HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: BACASHIHUA (GESUNDHEIT!)

The stuff you may have missed as you relaxed, feet in a tub of caviar.

Bruins 3 Leafs 1: OK, why have the Leafs been outscored 18-2 in the third period over this now six-game skid? It shouldn't be conditioning, since there was all that pre-season talk about how Paul Maurice's brisk, fast-paced practices were like night and day compared to the leisurely workouts Pat Quinn ran. It has to be something else, then.

Will the Leafs win again before Dec. 25? Their next four games, beginning Saturday in Detroit (remember when that was a rivalry?), don't look so promising. How far out of the eighth playoff spot will they be when they do win again? There isn't an obvious W on the sked for another week and a a half (Dec. 19 vs. Florida) .

Red Wings 4 Blues 3 (overtime): Sympathetic masked figure of the night award goes to Jason Bacashihua (pictured), St. Louis rookie goalie, after making 39 saves to keep the lowly Blues in the game before Pavel Datsyuk wrapped it up in overtime.

Bacashihua's going to get plenty of playing time, since Manny Legace was conked on the head with a shot in practice and placed on injured reserve yesterday, giving the Blues two injured netminders.

Rangers 3 Penguins 2 (shootout): Henrik Lundqvist is a perfect 22-for-22 in shootouts after stoning Pittsburgh.

Wild 3 Flames 2 (shootout): Will the Wild ever win in regulation again? Minnesota has done so only twice in their last 18 games. Last night, they beat the Flames without scoring an even-strength goal, as Manny Fernandez made 38 saves before Mikko Koivu and Brian Rolston did what they do against Miikka Kiprusoff in the shootout.

This one's a real kick in the pants for Calgary, who failed once again to win on the road.

Habs 4 Islanders 2: Ted Nolan's team will never forget their dizzying two-day stint atop the Atlantic Division -- which ended with a loss that saw them take two too-many-men penalties. This sort of stuff doesn't happen only to the Islanders, it just seems that way. Meantime, Saku Koivu scored twice for Les Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

Fun stat: The Islanders are winless in their last six games against Canadian teams.

Lightning 8 Thrashers 0: Who knows what got into Tampa Bay, but Vinny Lecavalier had a natural hat trick and he and Martin St-Louis each had career-high five-point games. If Washington coach Glen Hanlon (master of the blatantly obvious quote) coached Tampa Bay, no doubt he would have said, "Well, anytime you have two guys each get five points in the same game, that's huge."

Elsewhere: Avalanche 5 Sharks 2; Coyotes 2 Blackhawks 1 (shootout); Panthers 3 Sabres 1; Predators 4 Kings 1.

Tonight's better games: Oilers-Stars, 8:30 p.m.; Hurricanes-Canucks, 10 p.m.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.