Tuesday was, at the start, a fairly normal day in the life of Mike Paliotta.
He woke up, got on the ice for a bit and after his workout, returned to see two missed calls and a text message from Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman.
“I figured something was going on,” Paliotta said.
Instinct was accurate in this case, and it didn’t take long for everything to take off and for Paliotta’s phone to blow up again. Right around dinner time, news broke that the Blue Jackets and Blackhawks had pulled off a seven-player, eight-piece trade that sent shock waves throughout the hockey world.