Shrapnel - 7/8/11

After Scott Howson said he was pretty much done with making changes to the roster yesterday, I was setting up for a "And on the 7th day, he rested" joke, but it turns out he had another trick up his sleeve.

The move to acquire Ryan Russell came a bit out of nowhere, but it speaks volumes about the team's commitment to improve Springfield. Bruce Landon and the Falcons ownership asked Howson and AGM Chris McFarland to improve the roster at the AHL level, giving them a legitimate shot at the AHL playoffs, and it would seem they answered that call.

Over at Icethetics, a minor blog about how Reebok is changing their NHL branding.

At Fear The Hat, Lori has set up a great "Former Jacket Tracker". A neat read!

It would seem the Flyers may be looking to trade Sergei Bobrovsky in the wake of the Bryzgalov deal.

Over at DBJ, Tom has a look at the messages being sent around the Jackets' recent moves.

The City of Glendale finally asked a question that a lot of NHL fans have been dreading: "Do we really need a team in the arena?"  If you're a Coyotes fan, the milk tastes a bit sour on your cheerios this morning.

Light the Lamp was prolific yesterday, reacting to Martinek, taking a look at the Jackets' improved talent level, and another look at James Wisniewski.

Over at JAHL, Tapeleg does a wrap up for the Dead Blog Challenge, what he learned, what worked, and what didn't. Interesting stuff, and I certainly understand a lot of his challenges.

The latest addition to Pucks n' Stuff? Signed skates! Whose? Well, you'll just have to click and go find out.

Sadly, the court case for a Detroit Octopus tosser was tossed out.

Wild owner Craig Leopold was on the radio yesterday, and he may have leaked some realignment details. Before you get nervous about being stuck in an all central time zone division, notice that A) We're a "Maybe", and B) that would put 7 teams in that division, which I don't see happening. Far more likely that we'll be in an Eastern division and we'll leave the CST teams to their fun.

A guide to summer hockey for NHLers and semi-pros from Justin Bourne.

The Nashville Predators got some of their RFA problem cleaned up, but a big headache still remains in Sergei Kostitsyn. So, of course, we start to wonder if Alexander Radulov might come back. On the other hand, we've been hearing that since his last contract was about to expire, and he turned around and re-upped in the KHL. So I won't be losing much sleep.

Happy Friday!