Well. That escalated quickly.

On Wednesday afternoon, in the span of 15 minutes, an entire offseason worth of activity happened in the NHL. I’ve never seen anything like it.

First, all the Taylor Hall trade speculation ended when the Edmonton Oilers traded him to the New Jersey Devils for young defenseman Adam Larsson. That’s big news, but everyone forgot about it two minutes later after an atomic bomb exploded in the form of a trade between the Montreal Canadiens and the Nashville Predators.

The Canadiens dealt their superstar defenseman P.K. Subban to the Predators for their superstar defenseman, Shea Weber. That’s like trading Mike Trout for Bryce Harper.

While all of us were still trying to comprehend the chaos around us, years worth of Steven Stamkos speculation came to a sudden end when he signed a contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He won’t go to Toronto, or Detroit, or anywhere. Wow.

The outlook of several NHL franchises changed today, all within the span of 15 minutes. You don’t see that everyday.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Blackhawks traded forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell to the Carolina Hurricanes for a second round draft pick in 2016 and a third round draft pick in 2017.

The Blackhawks made it their mission this offseason to get rid of Bickell’s massive $4 million cap hit, and they accomplished that mission early, but at the expense of losing one of their best up and coming players. Teuvo was thought to be a future cornerstone of the franchise, but now joins Brandon Saad as a young Blackhawk player getting traded out of town because of Bickell’s contract.

This trade may hurt a lot of Blackhawks fans, but finally Bickell’s contract will no longer affect the Hawks. Now the Hawks are likely to resign restricted free agent Andrew Shaw. Let’s just hope his contract situation doesn’t end the way Bickell’s did.

I meant to blog this before the series started, but I completely forgot. *Insert shoulder shrug figure here*

Anyway, the Pittsburgh Penguins currently have a 2-0 series lead going into Game 3 tomorrow night. Here’s my preview for the rest of the series.

Stanley Cup Final: San Jose Sharks vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

The HBK line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino, and Phil Kessel has powered the Penguins all throughout the playoffs and continue to do so in the Cup Final. The Penguins have also been getting help from unlikely heroes in Bryan Rust and Connor Sheary, and Sidney Crosby continues to look like the best player in the world. If the Sharks have any chance to beat the Pens, they need to regroup and play the sound team game they’ve been playing all postseason. They also need more help from goaltender Martin Jones, who has looked below average so far this series. They also need help from their superstars Brent Burns, Joe Thorton, Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, and Logan Couture.

My Prediction: Sharks Win Series in 7 Games