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.

Looks like Brooks Orpik will be in the lineup for the Penguins tonight when they take on Montreal.  Two days after the Penguins put forth a spirited effort with a depleted line-up to defeat the Minnesota Wild, Orpik’s return certainly helps.  Especially with Kris Letang serving the second game of his two game suspension for a boarding penalty that the rules clearly dictated should not have been called.

According to the rules, if a player puts himself in a vulnerable position, such as turning his back on a checking player, there is no penalty for boarding.  But the refs apparently forgot this and the NHL’s new “Dean of Discipline”, Brendan Shanahan, felt compelled to release a Zapruder like film to explain the suspension he levied because it was so much of a stretch.

Orpik as much needed stability in Letang’s absence.

Montreal is struggling early this season at 1-3-1 but always seem to play the Penguins rough.  We will see if they can win and improve their 4-2-2 record.

Kostitsyn’s hat trick sealed the Penguins fate as they fell 3-2 to the Canadiens Saturday night at the Igloo.  Despite achieving 34 shots against Carey Price and the Penguins only allowing 19 shots on Fleury, Pittsburgh could not find a way to put the puck into the net more than the visiting squad despite seven or eight times when they had the Canadien netminder dead to rights.

The game was everything the Penguins needed it to be – except a win.  For a team that has been struggling to find the cage however, the match proved one thing that the Penguins have seemed to forgotten; shooting the puck more leads to chances.

While they failed to capitalize against Montreal Pens fans can only hope that they tasted what can happen when they push pucks towards the net and generate chances.  The Pens did however suffer from a lack of physicality.  Even when they did hit Montreal players for the most part the hits were weak and unimpressive.  Such weak play lead to the Canadiens scoring with just 1.6 seconds remaining in the first to put the Penguins in a 2-1 hole.

Pittsburgh is off until December 30th when they host the Boston Bruins who are the best in the East at 26-5-4 (56 pts).  By the looks of things the Penguins will have their work cut out for them as they hope to finish a dismal December on a positive note.