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.

This NHL is really pumping out its “History will be made” commercials and promos right now. Fleury’s “History Stops Everything” after his shutout in game 1 against the Bolts was good. But James Neal has now gotten one just because he finally scored a goal. What a reward! Come on, not that I am not happy for Neal for salvaging game 4 in double OT, but has Double AA, Arron Asham, aka The Chief, who has already scored 3 goals and tallied an assist gotten a commercial yet? How about Tyler, that’s Mister Kennedy to you, Kennedy who has 2 goals and help carry the team down the stretch? What about these guys?

Anyway, congrats to Neal. Take a look at his commercial. Now here’s hoping he fills the net a little more in coming games.

This NHL is really pumping out its “History will be made” commercials and promos right now. Fleury’s “History Stops Everything” after his shutout in game 1 against the Bolts was good. But James Neal has now gotten one just because he finally scored a goal. What a reward! Come on, not that I am not happy for Neal for salvaging game 4 in double OT, but has Double AA, Arron Asham, aka The Chief, who has already scored 3 goals and tallied an assist gotten a commercial yet? How about Tyler, that’s Mister Kennedy to you, Kennedy who has 2 goals and help carry the team down the stretch? What about these guys?

Anyway, congrats to Neal. Take a look at his commercial. Now here’s hoping he fills the net a little more in coming games.

Matt Cooke threw and elbow to the head of the Rangers Ryan McDonagh. He deserved a suspension for the hit. He deserved it because:
1) It was a dirty hit
2) Cooke is a repeat offender

He also knew it was coming because:
1) He knew Mario pissed off Gary Bettman by calling the NHL on the carpet over head shots
2) The league had just wrapped up its winter meetings where head shots were a hot topic

But the suspension he got was silly. It was, at the time because the Penguins were not a lock for the playoffs, a minimum of 10 games (if they had missed the playoffs) and a maximum of 17 games (if they played a seven game opening round having made the playoffs). Now the suspension, with the Penguins having made the playoffs is a minimum of 14 games.

It was a silly suspension because, I bring this up again, Gillies of the Islanders … sorry I mean the New York Goons … chased down a man across the ice, knocked him down and then continued to beat on him while he was on the ice and got just 9 games. Then Gillies came back from suspension and in his first game back threw a blatant elbow and promptly got a 10 game suspension. At least Cooke waited a few games between coming off his last suspension and his latest infraction for crying out loud!

There was little doubt at the time of the Cooke suspension that the league was sending Mario a message to sit down, shut up, and stop making them look so bad. There is even less doubt now.

Last night, repeat offender, and Red Wings thumper, Todd Bertuzzi proved that. You might remember Mr. Bertuzzi. He is the schlub that punched Steve Moore from behind on March 8th, 2004. Moore suffered a concussion, facial lacerations and several broken vertebrae. That incident got Bertuzzi suspended indefinitely by the league and he wound up missing 20 games (13 regular season and 7 in the playoffs).

Bertuzzi has not seriously cleaned up his act since. He regularly finds any excuse he can to hit players late. In 2003-04 he amassed 122 PIMs in just 69 games. In 2005-06 he massed 120 PIMs in 82 games. In 2006-2007 he netted only 13 PIMs but also only played in 15 games. In 2007-08 Bertuzi had 97 PIMs in just 68 games. In 2008-2009 he got sent to the sin bin for 74 minutes in just 66 games. Last year he had a respectable year of just 80 minutes in 82 games. This year the aging winger has been able to get just 61 penalty minutes. This however is due mostly to the fact that he can no longer chase down players the way he used to. Make no mistake he would love to! But he just cannot.

And he was up to his old tricks again last night as he found an excuse to throw a purposeful elbow into the head of Ryan Johnson. Of course Red Wings fans, who as we here in the ‘Burgh have learned are some of the most ignorant and ill-educated hockey fans, around are defending the hit calling it unintentional. I have read numerous praises for Bertuzzi as being a “gentleman” for immediately seeking out Johnson and apologizing for the hit that got him a 5 minute major as well as ejected from the game. Coming from a Detroit fan ok, I can see why a thug who apologizes would be a “gentleman” in their eyes considering most of the thugs on Detroit’s streets have no such courtesy. I mean, could you imagine? It would be laughable to see a gangsta thug rob a woman at gun point and then tell her how sorry he was!

I have even seen comments from Johnson claiming that he does not think the hit was intentional. Ok, so because Johnson is too stupid to know what Bertuzzi was trying to do to him that makes it ok?

The video says it all and here it is. My commentary follows:

You can clearly see at around 0:39 of this clip (during the replay) that Bertuzzi sees that Johnson’s head is down as he tries to clear the puck. Bertuzzi lifts his elbow, rides it up Johnson’s arm and straight into his head. His right elbow is more than halfway up and Bertuzzi, seeing that he was going to miss Johnson, threw that elbow out there on purpose. There is no doubt about this. That is except to the NHL brass, Red Wings fans and other assorted people who know little to nothing about hockey.

Today the league announced Bertuzzi’s punishment. That punishment? Zero games suspension. Oh yeah, the NHL is really serious about hits to the head and cracking down on repeat offenders. Nope. What the league is really about is making sure Mario knows his place. Bettman cannot stand that Lemieux knows more about what’s up that he does and he certainly cannot stand that Lemieux gets more respect than him. I mean honestly, if you walk into a room and on one end is Mario and the other is Bugsy Bettman, who do you think is going to have the bigger crowd. I mean of legitimate hockey fans, not brown-nosing yes men. Of course it is going to be Mario.

So Bettman acts like a thug to get even. He slaps Cooke hard, lets Gillies off with a relatively comparable love tap and lets Todd Bertuzzi get off scott free.

The joke that is the NHL just keeps running.

Enough is enough!  1-3-0 is unacceptable for a team like the Penguins that are stocked with the talent they have from forward to blue line and in into the goal.

Ok so there are injuries on the Blue Line and the Penguins sent their best option back to Juniors.  No excuse.  This team is still better from their A-line on back than 95% of the teams in the NHL.

Tonight the New York Islanders are in town.  That’s right, the New York Freaking Islanders … a team that has been one of the laughing stocks of the East in recent years.  It is time for the Pens to get serious, bear down and win on home ice for the first time this season.

It’s time for players to not just man up but to HERO UP!  I don’t care who takes up the challenge to rise to the occasion and do something beyond being mediocre during the sixty minutes they are on the ice tonight.  Someone, preferable someones, will decided that they have had enough of the losing and dig down deep to make a win possible.  Sid and Geno need to find their game.  The defense needs to put aside the bruises and defend the blue line.  Everyone needs to pick up their game.

What do you say Pens?  Ready to take up the challenge?  Ready to HERO UP and be the team that you are supposed to be?  Ready to kick some ass?