Just as The Sopranos heads off into yet another interminable hiatus, along come the Danbury Trashers to help ease the pain.

You've got minor league hockey players and their wives allegedly getting no-show jobs from a mob-connected garbage company so that the United Hockey League team can circumvent the salary cap.

Then the team owner is arrested on charges of racketeering, extortion and witness tampering, forcing the league to cancel the team's 2006-07 season.

And maybe it's just me, but the oddest part of this sordid tale from the world of waste management isn't that one of the leading players is reputed Genovese crime family boss Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello.

It's that a minor league hockey team would find it necessary to circumvent the salary cap in the first place.