The fact that Darius Kasparaitis was sent down to Hartford for a conditioning stint might be the least controversial news of the day in Rangerland.

Steve Zipay has a bit on this Darius' situation, as does Sam Weinman.

Just so you are all clear on this, Kaspar doesn't have to pass through waivers, and is still considered part of the 23-man roster. They would have to re-designate him before all the action kicked in. So for now, he is just working out with the Pack.

The REAL topic for the day is whether the Rangers and Blackhawks are close to a deal, and who may be involved.

John Dellapina writes this: While Chicago scout Marc Bergevin, who lives in Southern California, has attended most every Rangers game for the last few weeks and Blueshirts assistant GM Don Maloney went to the Isles-Blackhawks game last night at Nassau Coliseum, a Rangers official insisted there is no deal imminent with Chicago.

Larry Brooks, however, has this to say: Sources have told The Post that the name of veteran Chicago defenseman Jassen Cullimore has been prominently mentioned, but at the same time, informants confirm that the Blackhawks are mighty interested in Petr Prucha.

and

Sources have suggested that the Blackhawks, shut out three straight times following the season-ending injury suffered by Michal Handzus and desperate for offense, might be willing to deal highly regarded 21-year-old defenseman Brent Seabrook, the 14th overall selection in the 2003 entry draft and an outstanding puck-mover, to get Prucha.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am in the minority on the message boards on whether to pull the trigger on a deal like this. However, I don't feel that Brent Seabrook improves this team enough to justify trading away a rookie 30 goal scorer in Prucha. He is still on pace for 52 points this season, even though he is getting bounced from line to line, averaging less than 13 minutes of ice time, and getting significantly less power play time than last year. If this move were for the future, it would still make no sense because of the abundance of defensive prospects the Rangers currently possess (Tyutin, Staal, Sauer, Sanguinetti, Baranka, Pöck, Girardi, Koverko, etc.). What they are missing is young scoring. Petr Prucha, despite his "srtuggles", is still "young scoring".

You can read all of the pros and cons on the boards.

The Rodent makes his plea to keep Petr Puck. Actually, it's more of a warning.

Joe Mac at NY SportsDay wonders what's wrong with the Rangers.

If any of you were wondering how this year has matched up against last year, I'll break it down. The team went 5-3-3 for 13 points over the first eleven games in 2005-06. In reality, it's not that far off from the ten points so far this year. HOWEVER, last year's team went 13-5 over their next eighteen games, for a total of 39 points in the first 29 games.

I highly doubt anything like that will happen now, because in this team's next eighteen, they face: Anaheim, San Jose, three games against Buffalo, three against the Hurricanes, three against Pittsburgh, three against Atlanta, one against Ottawa, and one against the Devils. Throw in another against the Panthers, to which the Rangers have already lost once this season, and a visit from the currently hot Islanders, and you may have a recipe for disaster.

I'm not optimistic.

This all starts tonight against the 9-0-3 Ducks, who look as mighty as ever. The puck drops at 10:00 pm EST.

HDH

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