Trade deadline fallout for the Blueshirts

A brain fart in my last post had me say Erik Christianson and Colby Armstrong went to Ottawa. Not true. Nor will they be getting lost in a bigger market, as obviously Atlanta is not a bigger market than Pittsburgh. Both should become stars of their team there, although it might take a few years.

Moving on...

- Christian Backman skated with Marc Staal at practice today. Backman is wearing the uber popular Igor Ulanov's number 55. Hopefully he'll be a little more productive for us than Igor was.

- Fred Sjostrum is wearing Jan Erikson's number 20, and should skate on the fourth line tomorrow night in Carolina.

- Colton Orr and Petr Prucha are likely to both sit tomorrow, along with Jason Strudwick. Strudwick has ultimately been sent to the bottom of the defense depth chart with Marek Malik's resurgent play. It's only been two games for Malikenstein, but let's hope he can keep up the work he's showed the last couple of games.

- Josh Gratton and David LeNevue were sent to Hartford yesterday. Neither will be called up unless injury strikes hard for the Rangers.

In other news, Ottawa fired their head coach tonight. John Paddock led the Senators to a 36-22-6 record, which was good for second in the division. Bryan Murrey, who led Ottawa to the Stanley Cup Finals last season, returns to the head coach position.

I'll check in again tomorrow before the game, but expect the same lines as last game with the exception of the new additions for tomorrow's tilt against the surging Hurricanes. Until then...