Remember when the Winter Classic was this unique game that felt special, like a real occasion to circle on your calendar? Well the NHL is going ahead and ruining arguably the best thing that it has going.

The NHL had already announced the Red Wings and Maple Leafs will have a do-over for their cancelled classic that will be held at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich. Next, the league announced a March 1 game with the Penguins visiting the Blackhawks at Soldier Field – the latest an outdoor game has been played. At the same time, we got a SoCal twist on the outdoor game, with the Ducks playing the Kings at Dodger Stadium – because keeping up the ice outdoors won’t be a problem in Los Angeles.

Seemingly not satisfied, the NHL has now come and announced two more games, both to be played in late January at Yankee Stadium. It seems the league wants to try to leech some of the attention from the Super Bowl being played in the New York City area the next Sunday. You know, because these games don’t usually do well with ticket sales. Also, are you going to be more likely to watch an ice hockey game because the Super Bowl is going to be played in the same area a week later?

I can understand the argument that the NHL is trying to rebuild their fan base after the great lockout of 2012 that has ruined this season. But why does it think that tossing all this outdoor games out there in such a short period of time will be a good thing? Oversaturation is a great way to ruin an otherwise good thing.

Oh, and don’t forget that it has been reported that the league is going to announce another outdoor game in Vancouver – a Heritage Classic, they say. But is it really an “outdoor” game if they play at BC Place, which has a retractable roof, as proposed?

The league should have kept it simple and went with a simpler plan for their outdoor schedule. Why have six games in the span of 60 days?

What the NHL should have done is this:

-Have the Wings-Leafs outdoors tilt at the Big House on News Year Day and break the record for attendance at an ice hockey game.

-Have the all-star game outdoors. Why not? The KHL already does this because it’s a meaningless game all about the spectacle. What better spectacle is there than playing it outdoors?

-Finally, throw the Heritage Classic in Vancouver at BC Place. I think that the fact that it could be in a retractable roof stadium is actually interesting.

It’s too bad the Gary Bettman continues to find ways to ruin the league that he is running – into the ground.

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki

Before we get to our fantastically uninformed NHL playoff preview, I feel it my duty to remind everyone what we’re in store for: TERRIBLE ICE HOCKEY.

You might’ve forgotten last year’s playoffs thanks to the prolonged lockout – which should have mercifully wiped out this season – then 48 games played at a ridiculous pace. Well, that’s why I’m here.

Get ready for games where defence is always paramount. There will be almost as many shots blocked as make it to the goalie. There will be plenty of guys jawing at each, but never fighting. There will be a scrum with a lot of face-washing after every whistle. The refs will be ‘letting them play,’ which means we’ll see the type of clutching and grabbing that was eliminated after the previous lockout.

Throw in the fact that everybody is going to be tired and a little banged up from playing too many games in too short of a time period and we are in store for some of the worst ice hockey the NHL has seen in years.

In other words, we’re going to see some big upsets and a champion that likely won’t deserve to hoist the best-looking trophy in sports. And then, next year, we’ll forget all about how bad it was and get psyched up for terrible playoff ice hockey.

On to the predictions…

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Pittsburgh over New York Islanders in 4.

It was nice of Tavares to lead the Islanders to the slaughter. This is a nice building block for the future for the franchise that will soon move to Brooklyn, but this isn’t going to be pretty. Sid the Kid and Co. are the odds-on favourites to win it all for a reason.

Ottawa over Montreal in 6.

This is going to be a tight, defensive showdown with lots of rough stuff – but no fighting, remember. I see the under-rated Craig Anderson getting the best of Carey Price, who hasn’t looked good recently.

Washington over New York Rangers in 7.

Alex Ovechkin has been on fire and the Rangers aren’t going to be the team to stop them. New York has been doing better since the trade deadline, but this is still a flawed team. You can’t forget about Henrik Lundqvist’s poor playoff record.

Toronto over Boston in 6.

I won’t even see this as a shocker. The Bruins have fallen apart down the stretch and have some question marks in the goal-scoring department. The Leafs have a strong team and will surprise some folks. In fact, I see them making it to the conference finals before bowing out.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Chicago over Minnesota in 6.

The best team in the regular season face a team that had to beat out the Columbus Blue Jackets on the final day to make it in. It won’t be easy for the Hawks though, they are missing Ray Emery and Dave Bolland at the moment.

Anaheim over Detroit in 7.

Of the Red Wings teams that have made the playoffs 22 seasons in a row, this is one of the worst. Many forget that the Ducks were one of the best teams in the league early in the season. Anaheim has the depth and goalies to make a good run.

Los Angeles over St. Louis in 7.

The defending champions are good enough to eke one out over the Blues. I wouldn’t beat against a goalie like Jonathan Quick standing on his head and carrying this team again. This will be a battle of goalkeepers with a few overtime tilts.

San Jose over Vancouver in 6.

After the wonder twins, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, the Canucks don’t have a lot of scoring depth. The Sharks aren’t prone to deep playoff runs, but this is a weird season where anything can happen, remember.

STANLEY CUP
Pittsburgh over Anaheim in 6.
The only thing stopping Crosby and his team of superstars from hoisting the Cup is an injury, but you can’t rule that out for a second.

Over a month ago it started. There were features on it and commercials on TV. A couple of weeks ago, a countdown appeared ticked down the minutes towards it. Every media outlet prepared for it and every personality on the beat chimed in. There was more hype for this day on more networks than any annual event.

It was all for the NHL’s trade deadline day.

And now, we have to ask: Why?

This year, just like the past three, there was little to talk about. There were 17 trades and a total of 28 players on the move – many of them of minor significance. But that didn’t stop anybody from going overboard.

On TSN, the coverage was from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

On The Score, it was from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.

On Sportsnet, there were a total of 31 people covering the deadline, according to one Sun columnist who was part of one of the many panels.

For those keeping track, that is actually three more people weighing in the deals than players actually involved in them.

Why does everybody get sucked into this trap every year and why do the media go overboard about this one day? Both the NBA and MLB trade deadlines don’t garner nearly the same attention and we have seen similar significance in terms of deals there – why can’t we trim back on the NHL’s coverage?

With the salary cap in place, it has become harder to make deals – especially a deal with a big star or salary involved. Gone are the days when teams could load up with ease on the final day. Now, we see teams who are looking to dump their stars do it at least a couple of days, if not a week or two, beforehand. It’s something you have to clear with your owner before executing.

The worst part of this entire hullabaloo about nothing, was the fact that there were legitimate sporting events going at the same time. There were two Champions League soccer – one featuring Real Madrid, one of the biggest teams in all sports – and regular-season baseball.

Maybe one day the lesson will be learned and we won’t get this entire day’s coverage of a semi-meaningless day. But, I suspect and dread, nobody in charge will back down because ultimately the consumer will keep on tuning in to hear a couple dozen guys talk about three trades for more than five hours – as we saw early Wednesday.

It’s a shame, really.

And, if you can name one day of the annual sporting calendar that is more overrated than NHL trade deadline day, please share it with me. I’d be happy to hear your suggestions, but this one really takes the cake.

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki

The NHLPA is reluctant to impose a mandatory visor rule and frankly, I can’t see why.

Just last week we saw the Rangers’ top defenceman Marc Staal took a deflected shot to the face and is now out with an eye injury. This could have easily been avoided if he was just wearing a visor.

In a time when every sport in the world is looking to become safer, the union for ice hockey players feels the need to stand against having its membership wear a piece of safety equipment.

It’s not like there are negatives to wearing a visor. The biggest hindrance would be to goons and designated fighters on teams. But when you consider that some already wear visors and take their helmets off at the start of the fight, it makes the point moot.

And secondly, should we really be pandering to the least talented players on the ice? Fighting is something that the game needs to start phasing out anyway – as evidenced by the Sens’ Dave Dziurzynski getting knocked out and concussed on Wednesday night.

Another complaint is usually that it cuts down on a player’s vision, but I can’t see how. Every player entering the league now and most already playing grew up playing in a minor-league system where you were either wearing a visor or full cage mask. The players are already used to it so what difference would it make to continue wearing a visor?

And really, any person that has played with a visor knows that the difference is negligible.

One way to get around the older players complaining about having this evil contraptions forced on them is to simply grandfather in the rule the same way it worked with helmets – can you believe that players had the option to wear a helmet or not? Say that starting next season, any player entering the league has to wear a visor. That way the vets can keep on chugging without facial protection until their time in the NHL is up.

I understand that the NHLPA is just trying to make sure that their players aren’t forced into anything, especially after the recent lockout, but they are ignoring player safety at the same time. It’s unacceptable to have a league that young kids are watching and trying to emulate completely disregard safety.

This change wouldn’t just help the best ice hockey players in the world stay healthy, it would show kids that it’s alright to play with a visor too. Isn’t that something worth fighting for – not against?

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki

The NHL finally released one of its worst-kept secrets of reason memory this week, something that has been floated out there for over a year: Realignment.

It makes all the sense in the world. In fact, it makes so much sense that you have to figure that a guy like Gary Bettman or Donald Fehr would blow it up out of spite. Granted, the proposal still hasn’t been approved, so that is still a very real possibility.

At first glance, the new plan looks like it’s dead on geographically – with the minor exceptions of the two Florida teams playing in the “Central division.” But, when you think about it, it makes sense. Considering the many ‘snowbirds’ that fly south from the Northeast in the winter, there’s already a built-in fanbase for the division rival clubs coming to visit. Besides, it’s not like these teams are going to be a permanent fixture in sunny Florida, right?

The biggest problems that realignment solves are the travel troubles that the eastern-most Western Conference clubs had to contend with as well as the fact that the Winnipeg Jets played in the Southeast Division since moving from Atlanta.

Especially happy should be the Detroit Red Wings, who finally get to capitalize on their Original Six rivalries with both Toronto and Montreal – even if they’re losing out on playing Chicago as often. Columbus escapes the West too, but they have essentially zero rivalries being such a young, terrible team.

There is a pretty sizable problem with realignment though, being the size of the conferences – the east will now have 16 teams and the west 14. That means everybody’s favourite word in sports the past few years: Wild cards.

After all, baseball has adapted an extra one to great success and the NFL has seen numerous wild card teams win the Super Bowl in recent years. How it will work in ice hockey is another matter. The regular season is already enough of a grind that you’d have to think that fans watching their team get bounced in a one-game playoff would be quite upset. But, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that works out before condemning the idea.

The real area where the NHL is screwing this up is one that is probably an oversight to many: The division names. The Pacific, Midwest, Central and Atlantic divisions are such uninspired names. The league has to get back to its roots of naming divisions after the great men of the game of ice hockey.

Remember the Norris Division and Campbell Conference? Those were great, inspiring names. While I’m not saying to go back to them directly, what I’m suggesting is a twist: Name the divisions after some the league’s modern greats that played for the teams in that division.

Instead of the Pacific Division containing Edmonton and Los Angeles, how about the Gretzky Division? Instead of St. Louis’ Mid-West Division, the Hull Division. Detroit’s new Central digs? Try the Lidstrom or Yzerman Division. The Atlantic? The Lemieux!

This even open up the debate for whom the divisions could be named after and the conferences as well. You could even go as far as to honour the previous season’s division winner by naming the renaming the division every season after that club’s designated legend.

That may be a bit farfetched, but at least it would cause debate ad make things more interesting than simply going with the geographical regions once again. Am I right?

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki