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 Nice of Jason Blake to contribute the game winning goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs last night. It appears Mr Blake can still play effective hockey, if suitably motivated. Last night the wee weasel wanted to strut in front of his former New York Islander mates…Calgary Flames head to the Bell Centre to take on the Canadiens in the Big Game tonight. The Flames have been riding the resurgence of the embattled Miikka Kiprusoff, knocking off seven wins in their past nine games with the red hot puckstopper notching two shutouts. On Sunday the Flames completely shut down the New York Rangers, ratcheting their confidence to a season high…Marian Gaborik continues to skate solitary circles in Minnesota. A bizarre situation receiving minimal media coverage just gets weirder. Why don’t the Wild just trade the mercurial winger? The Wild play a dull, plodding game, one which is not consistent with Marian’s approach to hockey. But stranding a star and refusing to elaborate on the reason he is not playing is quite peculiar. He would fetch a mighty price on the open market and could sizzle with a more aggressively paced team…. more Mats, and then more Mats. Where will he sign? Who is he considering? Y’know, I’m filing all these articles so I can place them beside the more typical Sundin article, which we should start seeing around March and April, where new team-mates “whisper” to reporters, “wow, we thought this guy would be better. He just wants to golf”…the Tampa Bay Lightning are currently in last place in the NHL. It just grates that the team, with bona fide stars and prospects, will be in line for a prime lottery pick at the 2009 draft. Watching the Islanders and Leafs last night one observed two teams desperate for a star, a stud with some hefty name recognition. John Tavares is going to be a brilliant player and the thought he could be banished to Tampa is cringe inducing…The Carolina Panthers flourished in the MNF spotlight. En route to winning the Superbowl last year the New York Giants tipped their hand by running roughshod over the Bucs. The Panthers demolition job was eerily similar and I think we can safely move the Panthers into the “Teams to Watch” folder…it doesn’t get much easier for new Raptor coach Jay Triano tonight as the Dinos head into Cleveland to face LeBron and the Cavs, winners of eleven in a row at home…forgotten gem; the year before Sam Mitchell won the NBA award as top coach, an informal poll of players named him the worst coach in basketball…Jennifer Morrison reports local speed demon Fatal Bullet will start in the Malibu Stakes at Hollywood Park on Boxing Day. The second place finisher in the Breeders Cup sprint will be a handful for any sprinter in North America if he continues his steady progression……we can take some comfort in the fact Oscar De la Hoya has been shrewd with his money and, thus, won’t end up working in a YMCA ten years from now…heavyweight Vladimir Klitschko defends his title against former champ Hasim Rachman this Saturday night. Rachman was last seen spitting the bit against James Toney. He has been a joke for years now, completely shot and utterly indifferent, but the sheer paucity of fighters with name recognition in the division means he gets another shot. And don’t be fooled, he doesn’t even have a punchers chance… the following Saturday we get the disaster that is Evander Holyfield lurching and lumbering around with the giant Nikolai Valuev. While many express concern for Holyfields well being, I don’t think the Valuev fight will be particularly high risk. Valuev is a soft puncher and he should be satisfied pecking out an easy decision…noted that Britney Spears hasn’t come close to selling out her two ACC shows. The confused and catatonic young woman seems in need of a period of rest and reflection, not a world wide tour. As a child, at a zoo down south, I observed a diseased polar bear repeatedly bang its bleeding and scab covered head off cage bars, stupefied by captivity and boredom. Now, in a recurring nightmare, the bear morphs into Britney, and I need all my strength to pull away from the sharp white teeth and black, vacant eyes…