Bad Backs, Bad Schedules  Todd Bertuzzi is having back surgery,
meaning he’ll be out for at least two months. I’m guessing
Jacques Martin is going to check into migraine surgery. Also, Al
Strachan hears the NHL is going to reduce the number of
divisional games from 32 to 24, with divisional rivals meeting
six games a season instead of eight. Like a lot of NHL
executives, I thought all the divisional games would build
bigger rivalries. But really, it just isolates the conferences
from each other. And that just makes it harder for people to get
excited about the Stanley Cup playoffs. Because half of the
teams might be completely foreign. There are still an insane
amount of people who haven’t seen Jarome Iginla play, which is
just absurd.