San Jose’s Logan Couture scored two goals and added two assists on Sunday. (Don Smith/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Three teams in NHL history have climbed back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series in seven games.

It’s a pretty good bet the Vancouver Canucks won’t be the fourth.

The Canucks changed netminders, switched up their defensive pairings and may even have even poured a tiny glass of rum for Jobu. But the same problem that led to losses in the first two games — a pronounced inability to score — was again the prime culprit in a 5-2 Game 3 defeat suffered at the hands of the San Jose Sharks.

Here are some takeaways from a lopsided Sunday night contest that has the third-seeded Canucks on the brink of elimination:

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Goaltender Antti Niemi and the Sharks swept the Canucks, 3-0, in the season series. (Derek Leung/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

EAST PREVIEWS: Pens-Islanders | Canadiens-Senators | Capitals-Rangers | Bruins-Leafs

WEST PREVIEWS: Hawks-Wild | Ducks-Red Wings | Canucks-Sharks | Blues-Kings

Regular-season recaps

Jan. 27: Sharks 4, Canucks 1

March 5: Sharks 3, Canucks 2 (SO)

April 1: Sharks 3, Canucks 2

Notable injuries

Canucks: G Cory Schneider (body injury, day-to-day); LW David Booth (ankle injury, out indefinitely); D Chris Tanev (lower body, out indefinitely)

Sharks: D Jason Demers (lower body, day-to-day)

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Curse aside, winning the Presidents’ Trophy ain’t bad when you’re 17-3-3 at home. (Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Not sure why the Blackhawks tried to downplay it, because by capturing the Presidents’ Trophy with last night’s win over the Oilers, they’ve guaranteed themselves home ice advantage through the playoffs. That could prove to be a very big deal.

• Starter Ray Emery had to leave midway through the game with an undisclosed injury, leaving Corey Crawford to make this big-time stop in his place.

• Their playoff hopes are over, but two Lightning stars are in it to the finish. Martin St. Louis scored his seventh career hat trick to take over the NHL scoring lead and finally deliver on a promise to his son.. Steven Stamkos tallied once to move to within two goals of Alexander Ovechkin in the race for the Richard Trophy.

• Sidney Crosby is expected to seek medical clearance in the next 48 hours to resume playing. That doesn’t get him back in time to try to take back the scoring crown, but he could be available for the start of the playoffs.

• The Red Wings took control of their destiny with a thrilling win over the Kings, but they may have to face their next challenge — the Nashville Predators — without the services of Johan Franzen.

• Playoff hockey is not a birthright in Detroit, but Nick Cotsonika does a lovely job of explaining why it seems to be.

• The Senators have three games remaining on their schedule. Win one, and they’re in the postseason.

• Will Erik Karlsson be cleared to join the Sens? Sources around the team say maybe, but a local therapist isn’t so sure that’s possible.

• Daniel Wagner ponders the philosophical ramifications of Cory Schneider suffering a body injury. This is a must read for all acolytes of Descartes.

• With Schneider sidelined, Roberto Luongo is back between the pipes. And you know what that means.

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In their first meeting, the Ducks handed the Blackhawks a 3-2 shootout loss on Feb. 12. (Warren Wimmer/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

A notated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• This is amazing: with a win tonight over the visiting Blackhawks, the Ducks could pull within three points of the Western Conference leaders…and they still have a game in hand. Hard not to look at this as a playoff preview.

• The Penguins fought their way through the slop to run their winning streak to 10 games by beating the Caps, 2-1. Stretching it to 11 will be a whole lot easier if Evgeni Malkin returns the to lineup Friday as expected.

• Max Talbot has been Philly’s best forward in each of the last four games. If that keeps up, there’s no way this team makes the playoffs.

• Niklas Kronwall resisted the urge to replace Nick Lidstrom, and by staying within himself he’s made a greater contribution to Detroit’s revamped blueline.

• Capgeek has the cap-hit leaders for 2013-14. Two new entries crack the top five…can you guess who?

• Another day, another sexual assault arrest in hockey. I can already hear this one being sloughed off as a little drunken silliness. It shouldn’t be.

• It sounds like Rick DiPietro is finding success –  and maybe a little peace – in the AHL.

• The Blues expect to get T.J. Oshie back in the lineup this week…and that could mean the end of their awkward three-goalie rotation. Jake Allen’s going nowhere, Which suggests that bad news is coming for Brian Elliott.

• Nice .gif work by the boys over at The Score capturing Sergei Bobrovsky’s eye-opening meeting with the smelling salts after taking a Kevin Klein slap shot to the mask.

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By Allan Muir

Violence. Potty humor. Gift giving. Slam poetry.

The boys at TSN captured the complex and competitive relationship of Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider in a between-periods segment during the Canucks-Predators game last night that revealed the duo as the finest comedy team since Carrey and Daniels.

Doesn’t matter how much you hate the Vancouver Canucks. If you’re not rooting for these two crazy kids to somehow beat the odds and find happiness together, your heart is more shriveled and blackened than Jeremy Jacobs’.

After Vancouver scored two in the final 2:42, Andrew Shaw beat Cory Schneider for the game-winner. (Warren Wimmer/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

• It goes down in the books as a record-tying 4-3 win for the Chicago Blackhawks, but this one won’t leave anyone in the mood to celebrate.

This was a 25-minute effort for the Hawks, a pretty miserable way to tie an NHL record originally set by the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks with points in 16 straight games to start the season.

Chicago played a tentative first period as they tried to adjust to Vancouver’s early passive forecheck, then were back on their heels as the Canucks changed course and began hammering them and hemming them in their own zone.

The Hawks retaliated in the second, playing the kind of all-guts, no-glory style that got them to this point. They outshot Vancouver 16-6 and rang up three unanswered goals, including a pair from first star Marian Hossa.

But the third was the stuff of Joel Quenneville’s nightmares, a fine start that dissolved into bad decisions, lazy penalties and weak plays along the wall leading to a pair of Vancouver goals in the final three minutes to send the game to extra time.

They turned on the jets in OT and eventually put the game in the win column thanks to Andrew Shaw’s shootout clincher, but those two late goals were a sharp reminder that this team can’t afford to play cute.

• Have to believe that Vancouver forward Jannik Hansen will be hearing from NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan in the morning after this third period incident:

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By Allan Muir

The Canucks held their annual Super Skills Competition on Sunday. That’s kind of a shock. Honestly, the players would probably rather have a day off given how tight the schedule is, but hey, the NHL is all about building bridges to its aggrieved fandom these days, right?. So the boys sucked it up and put on a show.

Now, we at Home Ice love these competitions because of the rock-solid certainty that at least one event will be won by a guy who’s barely hanging on to a roster spot. This time around, fourth liner Dale Weise earned bragging rights as Vancouver’s fastest skater by logging a lap of 14.037. Guess he won’t be able to dog it at the next bag skate now, will he?

But the highlight of the night came, as it usually does, in the hardest shot challenge.

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