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ICE…Ilya Bryzgalov recorded his seventh shutout of the season last night against the Anaheim Ducks. The loss is a costly one for Anaheim, a team in desperate need of a winning streak in order to qualify for the post season….Jonas Gustavsson has three wins in his last fourteen games. He was solid last night against Ottawa…Leaf sniper Phil Kessel has five goals in five games against the Senators…Jose Theodore, with 22 wins, is fashioning quite a comeback in 2010. He shutout the Rangers yesterday and is expected to share starting responsibilities with Semyon Varlamov for the rest of the year. The private and controversial goalie is battling through the loss of a child and is demonstrating profound dedication to both his craft and family…as San Jose perennially chokes, and the Black Hawks remain soft in goal, do the Capitals not go to the front of the line?…Sidney Crosby leads the NHL with 44 goals. For every connoisseur who appreciates his sublime skills, there is a yokel decrying the pride of Canada. Not that I mind the yokels; my beloved NASCAR wouldn’t exist without them …. 

PONIES…Canadian ex-pat Eugene Melnyk watched his Sterwins win a corker in the Barbados Cup (technically the Sandy Lane Gold Cup, but, c’mon) from Garrison Savannah in Bridgetown yesterday. The 97k American race attracted extra attention this year due to the appearance of the eventual winner and Grade 1 champ Bribon. The two invaders settled the matter in a desperate finish, with Sterwins surging from last to first to edge Bribon by half a length. Congratulations to Jennifer Morrison for getting this old coots blood flowing with her dramatic missives from the island…www.ntra.com has done a very nice job with the “refresh” of their video page. Finally, some volume control on the clips! The archive is stocked with great Stakes races, including Misremembereds dramatic win over Neko Bay in yesterdays Big ‘Cap from Santa Anita. Also check out Blind Luck dawdling in the Santa Anita Oaks and getting caught out by Crisp…I don’t tire of watching that mad beast, Presious Passion, scoring a beautiful win in the Mac Diarmida Stakes last weekend. It’s the usual compelling stuff with the gelding roaring to an eight length lead before being caught by the pack with a quarter to go. Then, boom, Passion finds his hidden reserve and sprints through the lane to record yet another stakes win. I’m dying to see this guy freak the competitors out in Dubai on March 27^th…in the second Kentucky Derby futures pool the “all others” option remains the favourite, currently at 3-1. Eskendereya is at 6-1, Dublin at 8-1 and Lookin At Lucky 9-1. All others are double digits. The only value I perceive is on Radiohead, a colt who won at Ascot last year and notched a very professional win when debuting on dirt at Gulfstream Feb 27^th. He still could be any sort…this group still needs to kick it up a notch. If a Beyer of 108-112 is needed to win the Derby, usually, then the winner could still pop out of the weeds. Most of the runners listed in the current pool will never run fast enough to hit the Derby par…Dublin still looks to be capable of improvement. His effort in the Southwest is actually engendering a bit too much hype. Hey, he’s not Secretariat and we need to see him at nine furlongs to gauge his appropriateness for Kentucky. His odds are a major underlay… 

PUG LIFE…the night in boxing belonged to Devon Alexander, lightning fast while pounding on Juan Urango, and the irrepressible super flyweight Vic Darchinyan, a decision winner over game Rodrigo Guerrero…Alexander’s best previous wins had been over a shopworn DeMarcus Corley and Junior Witter. It’s a nice win, but nothing more. He always figured to use his prodigious speed to hammer the plucky but limited Urango. The boss of the junior welterweight’s remains, no doubt, Timothy Bradley, though a fight with Alexander is inching closer to “pick ‘em” status…Darchinyan is Armenian but now based out of Australia. In his last six fights he has terrific wins over Cristian Mijares and Jorge Arce, as well as a surprising loss to Joseph Agbeko. The two belt champ is always worth a watch, even if you’re stuck doing so on YouTube or Justin TV…after losing a decision in Montreal yesterday, to Sebastien Demers, ancient William Joppy took the microphone and made a retirement speech to the throng. It was the same speech he had given in Montreal in 2008, when he was used as a punching bag by Lucian Bute…speaking of ancient warriors, Johnny “Tap City” Tapia, the webmasters favourite fighter, put down his crack pipe long enough to TKO Jorge Reyes, a dude who’d lost 15 of his last 16 fights. In Vegas Stevie Forbes was upset by Harrison Cuello, a close to .500 scrapper… 

FOOTIE…Wayne Rooney has 27 goals for Manchester United this year, 23 earned in the Premiership. He is a vital cog on the national team. He is also hurt. In a controversial move, England boss Fabio Capello played Rooney on Wednesday despite a swollen knee (England 3-1 over Egypt). Rooney is now expected to miss the second leg of Man U’s Championship League battle with A C Milan. Rooney was rushed back to play in the last World Cup, with disastrous results, and you’d think he would be handled with utmost caution approaching a World Cup where England currently ranks the third choice (behind Brazil and Spain)…Manchester United is back on top of the Premiership following yesterdays win over Wolves. Rooney did not play for the Red Devils…watching a game last year the announcer opined, “The goalie has covered more ground than Dmitar Berbatov”…