It is no secret that I'm not a big fan of the NHL's southern expansion. Call me old fashioned but putting ice in a desert just sounds stupid. Accordingly, anytime one of these southern teams does something, or is involved in something moronic I use it as fuel for my hate.

Today the Florida Panthers are grinding my gears. Have they seriously not clinched a playoff spot yet? And we're holding the No. 3 seed for them just in case they decide to back their way into the playoffs? Man, that's a flawed system.

Check out today's post at The Good Point to see why the NHL needs to revamp their playoff system.

This season is dead. Officially killed on the March 27 by the Carolina Hurricanes in front of a sparse group of fans with nothing better to do than spend a couple hundred dollars on something that guaranteed no joy. A group with more money than sense. A group that saw itself reflected on the ice in many ways, but none more fitting than in apathy.

We gather here today to say goodbye to the 2011-12 Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that started with so much promise, but one which ends like all the others.

Rebuilding is easy. Just look at St. Louis and Ottawa. Bad one year, amazing the next. It works that simply, so why is it taking forever in Toronto.

Those are the two most oft-cited examples of how a rebuild can happen overnight. Unfortunately, neither of those rebuilds happened overnight.

St. Louis was awful the first season after the lockout, finishing last in the Western Conference. The team took a step forward in 2006-07, finishing 10th in the West, although that progress was short-lived as the 2007-08 Blues finished second-last in the West. The Blues surprised in 2008-09, grabbing the No. 6 seed, but lost in the first round to Vancouver. Instead of linearly progressing in the next two seasons, the Blues actually finished with less points in each successive season.

Now after six seasons, five of which were spent outside of the playoffs, and two of which ended in lottery picks, the Blues are the class of the NHL. That hardly resembles a rebuild overnight.

In Ottawa's case, there has hardly been any rebuild at all. The team that is currently fighting for the Northeast Division title is largely the same team that finished in a lottery position last year. It's not even because the spirit of Mike Green took over Erik Karlsson's body. Don't believe me? Read today's post at The Good Point.

The league's hottest team just got back the league's best player. The Pittsburgh Penguins have won 10 games in a row, 13 of their last 15, and now have Sidney Crosby back in the lineup to go alongside MVP candidate Evgeni Malkin.