. Mr. T was at the Calgary Flames-Chicago Blackhawks game Tuesday night and took part in the "Score From Center Ice" challenge during the second intermission. During the challenge, fans are selected from the crowd, taken to center ice and asked to shoot a puck at a goal.

All that has defined the Ducks' season wasn't happening Friday night. The home dominance. The knack for comebacks. The impenetrable goaltending. The Detroit Red Wings, riding a hat trick by left wing Justin Abdelkader that matched his previous season goal total, ended the Ducks' franchise-record 13-game winning streak at Honda Center with a 5-1 victory. Caught in a flat-footed performance that was ripe with the feeling they let down after beating Western Conference leader Chicago only two nights earlier, the Ducks (22-4-4)

Reporting from Philadelphia -- Unable to beat the Chicago Blackhawks with a run-and-gun style in the opener of the Stanley Cup finals and held to a goal in losing a tautly played Game 2, the Philadelphia Flyers have switched strategies for Game 3 Wednesday at the Wachovia Center. They're resorting to mind games, apparently hoping verbal jabs will accomplish what they couldn't achieve otherwise in Chicago. Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger set the tone when he snatched the puck at the end of the first two games.

The Kings are 1-1-1 halfway through exhibition play but Coach Terry Murray said he's not yet microanalyzing facets of the game such as puck possession or special-teams play. The early games had so many kids in the lineup -- and some players had back-to-back games -- that it was tough to get a good read on those areas, he said. For those curious, the Kings are one for 13 on the power play and their penalty killing is 15 for 18. But Murray said he saw enough rough edges to put the 32 players on the ice for more than two hours of work at the Toyota Sports Center on Saturday, followed by a conditioning skate.

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter doesn't do hyperbole. Which is why his comments on Monday about Kings center Anze Kopitar were particularly insightful. The topic of the morning was the NHL's Selke Award, given to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game. First, before his words about Kopitar, keep in mind that Sutter coached in Chicago, San Jose and Calgary before coming to the Kings last season. “The best all-around centerman that I've coached,” Sutter said of Kopitar.

In the first month of the season, the Ducks were a below-average power-play team. Part of the reason they have an 18-3-3 Pacific Division-leading record before starting a three-game trip in Minnesota on Tuesday is their 11 goals in 28 power-play opportunities since Feb. 18. That 39.3% clip has elevated them to the NHL's top power-play team, at 27.8%. "We're doing a good job of moving the puck around, looking for the open man. When you do that, you're going to have a lot of success," defenseman Cam Fowler said.