At the Pens game tonight to once again watch the walking wounded. Good news though is that James Neal is gritting through the pain of a bruise to a bone in his foot originally thought to be broken. He’s a trooper!

Let’s go Pens!

It is being deemed “radical” what the NHL has done in terms of realignment for the 2012 season.  I personally don’t think anything “radical” needed to be done.  The NHL could have just moved Winnipeg to the Western Conference’s Central Division and Columbus to the East, maybe, and I emphasize the maybe, shifting around some of the East’s teams so that Columbus wasn’t in the South East, which would have been a little silly.

But instead they decided to be “radical”.  Starting in 2012, the NHL will play with four yet to be named conferences as follows:

Conference D:
New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina

Conference C:
Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, Florida and Tampa Bay

Conference B:
Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg

Conference A:
Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado

Each conference will send its top four teams into the playoffs with the playoffs starting out with games among the top four teams in each conference.  After that the teams will be reseeded leading to the very real potential for an all Western or all Eastern Stanley Cup Final.  It think that is bad but hey, what do I know right?  I thought this could have been solved by moving just two teams.

Anyway, the Penguins are now in what I would call potentially the toughest of all the conferences based on the teams as they currently are.  They will have to contend with Washington, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Carolina for one of the top four places in that conference.  And let us not forget the New York Rangers too.  Year in and year out that is six quality teams vying for four spots and you know the Penguins are going to get shut out at least once in the near future from the playoffs based on that.

Once good thing about this realignment is that the regular season now means a lot more than it has in the past.  You don’t have 15 teams competing for eight spots.  You have seven or eight teams competing for just four.  You don’t have to just be better than the bottom half of the Eastern or Western Conference but better than the bottom half of your, essentially, division.  Yes, I know they are calling them conferences, but they are more like divisions to me.

Really, ok, that is fine.  No more coasting in to eighth place on the last day of the season.  Now play hard all season or be left behind.  Although the loser in this could be the teams that are not perennially good and the New York Islanders look to not be making any playoff appearances any time soon based on their lot in “Conference D”.  I think that hurts the game if you ask me.  I mean, we are not talking about a conference with only one or two perennial powers but, again, a conference with the Penguins, Flyers, Rangers, Captials, Hurricanes and Devils in in.  Seriously?  If I were an Islanders fan, and I am not because I actually know a thing or two about hockey, I would be screaming bloody murder.

It is what it is though.  I liked the current set up and didn’t think, again other than two moves, that it needed changing.  But hockey seems to be a sport with fickle women in charge of it.  They realign more that a car with a bad front end.

2 Goals, 2 Assists … Like he never missed a beat.

Welcome back Sid!

Sources with the Penguins say that the team will announce later today that Sidney Crosby will be in the lineup Monday when the Penguins host the New York Islanders.

Way back in the 1980s I stopped caring about the University of Pittsburgh. Sure, it was my “home town” team. But nothing about it and the overt homers who never had a bad thing to say about it and it’s sport programs gave me much of a reason to care. And judging by attendance at Pitt football games these days, many other Pittsburgher’s agree with me that Pitt sports are pretty much not that interesting. More people talk about Penn State sports around here these days than Pitt.

Back in the 1990s I jumped at the chance to get away from the “Pitt” bandwagon for good and enrolled at West Virginia University. And since I have been a loyal Mountaineer fan.

When the Big East expanded to football in 1991 (my sophomore year) I liked the league. It was a good conference. But in 2005 when BC, Virginia Tech and Miami jumped ship to the ACC, resulting in the forced additions of Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida, signaled what everyone knew was going to be a long, painful death.

The conference, every year, became a contest between Pitt and WVU to see who would screw up and let the other win the league. Some years, both screwed up and someone else would take the title.

Now the death throws appear to be ending. Pitt an Syracuse are bolting for the ACC. The Big 12 has formally announced that WVU will go west to compete. WVU wants out now. The Big East wants to hold them for 27 months, a term to which Pitt and Syracuse have agreed not to contest.

So why hold together a bunch of schools that no longer want to be associated with each other? The Big East has long been accused, and rightly so, of focusing too much on creating what was, unarguably, the premiere basketball conference in the nation while not working to help the football side.

It is time to give up the ghost. I know there are contracts and money involved. I know people want to keep their power. But it is time for the Big East to let all those who want out, out. Then rebuild – at least on the basketball side. As for football though?

R.I.P. Big East. It was fun while it lasted. But the Big East has never had the respect it had when Miami was a member. Let us all just part ways.

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New Jersey Devils last night.  It took a third period explosion of three goals and overcoming a short handed goal by the Devils to tie the game at 1-1 at the very beginning of the period, but they won.  And while Marty Brodeur did not play, still recovering from a bruised right shoulder, the Devils had Ilya Kovalchuk in their line-up and are always dangerous.  The Devils were 3-1-1 heading into last night’s game.

It was Marc-Andre Fleury who stole the show early and often throughout the game.  Whether it was by using the tip of his toe or his leather of his glove, Fleury kept shot after shot out of the net.

At 6:07 of the first, Jordan Staal (4) put the Penguins up 1-0 and Matt Cooke got an assist on the goal proving something I said last year.  In my post Lemieux Is Right, League Is Disgraceful – Gillies And Islanders Got Off Easy I said of Cookie:

But here is something else that Matt Cooke does.  He plays offense.  He plays hockey with the puck as well.  Matt Cooke this season has 10 goals and 13 assists and is a plus 9.  He is not a goon no matter how badly you want him to be one.  Last year he scored 15 goals and 15 assists and was a plus 17.  In 2008-09 he had 13 goals and 18 assists and was  even one the score sheet.  He is also one of the league’s premier penalty killers and has 2 short handed goals this season.  He is not, by any stretch of the imagination, some no talent hack like so many of those employed by other teams for the same purposes.

Through 10 games this year, Cooke has 3 goals and 4 assists, 7 points and is a +3. He is on pace for 25 goals, 33 assists and +25. Now, he probably will not finish with those numbers since when Sid and Geno return he will get less playing time, but he appears ready to prove the naysayers wrong.

Back to the game …

The game remained 1-0 until Patrick Elias (3) scored short handed with Petr Sykora in the box on a high sticking double minor.

The Penguins responded however. On the second of the two PPs Chris Kunitz (2) scored to put the Penguins up 2-1. Jordan Staal (5) added his second goal of the night just over a minute later to make it 3-1. Then it was James Neal (8) who scored yet again to make it 4-1.

Fleury stopped 23 shots on the evening.

The Penguins are proving right now, just like last year, that even without Sid and Geno, they can play hockey. They are a good hockey team right now. And they can be an instant contender for the cup. The superstars just need to be added.