Sweet Holy Moses

That game was one of the greatest hidden gems (get it?) of my childhood. I played that more than Super Mario 3. No joke or nothing. When I finally beat it, I actually cried a little. Seriously. It was just that difficult for a kid of my age.

That they've remastered it is truly a good thing.

He'll be up there. He's still just 22 years old, and really appears to be thriving under the guidance -- and trust -- of first Dallas Eakins with the Marlies and now Randy Carlyle. It just seems like the more ice time he gets, the better he becomes during each and every shift. He seems to have put that whole 'You're fat!' incident behind him, and is really taking his coaches' advice to heart.

And he's just getting better and better.

Look out Sidney Crosby

As much as I'd wish Kadri were at Crosby's level -- or even to keep the point-per-game pace -- he's realistically more of a 60-70 points-per-year guy. He's a very skilled guy, but he's not going to dominate games.

And he's just getting better and better.

Komi is on waivers

About time, too. You don't just let a guy like him rot in the press box. You either play him, or move him.

I don't know if anyone else watched the TFC-Montréal game, but I have a question for some neutral fans. The match was reffed by Baldomero Toledo. And, to me, it seemed like Toledo is a shit ref. But that assessment may be clouded by my favourtism for TFC, who lost 2-1.

So either, for those who saw it, was the reffing as bad as I thought? Or, for the general MLS fans, is Toldeo usually that bad?

I can't recall other matches of his that I saw, so I have nothing else to go by. I've had a hate-on for Salazar this whole time. Should I hate Toledo more?

When I first heard about Rival Week, I passed it off as some cheap attempt by MLS to push the fabricated 'rivalries' (Trillium Cup, Brimstone Cup, Pioneer Cup) down our throats. But having TFC v MTL, NYRB v DCU, RSL v COL, SEA v POR, LAG v CHV, FCD v HOU and CHI v SKC is great. Too bad for Columbus and San Jose, though. They're missing out on what could become a staple of the MLS calender.

Well, it took Mariner 10 games for his first win. It took Nelson 2. Nelson is, statistically, fives times the coach Mariner is. That makes me happy.

But this year, we've actually got the truculence to fight back. It'll be an interesting one, to say the least.

You really have to give it to the Senators. Despite all the injury troubles, they still manage to stick around, both in games and in the standings.

I'm distinctly reminded of LA vs TFC last season, at the same stage in the competition. Though it was great to knock LAG out of the NACL, I still feel the need to cheer for them in this campaign. After all, any MLS team at the top of NACL is better than a Mexican team, IMHO.

Out-of-town goes Brown?

Down (the standings) goes Brown?

That's all I've got.

They're going to go undefeated in regulation for the entire season. They will then get swept in the first round by a sub-.500 team that squeaks into the playoffs on goal differential. You heard it here first.

Re-hire Feaster!

This just gets better and better. Apparently, if Colorado hadn't matched, O'Reilly would have had to go through waivers, since he played two KHL games since the start of the NHL season. Any team could have picked up the 2 yr/$10 million option. But Calgary still would have lost the picks. Seriously, just for almost giving up two picks for nothing, Feaster should be fired.

The hits were great. But that was about it. Poor defence. Poor concentration. Poor calls (a boarding major? Really?). Unless we turn it around soon, we're going to fall out of the playoffs.

On the bright side, I do feel that the team performs much better when the Reim Time is in goal. They just seem to be more focused.

Allow me to clarify: I understand the footie significance of Bimbo. It's just an unfortunate word to have plastered across your chest.

Second, holy cats that SKC kit is great. With them, Seattle, Philly, TFC, Vancouver and even Galaxy, the shirts in MLS are really starting to gain in quality. Too bad that Montréal's new/old shirt is so generic. I get the history of the blue and black, but meh.

Other than the sponsor (Bimbo? Really? That's unfortunate), that Philly kit is awesome. Simple, yet with a purpose. Bethlehem Steel was the bee's knees back in the day, and a very, very worthy honouree.

Plubby. I didn't miss your point. You missed my point. I'm saying that there is, currently and recently historically, little fan interest in the Columbus Blue Jackets. I used attendance figures from two years ago to show my point. Two playoff games from five years ago is both a minuscule sample size, and not indicative of current realities.

And the reason Atlanta owners wanted out is because the attendance figures were so low. So yes, there is a correlation between low attendance and relocation. You don't see the Leafs, Habs or Rangers talking about moving. It's only the poorly-drawing teams. And no, I don't consider nearly selling out a 15000 seat arena makes Winnipeg a market as crummy as Columbus or Atlanta, that draw the same amount of fans, but leave 4000 seats empty on a nightly basis.

Finally, I'm not suggesting that the Blackhawks or Red Wings players are of the marketability of Sidney Crosby. Far from it. I'm saying that there are good players -- very, very good players -- in the same division as Columbus. And some great ones on Columbus, too. If a franchise relies on fans of other teams/players to buy tickets to their games and still only draws 4000 less than capacity, then something is terribly wrong with either the market, or the team management. If Sidney Crosby was such a hugely impactful draw then the Devils would be getting much better crowds. After all, they're in the same division as Pittsburgh. The division of a team does not directly affect a team's attendance as much as you think it does. The fan support in the home market does.

CBJ's in the same division with Chicago and Detroit. They get plenty of quality players coming into town to play. They had Nash since the beginning of his career. Yet they still only get 14k and change to see their games. In 2010-11 CBJ only had 200 more fans per game than Atlanta. And Atlanta moved that year.

My post pointed out that the fan base in Columbus is terrible. Regardless of the cause -- whether due to to mismanagement or the quality of the market is -- the fan base is bad there.

It's a good plan. Detroit gets paid back for being the good soldier they were in the west, and Columbus gets what they need to motivate that fan base.

Fixed.

But one of the major reasons for the new alignment is to fulfil promises made to Detroit when the moved West and Columbus when they joined. There's no way the NHL would just send them back to the West shortly after giving them their wish. Honestly, if this alignment plan goes through, we can kiss another Eastern Canadian team goodbye.

I am guessing that within the next 4-5 years the NHL will expand to 32 teams, so it will be all even.

Expansion is fine by me. But having the two 'expansion slots' in the West severely limits where they can expand to. What's left in the West? Seattle, Portland, Vegas, Houston, Kansas, Salt Lake City. Admittedly, that's a lot. But that's assuming those are semi-viable markets and that the Coyotes stay in Phoenix. That would eliminate Quebec, Hamilton, and Toronto as expansion options. Guaranteed money-making options. That seems silly to me. But then again, with Bettman at the helm, what isn't silly about NHL expansion?

I love Detroit in with us. Personally, I'd have an all Original Six division. Let the other teams fight it out amongst themselves.

I hate that eight teams from each conference make the playoffs. Eight of 16 in the east and eight of 14 in the west. The whole argument the NHLPA had against the old 4-division format was the lopsided playoff odds. This is even worse.

The problem is they're trying to make four groups with 30 teams. 28 teams would work. As does 32. Not 30. If they want four divisions, have the Wild Card spots be from any division, not just within the same conference. Three qualifiers per division, and the other four teams are the best in the rest of the league. If that means all seven teams from the Mid-West advance, so be it.

NHL & NHLPA release realignment plan. And it's terrible.

Thoughts?