Mike Comrie’s scoring down with Hilary Duff; inside NHL vs. NHLPA legal battle (Puck Headlines)

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.

• Hilary Duff admits that scoring is down (but, potentially, stick-handling is up) for Mike Comrie: "On Access Hollywood Live Dec. 14, the 25-year-old Lizzie McGuire star talked about how raising a child has decreased her sex drive. 'It's definitely different. I'm so exhausted at the end of each day, so I'm like, 'Can this not happen at night when I'm exhausted?'' Duff laughed. 'You find different times to do it.'" [US Weekly]

• Real Sports denied it turned aside Joffrey Lupul because the Toronto Maple Leafs locked him out. [Toronto Sun]

• The NHLPA begins its vote on whether to head down the road to decertification. [SBD]

• Pierre LeBrun strikes an ominous note: "In a comment that I'm hearing more and more from people on the ownership side, I'm not sure the NHL returns with 30 teams on the other side of a lost season. Can the weaker markets truly survive this? That's damage both sides would feel." [ESPN]

• Ken Campbell on the lockout: "Instead of working toward a deal that some people think is there for the making, the league and players have instead chosen to polarize themselves even further from one another. For the next four days, the players will conduct a vote on whether or not their union leadership should abandon its responsibility for representing them. Just so we have this straight, the players are going to vote on whether or not to effectively disband as a union, only to reassemble once the lockout ends." [THN]

• Who is Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, the man that would hear the NHL's legal case? [Philly.com]

• Sports legal star Eric Macramalla breaks down the latest legal move by the NHL in tasty, bite-sized morsels: "Litigation may also make it more likely the entire NHL season will be lost. However, at this point, declaring that the season is done is grossly premature. In 2005, the season was only called off on February 16. So there remains time to bridge the gap between the sides. As the NHL is not looking to fundamentally change its business model as it did in 2005, conventional wisdom suggests that this should get settled and the NHL should return this season. This lockout, however, has been filled with surprises, and as a result, it's tough to know when the sides will strike a deal." [TSN]

• Here's Dellow with a must-read on the NHL/NHLPA legal battles. [mc79hockey]

• Alex Ovechkin's coach in the First Channel Cup, on his line for Team Russia: "Shall we say I was expecting a little more, especially in offense. They have not scored and I think they could have played better." [Alex Ovetjkin]

• Japers' Rink presents the Washington Capitals' 2012-13 season in photos. Oh, Dale Hunter. So whimsical. [JP]

• Charity game fun in Toronto! "The National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) and RBC today unveiled the complete roster of more than 30 NHLPA members who will be participating in the RBC Play Hockey Charity Challenge December 19, 7:00 p.m. at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. The teams will be led by RBC Play Hockey ambassadors Steven Stamkos and P.K. Subban." Niklas Kronwall, Dion Phaneuf and Steve Downie are all on the same team. In a game with no hitting. Sigh.

• Bourne on the "hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard" theory. [Backhand Shelf]

• NHL 94 T-shirt alert! [Life In Hockeywood]

• Finally, via Kukla, get ready to really, really miss hockey. Jokerit fans travel to Turku for an SM-Liiga game, and it's awesome: