YOU'RE MY BOY, BLUE: SUNDIN'S 500TH, AND OTHER SATURDAY LEFTOVERS

Get me my address book, three beers and my conversation hat!

NHL

• He's never going to replace Number Ninety-Three, Dougie Gilmour for the portion of Leafs Nation based in Newmarket and Aurora, but that Mats Sundin is something special... he completed his hat trick and got his 500th career goal with a short-handed effort in overtime to nudge the Leafs past the Calgary Flames 5-4. Apparently Calgary left their suffocating defensive play at Scotiabank Place.
  
  How thin are the Leafs on defence with Pavel Kubina injured, by the way? Sundin's game-winner came with the Leafs playing 3-on-4 in overtime, and Hal Gill was on the ice. Repeat: Hal Gill was on the ice, when the Leafs only had two other skaters to cover for him.
  
  Sens 3 Habs 2 (shootout): The Sens have now spoiled three home openers -- the Leafs', their own and now the Habs'. Oh, and Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley were not called upon in the shootout, as Antoine Vermette and Mike Fisher scored on their attempts. There's some grist for the armchair GMs in Hockey Country today, including an Ottawa Sun column saying Alfredsson is lost at 'C'.
• Whatever happened to Jean Perron, who guided the Habs to the 1986 Stanley Cup? He's coaching the Israeli national team, which is touring North America. One of the backers of the Israeli team (which has a very cool sweater, as James Mirtle found out back in the summer) is a Montreal businessman, Alan Maislin (whom I believe once owned part of the Expos), who says, ""We're no different from Team Canada except we don't have money."

MLB PLAYOFFS

• Running short on time here, but rest assured, a full take on the Great Tiger Turnaround will appear here tomorrow. As for the NLCS, was it more amazing that Jeff Suppan homered, or that he pitched eight shutout innings? Be careful around the Mets fans today and don't say anything that Steve Lyons might say.

Back with more later tonight. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.