The New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild swapped players today, as Erik Christensen was sent to the Wild for Casey Wellman. Luckily enough for Blueshirt Banter, I was around to hear the discussion that led up to the trade.

CF stands for Chuck Fletcher, the Wild GM, and GS stands for Glen Sather, the Rangers GM. Enjoy.

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GS: Hey Chuck, how ya doing?

CF: Glen, I don't want Wade Redden.

GS: No, it's different this time.

CF: Glen, I know how good Henrik Lundqvist is. I don't know why you keep calling me to tell me that.

GS: I have a proposal you can't refuse.

CF: Is that a threat? What?

GS: I want Devin Setoguchi. I feel like he would play well in Tortorella's style.

CF: And what style is that?

GS: That'll be the plot of the next Die Hard film, so I'll refrain from answering that question.

CF: Well Setoguchi, nor any of our big name players are available, so how about a minor deal?

GS: How about I fleece you like I did to Montreal and just take Setoguchi off your hands?

CF: Glen, you aren't supposed to tell me you're about to rip me off.

GS: Oh, right, forget that. You're going to rip me off. You can have Erik Christensen.

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Artem Anisimov hasn’t scored a point since December 22, 2011. His last point was an assist tallied against the New York Islanders, which begs the question should we even count that as a point? There is no denying that Anisimov is currently snake-bitten, Torts has tried putting him with the fourth line to light a fire under his ass but that clearly hasn’t done much for his confidence. I have always been a huge fan of Arty; how can I not be? The guy is like an adorable little Russian puppy that the Rangers found whimpering out in the rain and brought into the house and when the fans begged and pleaded, "Can we keep him?" the management said, "Oh, alright… but you have to be patient with him." Management also said something about picking up his leavings after we take him for a walk but screw that noise, the last thing I need to feel is the still-warm leavings of another being through a thin plastic bag. Join me for more after the jump (that is probably the last poo joke in the article, no promises though)...

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Well with the rest of the NHL taking a weekend off, we here at Blueshirt Banter would like to invite you, our humble reader, on a walking tour of our offices here in this undisclosed location.

As you walk through the doors; you notice a faint smell, almost like the smell of lives rotting away. You ask your tour guide Cam Talbot about it but he nervously tugs at his shock collar and pushes you forward silently. Walking through the long hallway you see a small glass case with the words "Jim Schmiedeberg: In Memorium" etched above it and inside the case was a felt banner with his name and the number nine inside of it, a bunch of old articles and a skull with "Chris Drury was here" carved into the wood below it.

Mr. Talbot pauses by the shrine, presses his hand against the glass and you see a single tear roll down his cheek that he quickly wipes away.

You press on and finally get into the main offices of Blueshirt Banter; a long hallway with eight wooden doors, four on each side with gold nameplates and padlocks on the outside of each door.

Cam Talbot walks through the hallway and unlocks every door and opens them before stopping at the end of the hall in front of a set of double doors.

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Just a head's up the open thread for tonight's Rangers/Caps game is below this story.

This thread will be for any post game comments and for tonight's episode of HBO's 24/7 Rangers Flyers: Road to the Winter Classic. This episode will cover the Rangers surge through their Atlantic Division rivals during the past week as well as show us what Christmas is like in the Boyle household.

So, enjoy the game, talk about it as well as 24/7 here

Hello everyone,

The staff here at Blueshirt Banter would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. It's always fun when the New York Rangers are doing well (and even more fun when they are doing spectacular) but it's also important to stop and enjoy life outside of hockey as well.

Hopefully you all got what you wanted from Santa Claus this morning and you have a day of drinking, laughing, eating and fun ahead of you.

Please use this open thread to discuss thoughts on the team or even use it to wish everyone a happy holidays.

Just as a note, I was able to interview Adam Graves yesterday and the story will be going onto the website Monday or Tuesday. I will also be interviewing Nick Fotiu Monday, which will also go up on the site as soon as possible. Both interviews are focusing on the players involvement in the Alumni Game.

Happy holidays guys! Have a good one!

Tonight its episode two of HBO's hit 24/7 Flyers Rangers Road to the Winter Classic. The bar has been set after last week's episode with Ilya Bryzgalov regaling us with his thoughts on the cosmos as well as Chinese law and Grandma Callahan showing more fire in 30 seconds than Erik Christensen has all year.

The Ranger games covered in this episode will be:

The 6-1 thrashing of the Florida Panthers at home

The 1-0 loss to the Stars at home

The 4-1 loss to the Blues in St. Louis

And the 3-2 photo finish in Phoenix against the Coyotes

What are you guys looking for in this weeks episode? How do you guys like the series so far?

Enjoy the show and use this as your open thread for the night

HBO's 24/7 series featuring the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers' road to the 2012 NHL Winter Classic.

The show starts at 10 p.m. tonight, and since the Rangers are one of the featured teams in the show we're putting together an open thread for the event. This is one of the coolest parts of the Rangers being in the Winter Classic, and it will be awesome to get an inside look at the Rangers during the weeks leading up to the events.

Bantering Points:

• It will be interesting to see how the crew documents Brandon Dubinsky's struggles this season.
• Who will be the best dressed player on camera? Sean Avery? Henrik Lundqvist?
• I want to see what the behind-the-scenes discussions are for who wins the Broadway Hat every win. I also want to see how excited the guys who win it are when it's finally handed to them.

Enjoy the show guys.

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