HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: FIRST, A FEW WORDS ABOUT STEVE NASH

Steve Nash's game last night supplants any hockey talk today -- try twenty-one assists last night in the Phoenix Suns' win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ten assists in a game for everyone else is good; for Nash it's his second 20-assist game on the season, something no one's accomplished since the late '90s. He made the best team in the NBA's Eastern Conference look sick on a night where he scored just two baskets and didn't attempt a free throw.

Now, any chance this won't get buried behind 20-25 minutes' worth of hockey highlights this morning? (Full disclosure: I sleep in late, so I don't see the morning Sportscentre and Sportsnet's new show Connected. If I'm wrong on this, please tell me off in most colourful and profane language. No, wait, I might enjoy that to much.)

MarLeafs 4 Sabres 2: Show some class and dignity in victory? Us?! No way. We're Leafs fans. We long ago surrendered any claim on class and dignity that we may have accidentally possessed. Jeff O'Neill might as well be the reincarnation of Charlie Conacher this morning after scoring twice last night.

All is well in the Nation this a.m. until everyone remembers the Leafs seldom play well twice in a row and of eight of the next 10 are on the road. Meantime, is Buffalo is in some serious January blahs or what?

Senators 6 Rangers 4: Some guys have all the luck -- Dany Heatley turned the puck over inside his own blue line in the final minute when the Rangers were buzzing for the tying goal, but ended up getting the empty-netter moments later.

Hey, don't look so frazzled, Senators fans. You hung on. Yes, the Sens came sadistically close to blowing a five-goal lead. Just settle down. It's gonna be OK.

One question: Did Gord Wilson really use the term "playing field" in reference to the ice surface? Yes, he did.

Wild 5 Canucks 2: Marion Gaborik -- remember him? -- gets a big goal early as the Wild, against all odds, win on the road and in regulation time. It doesn't happen often.

Flames 7 Avs 3: On a night when Colorado's de facto No. 1 goalie Peter Budaj was lit up for five goals on 17 Calgary shots, and Jose Theodore -- remember how he was good once? -- couldn't do anything to stanch the bleeding in a so-called relief effort, it seems germane to link to this Salon article about how Paris Hilton ruins people's lives. Oh, and good on the Flames for winning once again without Jarome Iginla.

Headlines: Sportsnet's Mike Brophy has a h'allegry to those effing fans; there's a Rory Fitzpatrick conspiracy theory; University of British Columbia shoots for CIS hockey attendance record; former Ducks tough guy Garnett Burnett is in a coma; and Brett Hull is getting ready for his big NBC debut.

NHL Scoreboard

Today's better games: Thrashers-Devils, 7:30 p.m.; Wild-Oilers, 9 p.m.

HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN

Accolades to coach Shelley Coolidge and the Ottawa Gee-Gees women's team, who are now No. 5 in the CIS rankings after knocking off Ontario powerhouses Laurier and University of Toronto at a tournament last weekend. The Gee-Gees will take some shots at the No. 1 McGill Martlets and Olympic goalie Charline Labonte tomorrow at 2 p.m. in a matchup of teams who are all but certain to be play in the CIS national championship when it's held here in March.

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