SlewfootAgainst the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night, Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins pulled a nefarious move against Matt Niskanen near the end boards: a slew-foot, that deplorable cheap shot in which he took out Niskanen's feet.

But then a curious thing happened later in the game: Marchand answered for it.

If you polled NHL fans, not many would claim Marchand to be a "stand up guy." But NESN's John Beattie believes this is evidence to the contrary:

Sure, Marchand likely called Niskanen bad things and told him that he left his purse behind the net, but regardless of what Marchand said, it's what he did that should be appreciated. The fact that he offered the (much larger) Penguin a chance to fight should put a smile on my fellow old school hockey fans' mugs. That's hockey.

A classy move that follows an unclassy act like slew-footing is missing in today's snaky game. Gone are the days where it was your duty to stick for pugilistic ramifications after pulling a dirty move. Nowadays, a

CampaignProcessAs you may have heard, the New York Times is doing a multi-part and multimedia package on the life and death of Derek Boogaard, the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild brawler who overdosed accidentally on a mix of alcohol and oxycodone in May.

It's a comprehensive and brutal look at life as an NHL fighter, and not without some news: The Times reports that researches found evidence of the degenerative brain disease CTE in posthumous evaluation of Boogaard.

The CTE stuff, the summer of tragedy in the NHL, the concerns for player safety within the game … all of it has made some hockey fans reevaluate their feelings about hockey fighting.

[Related: NHL holds ground on fisticuffs]

Which is why a bloodstained hockey card set being released next year is either an incredibly courageous or ill-advised decision by In The Game.

NHL-realignment-map_2011-12-03-FinalThe NHL approved realignment for the 2012-13 season on Monday night, going to a four-conference format with a new schedule and "divisional" playoffs.

Here's a look at some of the big winners and sad losers in this process.

Winners

Gary Bettman

This is The Bettman Plan. His concept; his molding and shaping it until skeptical opponents acquiesced; his lobbying for its passage, depending on loyalists in the Eastern Conference to overlook their travel headaches and rubber stamp it. As Brian Burke told Yahoo! Sports: "It's like a Chicago election in the '30s, you know? He's got a pretty good idea of which way it's going — not that it's fixed, but that he's got a pretty good sense of where the votes are going to come." He got the votes, he got his plan … and in about seven years we'll know if it was Bettman's New Deal or Bettman's Folly.

Mike Ilitch

A promise made was a promise kept … sort of. The Detroit Red Wings owner claimed that the NHL promised him the Wings would be realigned to

The evolution of Winter Classic advertising continues for the NHL and NBC. This time, they've gone all split-personality on us, offering up a stoic athlete commercial highlighting the rivalry for the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers (and their respective cities); as well as a spot that accurately portrays the Classic as a beer-soaked social gathering for Caucasians.

First, the "Rivalry" spot:

From the NHL:

The "Rivalry" TV spot features iconic landmarks in Philadelphia (Liberty Bell, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the LOVE Park) and New York City (Times Square and the Empire State Building). Flyers players Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Wayne Simmonds, Max Talbot and James van Riemsdyk and Rangers players Artem Anisimov, Brian Boyle, Marian Gaborik, Ryan McDonagh, Brandon Prust and Derek Stepan are also featured in the spot.  Adding a unique touch to the spot is an original arrangement of the New Year's classic, Auld Lang Syne, performed by Alex Skolnick,

WeissNo. 1 Star: Stephen Weiss, Florida Panthers

The Panthers veteran scored the first and last goals for his team, adding an assist in between during their 5-4 victory over the Washington Capitals. Weiss scored his 10th goal on the power play at 6:50 of the first, with Mike Santorelli scoring just 13 seconds later to make it 2-0. Weiss scored what would be the game-winning goal at 12:11 of the second, on a blown coverage by the Capitals.

No. 2 Star: Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins

Thomas made 45 saves in the game, including 22 in the final period, to backstop the Bruins to a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was strong on a couple of 5-on-3 power plays as well. Gregory Campbell, Benoit Pouliot and Tyler Seguin had the goals.

No. 3 Star: Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks

It was in a losing effort for the Blackhawks, but what an effort for Toews: Two goals and an assist in the second period, rallying the 'Hawks from a 3-0 deficit against the Phoenix Coyotes. Toews couldn't convert

In the third period of the Boston Bruins' 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night, Evgeni Malkin avoided a Zdeno Chara hit and then skated right into a helmet-to-helmet check by Daniel Paille.

Were this the National Football League, this would have earned a personal foul for unnecessary roughness. Thankfully, we're the NHL:

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Malkin was leveled by Boston left wing Daniel Paille about two minutes later. While carrying the puck down the right wing boards, Malkin attempted to avoid the hit, but Paille's helmet banged off Malkin's face. Malkin stayed on the ice for almost a minute and then went to the locker room briefly before returning to finish the third period.

There was no penalty on the play, nor should there have been. As for Malkin … boy, violent things just happen in that part of the rink for him. Remember the Keith Ballard hip check, in nearly the same spot?

Hockey BagsThe NHL's new four-conference realignment is going to dramatically impact travel. For example, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers are apparently now part of the Northeast …

From the NHL:

Under the format, every team would play every other team outside its conference twice -- once home, once away.

In the seven-team Conferences, teams would play six times — three home, three away. In the eight-team Conferences, teams would play either five or six times in a season on a rotating basis; three teams would play each other six times and four teams would play each other five times. This process would reverse each season: An eight-team Conference member that plays an opponent six times in one season would play it five times the following season.

This is good news for teams like the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets, who no longer have to make multiple trips to Western Canada and California in the regular season. This is less-than-good-news for Eastern Conference teams,

The WalesIt reportedly took less than an hour for the NHL Board of Governors to approve the radical new format for the League beginning next season: four conferences, an "interlocking" schedule that features home and away games against every team in the League; and a new divisional format for the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

This might be due to the fact that one of the biggest questions has yet to be answered: What happens after the four conference champions are established?

Commissioner Gary Bettman said on Monday:

"That's something that we'll work out, and that's something I plan to do with the general managers at their meetings in the spring. We'll figure out what they want from a competitive standpoint. I think this is a decision I'll let the GMs make."

It would appear that they're faced with two options for the final four:

A. Maintaining a format in which the "Eastern" champion will play the "Western" champion for the Stanley Cup. Consider that the former Western