Two days left in the regular season

The Eastern teams are set, it's just a matter of who will play who. If the Minnesota Wild win their game against the Colorado Avalanche tonight, they're in playoffs. If not, their season will go down as a massive choke job, especially with who they added in the offseason. Last night's 6-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers was painful to watch.

Brandon Dubinsky's "Match Penalty" Rescinded by the NHL

When I first watched this video, I didn't catch Drew Doughty sucker punching Brandon Dubinsky in the back of the head, so in my opinion, it's the right decision by the NHL.

Puck-Rakers --- The NHL today has rescinded a match penalty given to Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky after the final buzzer of Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Staples Center. Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen was informed of the decision this morning.

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End game scrum in Columbus Blue Jackets vs Los Angeles Kings, Jackets Brandon Dubinsky assessed a match penalty

This was the end of the game between the Kings and the Blue Jackets. Blue Jackets Brandon Dubinsky assessed a match penalty and is suspended by the NHL until he has a hearing with the NHL's Department of Players Safety, there could be a Shanaban coming soon for Dubinsky. Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch tells us why.

At the end of the game, as dance partners began to pair up, Dubinsky came up from behind on Kings defenseman Robyn Regehr behind the Kings net. Doughty approached from behind and through a right-hand puck at Dubinsky, which appeared to hit the mark. Dubinsky turned a charged after Doughty, who ducked and covered in front of the empty Los Angeles net.

"Just a cheap shot, and that's his personality," Kings forward Kyle Clifford said of Dubinsky. "We've got guys out there and he goes after Doughty, who is not our toughest player."

Who knows how long of a suspension Brandon Dubinsky will get, but we know that his antics at the end of the game are outside the hockey code, he sucker punched someone. Dubinsky is also the Blue Jackets player that jumped Charlie Coyle after his clean hit on Artem Anisimov.

Charlie Coyle tossed from the game for what appears to be a legal hit on Artem Anisimov

Charlie Coyle's night lasted a grand total of 17 seconds and he was thrown out of the game for what appears to be a legal shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Blue Jackets forward Artem Anisimov.

For his efforts, Coyle was given a five minute major for contact to the head and a match penalty, and also received a five minute major for fighting.

While Coyle is not known for his fighting skills, I also like the way that he handled himself in the fight against Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky.   Checking with  Hockeyfights.com, apparently that was the first NHL fight of Coyle's NHL career.

According to Michael Russo from the Star Tribune, Coyle will not be suspended by the NHL because the department of player safety ruled that there was no targeting of the head. That also means that the match penalty will be rescinded as well.

Charlie Coyle faces no discipline. #NHLDept of Player Safety determined that there was no targeting of Anisimov's head. #mnwild #cbj
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) April 14, 2013

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NHL Realignment Solves A Lot Of Logistic Issues

After much speculation, the NHL has finalized a plan for realignment that will go into effect next season. While nothing can be absolutely perfect, the new setup of the league will benefit a lot of teams when it comes to travel and developing natural rivals.

Two of the biggest winners will be the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, who will move into the Eastern Conference. For teams in the state of Michigan and Ohio, it made very little logistical sense to spend so much time on the other side of the country.

The Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars will also benefit from being able to stay closer to home in their new division. Those three teams will now be competing against teams in St. Louis, Nashville, Denver and Chicago.

Perhaps the only two teams that really seem to lose out on the realignment are the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. They will be in a division with three Canadian teams along with Buffalo, Boston and Detroit. It is hard to make everyone happy, and no matter who the Florida teams play, they would have to travel to make things work.

Besides saving on travel, the benefits of realignment will help not only strengthen current rivalries, but build new ones as well. Detroit is back in the Eastern Conference, and they will square off against old rivals such as Toronto, Boston and Montreal throughout the year. New teams such as Columbus will also get to build rivalries with teams close by, such as the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With negativity still surrounding the NHL after the lockout, the realignment plan is welcomed good news. Fans, players, fantasy hockey players and owners all are mostly satisfied with the results. If the NHL does in fact expand to 32 teams in the future, the two conferences can be evened out again as well.

Zach Parise's no goal.

At first look, it appeared that Zach Parise had scored with 4:37 left in the second period of tonight's game between Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild. After further review, the refs determined correctly that Zach had punched the puck into the net with his glove.