LOS ANGELES – As the final seconds ticked away on the Los Angeles Kings' second-round sweep of the St. Louis Blues, Kings general manager Dean Lombardi had to be thinking one thing: I'm glad I didn't trade Dustin Brown.

Aside from the steel curtain that has been goaltender Jonathan Quick, no player has been more impactful in the Kings' march through these playoffs than Brown. Two more goals Sunday in a series-clinching 3-1 win over the Blues makes it six in these playoffs for Brown, whose days as a King seemed numbered only two months ago.

Dustin Brown celebrates after scoring against the Blues on Sunday. (Reuters)

At the time, the Kings were underperforming, heading nowhere but their usual early start to summer vacation, and the acquisition of winger Jeff Carter and his rifle-quick shot made Brown expendable. Sure, he was the face of the franchise, but what's the value in that if the franchise keeps losing? Dumping Brown and sewing the 'C' onto Mike Richards' jersey didn't seem like much of a gamble given the alternative, which on Feb. 24 looked very

LOS ANGELES – There was a time when hockey mattered in Los Angeles, when the Kings weren't just forced down the throat of a town more familiar with Stanley Kubrick than the Stanley Cup. It started when 99 arrived on the scene in 1988, lasted 'til '93, then faded to black.

They were the wonder years, and they were cool while they lasted, when celebs showed up because they wanted to get a glimpse of Wayne Gretzky because, you know, getting a glimpse of Gretzky was the thing to do at the time. But when he left, so did the star factor and, well, that was that.

In the 18 years since, the Kings had won exactly one playoff series and in the process been relegated once again to the back burner, behind the Lakers and Dodgers and Angels and, yes, even the dreadful Clippers in terms of teams Los Angelinos care about.

With Jonathan Quick in net and a balanced offensive effort, the Kings continue to surprise. (AP)L.A.'s never been a hockey town, not even when Gretzky was here, and it never will be. But over the last few weeks, an underdog group has done a bang up job of making the city

LOS ANGELES – With a single stick save, Cory Schneider helped the Vancouver Canucks stay alive and, in the process, might have relegated the highest-paid goalie in the league to the bench for whatever remains of the Canucks' season – if not longer.

With 14:37 to play in the third period and the Canucks clinging to a 2-1 lead in Game 4 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series, Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown stole the puck, raced into the open ice toward Schneider and was tripped from behind. The referee immediately pointed toward center ice, signaling a penalty shot.

Cory Schneider stops Dustin Brown on a penalty shot (Getty Images)Here it was, the Kings' hottest player against a goalie who until a few days ago was sitting on the bench waiting to be called upon to save the Canucks from elimination. Schneider had been brilliant in Game 3, stopping all but one shot, but that one shot was enough to beat him and put Vancouver in an unimaginable 3-0 series hole.

So when Brown lined up for the penalty shot, the playoff existence of a

LOS ANGELES – It took only a few hours for Vancouver to stain itself as a city of sore losers. Never mind what a great host it was for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games or that the city is one of the most gorgeous metropolitan areas in the entire world. The mass of stupidity on June 15, 2011 – the burning cars, the broken windows, the cops deployed in riot gear all because the Canucks lost a hockey game – is the indelible image that cast the city as just a bunch of thugs.

Riot police walk in front of two burning police cars. (Getty Images)Presumptuous, no, not when it's happened before – back in 1994 when the city rioted following another Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup final – and not when the Vancouver Police deemed it necessary to formulate an anti-riot strategy for this year's NHL playoffs.

Vancouver earned its reputation, even if the perpetrators are in the minority, and the only way to clear the city's name is to prove differently, which brings us to Wednesday night.

For 82 games this season, no team in the NHL was better than the Vancouver

LOS ANGELES – For two straight seasons now, the Vancouver Canucks have won the Presidents' Trophy, given to the team with the best regular-season record.

Yay!

Not really. The trophy's only real significance, aside from providing home-ice advantage, is the mountain of expectations it slaps on its winner. In this case, that's a city so desperate to win its first Stanley Cup it tried to burn itself down when it didn't a year ago.

Dustin Brown scores the only goal of Game 3. (Reuters)

So one can only imagine what the city of Vancouver (and its police department) is going through now that the Canucks are on the brink of elimination in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs after the Los Angeles Kings scrapped their way to a 1-0 victory Sunday night, extending their lead to 3-0 in this best-of-seven series.

"What do you think?" defenseman Kevin Bieksa snapped when asked about the mood of the team. "We're down 3-nothing. It's not good."

The situation is pretty dire now for the Canucks: win four straight or pack up for the summer.

NEW ORLEANS – On his way to being the No. 1 pick in June's NBA draft, Anthony Davis Jr. stopped to hug his mom and dad.

He found them 10 rows from the court where he'd just led the Kentucky Wildcats to their eighth national championship. To reach them, he had to step over a gate and hurdle a few rows of chairs, all while pushing through a throng of UK fanatics, each wanting to offer their own congratulatory high-five.

[ Related: Kentucky holds off Kansas to capture national title | Photos ]

When he finally got there, his dad, Anthony Davis Sr., grabbed him in a bear hug and, unsuccessfully fighting back tears, said, "Congratulations. You deserve everything you got."

Next up is the NBA, and in his final audition Davis turned in the kind of performance that was, well, bewildering.

He scored just six points and made only 1-of-10 shots in the Wildcats' 67-59 victory, yet he still likely improved his draft stock. That's because Davis did everything else. He grabbed rebounds (16), blocked

NEW ORLEANS – College basketball's best team during the 2011-12 season is also its national champion. And yes, that's actually saying something, because it doesn't happen very often.

The Kentucky Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in the country for 20 of 29 weeks this season, survived a nearly miraculous comeback by the Kansas Jayhawks to win the school's eighth national title.

Set up as a showdown between two of college basketball most storied programs, this title game was more of a coronation for Kentucky – for 38 minutes anyway. Holding a double-digit lead for most of the contest, Kentucky nearly fell victim to yet another Kansas comeback. The Jayhawks, down by as many as 18, rallied to within five with 1:37 to go.

At that moment, there was little doubt Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who'd never won a national championship, started having flashbacks to the 2008 title game when his Memphis team blew a nine-point lead with less than three minutes to go against … Kansas.

There would be no

NEW ORLEANS – The first thing you notice on the drive into New Orleans is the giant bronze spaceship that's landed at the foot of a modest skyline. It's sleek, shiny, windowless, and in a town bursting with old-world character and charm, fits in like a disco ball in a room full of rocking chairs.

At first glance, it's an oddity more than a marvel, which is maybe why, despite all the evidence in its favor, no one's really noticed that over the last 30-plus years the Superdome has become the most historically significant sporting venue in America.

You want seminal moments? The Superdome is where a college freshman named Michael Jordan nailed a jumper to lift North Carolina over Georgetown; it's where Roberto Duran told Sugar Ray Leonard, "No más"; it's where William "The Refrigerator" Perry barreled into the end zone in Super Bowl XX; it's where Chris Webber called a timeout Michigan didn't have; it's where Adam Vinatieri kicked a field goal as time ran out to give Tom Brady his first