HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: SENS' POWER-PLAY WOES PART OF LARGER TREND?

Before getting into last night's NHL wrap, Happy Birthday to the Official Goaltending Expert and Sister of Out of Left Field, Trina Sager.

My sister and I's lives have kind of diverged in the past couple years. That's probably par for the course for two 20-something university grads trying to build professions in journalism and engineering, fields that can be notoriously itinerant. That said, my sister was still the first person I thought of when I woke up today.

Habs 4 Senators 2: The Sens turn in another stinky night on the power play -- 0-for-7 with a short-handed goal allowed to the Habs' Chris Higgins. By this point, with about five teams killing off penalties in the 90% range or higher, should we be wondering if that's an early-season blip or part of some long-term trend?

It seems you can't read a sports page in Canada these days without reading about a NHL team that's 2 for 30, 3 for 40 or whatever on the power play.

Twenty-five years ago, teams generally converted about 21%, 22% of their man advantages. The efficiency has been steadily dropping ever since, perhaps to the point where it is a competition committee issue. If teams can't find space even with an extra skater, perhaps it's time to review the argument for 4-on-4 hockey all the time.

Predators 3 Canucks 2: Little Stevie Sullivan -- hey, isn't that the same little Stevie Sullivan whom the Leafs traded for some magic beans and some old Molly Hatchet albums? -- scores late to lift the Preds to a win on the road. Incidentally, can we banish the phrase "home run pass" from all post-game interviews? Not that this is something you protest on Parliament Hill over, but seriously, "home run pass" makes no sense. It's also just another American sports idiom that shouldn't be creeping into the sport.

All together now: Hockey is played on a rink, in an arena. The rink is framed by boards, not walls; players wear sweaters which they don in a dressing room.

Islanders 5 Blackhawks 2: Hands up, everyone who thought Jassen Cullimore (21 goals in 588 career games) would end Chicago's scoreless drought. It hit 240 minutes 56 seconds before the normally stay-at-home defenceman "who mans the blue line like a barracuda" (in the phrasing of my good friend, Woodstock Sentinel-Review sports ed. Darryl G. Smart) potted his first of the season. Unfortunately for the Hawks, they were already down 3-0 by that point.

Official attendance in Long Island for this one: 8,739. Well, it was Halloween.

Sharks 2 Panthers 1: So much for that great San Jose-Florida rivalry. Christian Ehrhoff's last-minute power-play goal gave the Sharks their seventh win over Florida in their past eight tries dating to 2000.

Leafs-Lightning tonight. Oooooooooooh.

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