With a few Hartford Whalers sweaters scattered in the crowd, the Carolina Hurricanes entered Madison Square Garden as the defending Stanley Cup Champions. There is always a buzz in the air when a defending champion hits the road, even when it is simply the Hurricanes (not a major market team, not one of the original six, no marquee player). When the NHL changed the format of their schedule, they were supposedly strengthening rivalries, but they also made nearly half the other players and teams become near foreign entities. The Hurricanes, for example, will not visit 10 out of the 30 NHL arenas this season. NFL teams go three years between playing certain teams, which clearly hasn?t hurt the sport, but with only 16 games per season, the nature of the schedule does not allow any greater frequency. The MLB still remains fairly true to the division of the American and National Leagues. Despite a handful of interleague games per season, there is not a strong sentiment for them to increase these contests. The NBA is currently the only major sport in which every team places each other at least once both home and away. It too has an 82-game regular season, as well as 6 five-team divisions and Gary Bettman would be well served to follow David Stern?s format. The NHL needs to feature its top talent in every arena, every season. The NBA became a league that highlighted its players instead of its laundry, the NHL is doing the opposite. In Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins have a center/wing combination with a ceiling every bit as high as Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr?s was in the early 1990?s. To stick them in the New York/New Jersey area for twelve of their 41 road games a year is putting your product at a supreme disadvantage. Sidebar: Those old players that finish their careers with the Rangers (as well as the Devils and Islanders) get to sleep in their own beds at home after 51 out of the 82 games per season under this schedule. The NBA rose to such great prominence during the 1980?s because it was a great event when Magic Johnson and the Lakers, Larry Bird and the Celtics and Michael Jordan and the Bulls came through town. To deprive certain arenas from seeing those two young Penguins, as well as reigning Hart Memorial Trophy winner Joe Thornton of the Sharks and Calder Memorial Trophy winner Alexander Ovechkin is killing the momentum this new wave of talent. One aspect of the schedule that is potentially a detriment to what it seeks to enhance is the fatiguing of the league?s best rivalries by allowing them to see too much of each other. The NHL does want to change the unbalanced schedule, but were unable to come to a consensus on an alternative during a recent meeting of the 30 general managers. It may continue one more season (the end of the a three-year cycle) and then with the writing on the wall very well dried, you will get to see all of the NHL?s best talent in your hometown yet again. Penalty Shots Seeing Henrik Lundqvist man the Rangers? goal in person, as I did in seeing his shutout of the Hurricanes on Tuesday, is reminiscent of seeing Eric Clapton in his Cream days. He has struggled at times, in this his second season, but his form was terrific on Tuesday. He is clearly one of the finest goalies in the NHL, but there are only so many chances the Rangers? defensemen can give to opposing teams before one eventually gets through. When he records a shutout, it is a clear indication of how skilled he is at such a young age. Rangers' GM Glen Sather attempted to improve this area by poaching Aaron Ward away from the Hurricanes, but sloppy efforts persist. They cannot rely on the two goals Jaromir Jagr scored on Tuesday and a flawless performance form Lundqvist to win games.