Today is a sad day at NHL Hot Stove as we close up shop.

I would like to thank every one who has ever contributed, commented and read our site. It was a fantastic ride which unfortunately we can no longer keep up.

Myself and David Strehle are taking on bigger roles at RLDHockey.net while Dustin Leed and The Hockey Guys has been generous enough to give a home to our other excellent contributors. Please be kind enough to give both sites a read.

The NHL announced tonight that they will change their current six-division setup into four conferences. For the first time since 1998, the League’s board of governors reached an agreement that not only alters the current outlook but also will allow every team to play a home-and-home series. The NHLPA will still need to approve the realignment but that appears to be a formality at this point.

These four conferences break down as the following:

Conference 1

Vancouver Canucks
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
Anaheim Ducks
Colorado Avalanche
Phoenix Coyotes

Conference 2

Winnipeg Jets
Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks
St. Louis Blues
Nashville Predators
Columbus Blue Jackets
Dallas Stars
Minnesota Wild

Conference 3

Toronto Maple Leafs
Montreal Canadiens
Ottawa Senators
Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres
Florida Panthers
Tampa Bay Lightning

Conference 4

Pittsburgh Penguins
Philadelphia Flyers
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
New Jersey Devils
Carolina Hurricanes
Washington Capitals

The current playoff configuration will also change with the first two playoff series coming within the Conference. However, eight teams will still make the show but there should be much more parity. For example, a team in a ‘weaker’ division would not be allowed to grab the third seed if they narrowly make the playoffs.

Furthermore, the schedule works out well for all teams. Home-and-home series should account for roughly 44-46 games with the remaining games getting played in rivalries within the conference. This change, as well as keeping natural rivals like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; Chicago and Detroit; Calgary and Edmonton; should pave way for more excitement and interest around North America.

Now that we have the details down, let’s get to the fun part. What do we name these conferences? Do they get the old names: Norris, Campbell, Adams and Patrick? Do we rename them something more current like Gretzky, Lemieux, Howe and Orr? Put your vote in below and give some write-ins into the comments.

When I was asked to write a follow-up tribute to Pat Burns I instinctively said yes. Little did I know at the time how difficult it would be? It has been as up and down a year for the Burns family as one could get after the passing of a loved one and it started almost immediately. Shortly after his funeral, cold heartless thieves broke into the car of Burns’ widow Line and took several personal belongings as well as 30 autographed NHL jerseys that were to be auctioned for charity. While several items were later recovered it still doesn’t change the events of that day.

Flash forward to June 28, 2011. Hockey Hall of Fame committee announces 2011 Inductees.

For reasons unknown, and reasons I went through in (HHoF says “Thanks, but no Thanks” to Pat Burns…again)  the HHoF committee skipped over Pat Burns. With no “builder” being elected this year, it begs the question “what will it take for Burns to get in?” This calendar year has definitely been trying for the Burns family.

Flash forward to September 25, 2011. A day that Burns himself knew he would never see.

Shortly before his passing, amid rumours that he had already passed, Burns showed up at the ground breaking for an arena to be named in his honour. Looking very frail, Burns was escorted to a seat at the front of the ceremony. Along the way, in a very soft tone, Burns simply stated “I’m not dead yet.”

The Pat Burns Arena was inaugurated on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with an exhibition game between former stars of the Montreal Canadiens and the Stanstead Hockey team being the main attraction of the festivities. The Habs would go on to win the game 11-9, but I don’t think anyone really cared about the final score that day. In a touching speech, Line Burns would say that “I honestly hope that the name of the arena will inspire young players and motivate them” (Toronto Sun).

On my next trip to Montreal, probably sometime next spring while visiting family, I intend to visit the Pat Burns Arena and take a skate on the ice, hoping to somehow feel a connection to the man many across the NHL grew to love. I will never forget the springs of ’93 and ’94. Those were a glorious time to be a hockey fan in Toronto. Pat Burns had the Leafs 1 win away from the Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens in that magical playoff run of ’93. The following season, the Leafs fell 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks in the 3rd round, just missing the Stanley Cup Finals for a second straight year.

Flash forward to today, November 19, 2011.

They say that time heals all wounds. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Losing a loved one is a wound that never heals. It doesn’t get any easier either. It just “becomes.” It becomes what we live with every day. A day doesn’t pass that a loved one isn’t in our thoughts. 365 days later, Pat Burns still lives on in the hearts of his family and friends, and of those lives he touched in cities all over North America.

I close this, with a heavy heart and one of my favourite Burns quotes. “Don’t cry because it’s over, be happy because it happened.”

By George E. Norkus

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a problem between the pipes. And unless management is willing to make a move to bolster their goaltending in the short-term, the Leafs’ fast start could soon become a distant memory.

It’s been 19 days since James Reimer was elbowed in the head by Montreal’s Brian Gionta, an injury originally classified as “whiplash”, which forced the Leafs #1 netminder to the sidelines. Now, almost three weeks later, Reimer (4-0-1, 2.58, .912) is still not close to returning to the nets, reduced to off-ice workouts after suffering setbacks in his rehab, his injury re-classified as “upper body”, or in other words, a concussion.

Reimer, who signed a 3-year deal in the offseason with Toronto, was undoubtedly the key to the Leafs early season success, keeping them in games with big saves and his overall steady play. His replacements during his absence – Jonas Gustavsson (4-4-0, 3.78, .878) and rookie Ben Scrivens (1-1-0, 4.05, .867) – clearly do not appear up to the task. And if Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers at the ACC was any indication, Head Coach Ron Wilson has run out of options in his attempt to fill the void left from Reimer’s injury.

Gustavsson, now in his third (and apparently final) year with the Leafs, has been terribly inconsistent in goal this season, if not downright terrible. It now appears “The Monster” has fully lost the confidence of Wilson, who unceremoniously yanked the 27-year-old after he allowed two bad goals in 0:19 seconds during the 2nd period vs. Florida to put the game out of reach. This decision was on the heels of Wilson electing to go with the untested Scrivens in back-to-back starts last week, a surprising move that left Gustavsson alienated on the bench and Wilson with egg on his face, after Scrivens, who granted was lights out in a 38-save effort at Columbus in his victorious NHL debut last Thursday, came crashing down to earth in a 7-0 loss against the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins Saturday night. He followed up that performance by allowing two bad goals in mop-up duty against the Panthers.

The urgency of the situation is highlighted by the tremendous pressure on Wilson and GM Brian Burke to win now. For Wilson, he’s coaching for a contract, his future fortunes in Toronto hinging on the team’s ability to continue to make solid strides and build on their hot start, after failing to make the playoffs in each of his three previous seasons behind the Leafs bench. Burke is equally invested in the dire need for team success in 2011-12, as upper management along with the Stanley Cup-starved fan base won’t tolerate any more losing seasons.

With Reimer’s status uncertain, and his return in the foreseeable future in doubt, Burke may need to pull the trigger on a deal to shore up the Leafs goaltending right now. One name that’s being thrown out there is New York Islanders’ Evgeni Nabokov, who would be reunited with Wilson from their time together in San Jose. Nabokov (1-3-0, 2.81, .911), who’s in desperate need of a change of scenery, could undoubtedly step in and be the #1 in the short-term, with the added bonus of creating a solid duo in net for Toronto upon Reimer’s return.

Another name being mentioned is Florida’s Scott Clemmensen, who’s just returned to the Sunshine State after coming off of knee surgery. Clemmensen is expendable, following rookie Jacob Markstrom‘s impressive performance with the Panthers this season, prior to him being sent down to San Antonio (AHL) to make room for Clemmensen. The 34-year-old career backup would be making his second go-round with Toronto, after playing 3 games in a Leafs uniform in 2007-08. But the truth is, Clemenssen’s only ever had one solid season in the NHL (he won 25 games in 39 starts for New Jersey in 2008-09), so he’s a bit of a risk for Burke, even though he likely wouldn’t cost the team much more than a 5th or 6th round pick.

And don’t forget, Marty Turco‘s out there looking for work too.

What do you think the Leafs should do to solve their goaltending woes? Ride it out with their current guys, or hit the trade market and go after someone?

Follow Dan following the Leafs all season long on Twitter @Dan_Berlin

Hold off on the parade planning, Leafs fans. Despite the hot start, there is still much work to be done if the Buds are legitimately going to compete for the playoffs this season.

To the Leafs credit, they took care of business during their five-game homestand to start the year, amassing nine of a possible 10 points (4-0-1). A solid start indeed, helping to take the heat off head coach Ron Wilson for now, and finally putting to rest the discussion on whether or not the Leafs won / lost the deal that sent the 2nd-overall pick in 2010 (Tyler Seguin) to Boston in exchange for Phil Kessel.

After close wins at the Air Canada Centre against a Canadian collection of sub-.500 teams – Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Winnipeg – the Leafs travelled to Boston Thursday night to play the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Bruins, in turn, shellacked the Leafs to the tune of 6-2, handing the Blue and White their first loss of the season, while giving us our first true indication how the Leafs might genuinely stack up against the league’s elite in 2011-12.

The answer so far? Not even close. And until the Leafs can address certain issues that were glaringly apparent vs. Boston, their 4-1-1 start, which ironically is the same record the team started with last season, will disappear faster than you can say, “Wilson’s fired”.

For starters, the Leafs blueline is an area of concern right now, with Wilson and company having difficulty establishing any consistency on their back end, outside of the play of captain Dion Phaneuf. Cody Franson, acquired from Nashville in an off-season trade, has been a bust thus far, unable to regularly crack the team’s top-6, and playing poorly when he does (he was a minus-3 vs. Boston). Wilson doesn’t seem to like his style – a big guy that isn’t very physical, who doesn’t move the puck out of his own end especially well – and hasn’t been afraid to relegate him to the press box on a bi-nightly basis. Luke Schenn, despite signing his big, new long-term deal prior to the start of training camp, has struggled mightily through the first two weeks of the season, evidenced by a steady decline in ice-time prior to Thursday night. And Mike Komisarek‘s play? ‘Nuff said. Wilson was forced to bench him for the first time in his Leafs career on Thursday night, after his less-than-inspiring play this year. The bottom line is the Leafs rank 22nd in Shots Allowed per game (32.0) and 26th in the NHL in Goals Allowed per game (3.17), and their overall team defence is at the heart of the problem. Eventually, if they can’t get this area straightened out, it will translate into a losing record.

The team’s dire need for a first-line center has only been masked thus far by the magnificent play of Kessel, who currently leads the league in scoring (12 points) through Friday. Kessel and Joffrey Lupul have carried the team thus far (along with the stellar play of goaltender James Reimer), providing great chemistry and productivity on the top unit. Can they keep it up minus the services of Tim Connolly, who was supposed to play a big role on the first line this year after signing a two-year, $9 million deal in the offseason? For all intents and purposes, Connolly can already be considered a bust, without yet having played a game. With no sign of his return from a serious upper body injury, Wilson has been forced to try and juggle Tyler Bozak, Matthew Lombardi and David Steckel to fill the void, with mediocre to poor results at best. If Connolly can’t come back, Leafs’ GM Brian Burke may very well be required to pull off a deal to give the Leafs some much-needed talent in the middle and a legit shot at making a run at the postseason.

The Leafs also need a big boost from their 2nd line – Mikhail Grabovski, Clarke MacArthur and Nikolai Kulemin – to help bolster the team’s secondary scoring. Their slow start certainly begs the question, whether or not these three were just a “flash-in-the-plan” last season. The jury is still out. But despite there still being time for them to respond from a slow start, if Grabo and company can’t replicate their solid and steady production from last season, then Toronto will find themselves in trouble putting the puck in the net as a whole all season long.

Heading into this year, special teams were a big area of concern for Toronto, if they were going to make a marked improvement over
2010-11. Well, so far, so bad. The powerplay has been below average, ranking 18th (13.8%) through the team’s first six games. Of greater concern though is their penalty killing, horrendous vs. Boston, and currently ranked 26th (74.1%) overall in the league. Not a recipe for success, by any means.

The road gets a lot tougher for the Leafs now, literally and figuratively speaking. Six of the team’s next seven games will be played away from home, a good test of where this team realistically sits now and where it’s heading. For the Leafs, the ‘honeymoon’ period is over. The hope now is that the team can build on their early season success, and make it last.

By Alexander Monaghan
President

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Sometimes ‘Kess” is more.

Phil Kessel was a one-man wrecking crew, recording his first ever hat trick as a member of the Maple Leafs, including the eventual game winner, as the Leafs hung on for a 6-5 victory over the Ottawa Senators at the Air Canada Centre Saturday night.

Kessel finished with four points (3 G, 1 A) on the night, helping the Leafs improve to 2-0 on the young season.  But it wouldn’t be easy for Toronto, who led 4-0 after two periods and 5-1 midway through the 3rd period.  After the Sens rallied to cut the lead to 5-4 with 3:16 to go, it was Kessel who stepped up big late in the game, burying his 3rd of the night with 2:19 left to give the Leafs a little breathing room at 6-4, then later playing a key defensive role late to help the Leafs ultimately hang on for the win after the Sens had cut the lead to 6-5 with just under 2 minutes to go.

“I’m happy for sure,” Kessel said of his scoring outburst. “But the main thing is we got the two points. I’m excited.”

For Kessel and the Leafs, Saturday’s performance is hopefully a sign of things to come, if the team is genuinely going to compete for a playoff spot in 2011-12.  Prior to the start of the season, Leafs’ Head Coach Ron Wilson told the Toronto media that he hoped his first line sniper could net 40 goals this season, after two straight 30+ goal campaigns in Toronto.  Following their win over Ottawa, Wilson had nothing but praise for Kessel’s overall performance.  ”He did an outstanding job,”  Wilson said during the postgame press conference. ”He showed a lot of determination and worked hard all night.  It was great for Phil and great for his confidence.”

The game also featured a bone-crushing – and clean – open ice hit by Leafs’ destroyer Dion Phaneuf on the Sens’ Stephane Da Costa, who made the rookie mistake of keeping his head down while coming across the Leafs’ blueline in the 2nd period.  Da Costa was fine, and later during the broadcast could be seen on the Sens’ bench mouthing the words, “it was my fault.”  Sounds like he learned his lesson.

Leafs’ tough guy Colton Orr also added a goal in his first game back in the NHL after suffering a season-ending concussion in January of last year, while Joffrey Lupul chipped in with 3 points (1 G, 2 A) playing alongside Kessel.

There are still a few questions that were raised from the Leafs near collapse in the 3rd period. Goaltender James Reimer let in 5 goals in the final frame, after not allowing a single goal in the Leafs first 5 periods of hockey, while defencemen Mike Komisarek and Jake Gardiner both looked shaky in the third, combining for a minus-4 in limited minutes.

The Leafs now have a week off to build off their early success, as they leave Monday on a 3-day team-bonding trip to CFB Trenton, a military base in Trenton, ON, before playing their next regular season game Saturday Oct. 15 at home vs. Calgary.

You can follow Dan following the Leafs all season long on Twitter: @Dan_Berlin

From DC-to-Jersey-to-TO, David Steckel continues his trek north. On Tuesday, the New Jersey Devils traded the 29-year-old West Bend, Wisconsin-native to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for 2012 fourth-round draft pick.

The departure of Steckel likely allows the Devils to keep nonroster camp invitee and former Stanley Cup Champion Petr Sykora. Sykora impressed in camp and may find himself in the top six, perhaps with former “A Line” mate Patrik Elias.

Steckel posted a 30 goal season in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears in 2006-2007, but his forte in NHL is penalty killing and draws. The 6’5”Steckel won almost 58% of his draws in 2008-2009 and tallied an overtime game winning goal in Game 6 of an Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Penguins that spring. Last season, Steckel lead in the department with a very stout 62.3% winning percentage. On February 28, 2011, the Capitals shipped Steckel up I-95 to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for the center of the aforementioned “A Line,” Jason Arnott. How about that for irony if indeed Sykora has made the Devils’ squad?

With the addition of Steckel’s $1.1 million cap hit, the Leafs move to within $1.9 million of this season’s cap hit. This includes the buyout of Darcy Tucker for $1 million. In addition to the on-ice skills in the face off dots and in shorthanded situations, Steckel adds veteran leadership to a young forward core. Steckel has tasted the NHL postseason in three consecutive years with the Washington Capitals, and the Leafs have not played a game 83 since prior to the lockout.

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Slashes, head shots, and anything unsportsmanlike is fair game on Twitter @Gordsie.

Take your act on the road.  That’s exactly what the Toronto Maple Leafs are doing.

The Leafs have scheduled a three-day team bonding session at CFB Trenton military base next week from October 10-12, right in the midst of their season opening five-game home stand.

“We haven’t spent a night in a hotel as a team where guys can just be themselves and have some fun,” Leafs Head Coach Ron Wilson told reporters yesterday after practice.  “That’s why we put this little exercise together.”

While the Leafs normally schedule their team bonding session prior to the start of the regular season, the trip to Trenton, ON was the end result of some quirky scheduling from the league.  The Leafs play their first five regular season games at the Air Canada Centre, including a rare week off after only their second game of the season.

Newcomer Matthew Lombardi, who joined the Leafs in the offseason in a trade with Nashville, is convinced the odd schedule will still allow for a solid start to the campaign.  “We’re going to take advantage of it,” Lombardi said.  “We’ll play our two games and then, take the time to get know each other a little better and bond as a team.”

Teammate James Reimer is also a big proponent of the visit to CFB Trenton, suggesting that the Leafs’ success this season will be tied to having great chemistry both on and off the ice.  “Sometimes that’s what it takes for a team to gel, (you) get out on the road in close quarters and get to know everyone better,” said the Leafs’ starting netminder.   It will be a good team building trip for us.”

While Lombardi and Reimer were trying to put a positive spin on the situation, Leaf defenseman John-Michael Liles felt the league did Toronto a real disservice by scheduling a week off so early on in the year.  “Each and every year, you can look at a part of your schedule and just shake your head and wonder,” said Liles, who joined the Leafs after a trade with Colorado over the summer.  “You’d love to maybe break (the 5-6 days) up and throw in an extra day at the end of the schedule.”

In addition to team bonding, heading off to Trenton could also help take some of the early season pressure off of the Leafs and Wilson, as they attempt to get off to a good start and make the playoffs for the first time in his tenure as Head Coach.  During his three seasons behind the bench, Wilson’s teams have managed a meagre .427 winning percentage prior to the All-Star break, leaving the Maple Leafs consistently on the outside looking in come postseason time.

With his current deal scheduled to run out at year’s end, Wilson will be heavily scrutinized early on by local media and fans amidst expectations of improvement on the ice, and ultimately, a playoff berth.  Should the Leafs falter out of the gate, Wilson’s job will ultimately come under fire. “It seems I’ve always been under heat here, I’m used to that now,” said Wilson.  “Whatever happens, happens.”

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Follow Dan following the Leafs this season on Twitter @Dan_Berlin