Actress is a proud ‘Canucklehead’

Call it life imitating art imitating life.

Cobie Smulders, a.k.a. Robin Scherbatsky, a television journalist on the TV comedy series “How I Met Your Mother,” was trying to get from Albuquerque to Vancouver on Tuesday so she could see the Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals.

“The problem is my movie career is hindering my hockey schedule,” said Smulders, who has been on location shooting “The Avengers” the past month. “I have been following the games on podcast. . . . Some days, I’d come to work really depressed and the others would say, ‘Uh-oh, things didn’t go well.’ ”

The Scherbatsky character -- like Smulders -- is from Vancouver, and Canadian and hockey insults are hurled her way. In one episode, she boasts of meeting Canucks forward Mason Raymond and another character chimes in, “What’s the opposite of name dropping?”

Scherbatsky, and Smulders, might get the last laugh.

“The best vindication would be to come back to the show and have the opening scene be Robin all super-psyched about the Canucks winning the Cup,” said Smulders, who now resides in Los Angeles.

Smulders was 14 when the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in the 1994 finals. Her crush on forward Pavel Bure was the first attraction to the Canucks. “I was right in that glitter-and-lust phase. But I really got into it during the playoffs.”

Now Smulders has a national view, noting that a Canadian team has not won the Cup since 1993. Those Canadian roots are brought out in the Scherbatsky character. References to Mt. Waddington (Canada’s highest peak) and Danby’s (a restaurant in Canada) are met with blank stares from the other characters. Smulders takes the ribbing well, saying, “Canadians have an inherent good nature, and they are used to being made fun of.”

Besides, if the Canucks win, there will be a chance to answer back.

“It’s so exciting for Vancouver, especially coming right after the Olympics,” Smulders said. “This is our national sport, our thing. It’s cool to see the city be the epicenter of so many things. If the Canucks win, it will be vindication for all Canadians.”

And that would make Smulders the one Kobe . . . uh, Cobie . . . from Los Angeles who can celebrate a title this year.

“I keep saying we could have me as Robin Scherbatsky talking to players after the game and we could use it on the show,” she said.

Call it art imitating life imitating art imitating life.

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chris.foster@latimes.com