Louis Blues and the Minnesota North Stars

Sitting at a paltry 3-8-5 on the season, the Leafs are stuck in 29th spot.Despite some recent good play, the Leafs are coming off a 5-2 loss to the mediocre Minnesota Wild, a game in which the Leafs seemed disinterested and unwilling to hit. Swedish goaltender Jonas Gustavsson looked shaky against the Wild but, by all accounts, will get the nod as the Leafs starter tonight.Here’s a news flash for you Maple Leafs: if you don’t want to end up on a stretcher you better be ready to take a hit and dish them out, the Hawks come to play every night and boast one of the toughest lineups in the League. If the Leafs play like they did against the Wild on Tuesday they are going to get hurt, end of story!A concerted effort on defense from both the forwards and the defensemen will be needed if the Leafs and Gustavsson are going to have any chance of beating the Hawks. Chicago boasts the NHL’s 14th ranked offense and their defense, ranked sixth in the league, has been exceptional of late.Unfortunately for the Leafs, the defense squad will be without defenseman Mike Komisarek, who, after struggling to find his game at the beginning of the season, was playing better of late and was becoming a valued asset for the Leafs.Phil Kessel, who has played well in his return and Alex Ponikarovsky, will have to continue their strong offensive effort tonight.

That said, if the Leafs keep getting poor efforts form the likes of Jason Blake (two goals on the season), Matt Stajan (three goals on the season) and Nikolai Kumelin (three goals on the season), then Kessel and Ponikarovsky's offensive efforts and the Leafs defensive efforts will be all for not.The Leafs own the NHL’s worst penalty kill at 71.6 percent. They have the worst goals against per game average at 3.69 and, averaging 2.56 goals per game, their offense sits at 21st overall, all of which has to have the Blackhawks drooling and the mouth and ready to go on the hunt.So, how did it come to this Why do the Leafs and Hawks, two of the NHL’s Original Six franchises meet just once this season and just once in 2008 Read on, as I try to make sense of the NHL’s undoing of the once mighty Norris Division.As a result of realignment, the Norris Division was formed in 1975 and lasted until after the 1992-1993 season, when the Norris Division became a thing of the past Originally featuring the Montreal Canadiens, L.A. Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals, the Norris was always known as a tough Division to play in and often featured bench-clearing brawls and fights.The Norris went through a few changes over the years, first dropping the Capitals and taking on the Hartford Whalers in their place (1979-80) and then receiving a more complete face-lift in 1981-82, adding the Minnesota North Stars, Winnipeg Jets and St Louis Blues, while dropping the Hartford Whalers, L.A. Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins.Finally, in 1982-83, the NHL made yet another change to the Norris, featuring what many of us remember the Norris as being: the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota North Stars.The Norris may not have been the most skillful Division in all of hockey, but it did feature a ton of lunch pail players, including Toronto’s Wendel Clark and Chicago’s Al Secord. Fighting was the norm in the Norris and much blood was spilled on the ice night after night, in fact, they were some of the most memorable fights in NHL history.Unfortunately, when the 1992-1993 season ended, the NHL decided to chop up the divisions once again, only this time they took it a step further, eliminating the historic Norris, Smythe, Patrick and Adams Divisions, opting instead to go with a “less confusing” Eastern Conference featuring the Northeast Division and the Atlantic Division, and the Western Conference featuring the Central Division and the Pacific Division.Once again, marketing and realignment was more important than the history of the game The NHL cited that the majority of the U.S fans had know idea who James E.

Norris, Lester Patrick, Charles Francis Adams or the legendary Conn Smythe were and, therefore, were unable to identify with the Divisions.So, for the “betterment” of the game, NHL fans lost a little bit of their history and, along with the name changes, lost some beloved rivalries Chicago vs. Toronto being one of them.It is a sad state of affairs that the Leafs and Hawks don’t meet more often, then again, given the disparity between the two teams, perhaps it is in the Leafs’ best interest to stay where they are, history be damned!Until next time,Peace!. Impairment of $1.7 Million in Fourth Quarter Pretax Earnings Related To Bank ofAmericas Columbia Strategic Cash PortfolioBLOOMINGDALE, Ill.(Business Wire)PCTEL, Inc. Scanning receiver sales remained strong, as were antennasales to key OEM customers. At December 31, 2008 the company had approximately$8.6 million invested in the Fund. Through December 31, 2008, the fund hasreturned approximately $31.9 million of the original investment in cashredemptions (73.5) and the company has incurred approximately $2.9 million inmark to market, non-operating expense in arriving at the current Fund balance. According to the Funds management, PCTEL should receive $5 to $6 million incash redemptions in 2009.

Those assets are significantly exposed to the mortgagemarket and related macroeconomic pressures. The company now projects anon-operating, pre-tax loss of $200,000 in Other Income and Expense for 2009.This estimate reflects the Funds exposure to future 2009 mark to market lossesresulting from further deterioration in macroeconomic conditions. The company will update investors at its first quarter earnings releaseconference call, which is scheduled for February 26, 2009 About PCTELPCTEL, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCTI), is a global leader in propagation and optimizationsolutions for the wireless industry. The company designs and developssoftware-based radios for wireless network optimization and develops anddistributes innovative antenna solutions. The companys SeeGull scanningreceivers, receiver-based products and CLARIFY interference managementsolutions are used to measure, monitor and optimize cellular networks.