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Andrew Raycroft will start for the Colorado Avalanche tonight as they venture into Hockeytown to battle the Detroit Red Wings. Or, to phrase it differently, Red Wings fans and punters, cha-ching!….Goalie updates; Montreal puck stopper Carey Price is expected to be out through Christmas. Cam Ward returned for the Carolina Hurricanes last week. Rick Di Pietro is skating and expected back for the New York Islanders within ten days. Roberto Luongo is still weeks away from returning for the Vancouver Canucks. Martin Brodeur is months removed from a return to duties for the New Jersey Devils…word is Mats Sundin has gone back to Sweden. Seriously. The Hamlet of Hockey was due to announce today which team he’ll sabotage and undermine but instead opted to leave the continent…I’m thinking Pittsburgh Steelers - Carolina Panthers in a punishing Superbowl renewal…my oh my, that Tampa Bay Buccaneer defence had numerous opportunities to rattle the Falcons cage. While getting to Matt Ryan and turning him into an ineffectual performer, the Bucs had no answer for the ferocious running of Michael Turner. The OT drive setting up the Atlanta Falcons game winning field goal was, I think, a watershed of sorts. The Bucs are on the down elevator while the Falcons are heading to the penthouse…well, we sure found a way to make a Vladimir Klitschko fight exciting. We took under 6.5 rounds for Saturdays fight with Hasim Rachman, meaning the reluctant Ukrainian had to dispatch the even more reluctant former champ before the halfway point of round seven. Talk about being on the edge of your seat. The fight was stopped with 44 seconds gone in the seventh, just in the nick of time, but what an appalling spectacle, yours truly begging Klitschko to throw a hook, an uppercut, anything other than a jab and straight right. I can’t understand people who rate Vladimir over Vitali. His older brother is a more rugged and enthusiastic participant in the demanding aspects of the fistic arts…Vitali could argue he has never suffered a fair defeat. His loss to Chris Byrd came when he suffered a rotator cuff injury and had to retire, his loss to Lennox Lewis came as a result of a horrific cut. Had the fights continued he likely would have won both…Vitali suffered an ignoble defeat to journeyman Ross Purity and knockout losses to Corrie Sanders and Lamont Brewster. He is a cut below his older brother…James Toney won  a split decision over Fres Oquendo Saturday night. The 40 year old looked fat and slow but, remarkably, Toney is still a top ten heavyweight…five days until Holyfield-Valuev!…Thomas Hauser has published his annual reading guide to the sweet science. It’s a treat to peruse his choices. I was heartened to discover “Two Ton” by Joseph Monninger on the list. I found the work to be a beautiful rendering of Two Ton Tony Galento’s improbable shot at Joe Louis’s heavyweight title. Galento was an enormous underdog but was able to hurt Louis, even scoring a knockdown, before the Brown Bomber executed a savage beatdown. The books recreates New York in the 1940’s and is redolent with the sights and sounds of the Big Apple just as the world plunges into war. The slim volume can be easily read in a sitting…and if you haven’t read Dave Kindred’s “The Sound and Fury” yet, put it on the top of your sports reading list. It is a riveting account of the careers of Howard Cossell and Muhammad Ali…I wouldn’t bother with Mark Cram’s “The Ghosts of Manila”. The writer, since deceased, was a bitter old man by the time he wrote this book. His tome is an unrelenting assault on the Ali myth and, in a spectacularly dumb moment, he posits that Ali was about to quit before the start of the fifteenth round of his epic third brawl with Joe Frazier. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Ali and his career knows the idea of the champ giving up his title to Smokin’ Joe while sitting on his stool is laughable. It is also a contention devoid of any evidence. Cram methodically browbeats the reader into understanding that Ali was never going to be a Mensa member. Duh. The bitter old fart gets worked up pointing out the obvious, his common sense consumed by an irrational hatred of Cassius Clay…New York wrapped up horse racing on Sunday. The winter meet begins at Aqueduct in ten days and the Meridian will be your host and guide as we take repeated chomps from the Big Apple. We’ll track our results and then make a decision in April as to whether we’ll return to Woodbine…the Varsity theatre at Yonge and Bloor is the place to be Friday nights. I love the buzz of a crowded hall, good movies, overheard conversations….