FanHouse ChrisCampoli

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We begin our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northeast Division.

Brian Burke begins his rebuild of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa and just what is Boston going to do with Phil Kessel and a limited amount of salary cap space?

When the Senators acquired Mike Comrie and Chris Campoli before the trade deadline, some of the talk surrounding the trade wasn't about the players themselves. Since the Senators were out of the playoff race at the time some of the discussion revolved around Comrie's significant other, Hillary Duff. Duff could almost always been seen at the Coliseum when Comrie was an Islander and is now a fixture at Scotiabank Place.

Around the same time, music star Carrie Underwood began dating Mike Fisher and started showing up at games. Now, Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Senators have added another famous lady to their All-Star lineup of WAGs.

Late Friday afternoon, the Islanders and Senators agreed to swap three players and a draft pick, a move that made waves across the blogosphere. The basic breakdown of the deal seemed to be Chris Campoli for a first round pick, as the other two parts -- Mike Comrie and Dean McAmmond -- were very similar. They both have contracts that expire this summer and weren't doing a whole lot of anything offensively for their teams.

Given that both teams should be trying to stockpile draft picks (let's face it, whether or not Bryan Murray knows it, that's what the Senators should be doing), they're going to be looking to trade off veteran assets of value. So, could we see McAmmond and/or Comrie get moved again before the March 4th trade deadline?

In a surprising move, the Ottawa Senators have acquired defenseman Chris Campoli and center Mike Comrie from the New York Islanders in exchange for Dean McAmmond and a first-round pick (originally belonging to San Jose) in the 2009 NHL draft, according to the Islanders website.

This move makes little sense for Ottawa, unless general manager Bryan Murray has another deal on the horizon. If he doesn't, well, then he's either under the delusion that his team, currently 13 points out of the final playoff spot, is primed to make a serious run in the final weeks of the season, or he's completely lost his mind and is trying to George Costanza his way out of a job.

Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn recorded his first career hat trick on Saturday night, while Carey Price stopped 31 shots, including 16 in the third period to lead the Canadien's to a 3-2 victory in Pittsburgh. With the win, Montreal moves ahead of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings, while the Penguins failed to win consecutive games yet again -- they haven't won two in a row since November 13-15. Just sayin'.

Kostitsyn scored a pair of goals in the first period before completing the hat trick early in the third period with a quick slap shot that beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury through the five-hole.

Following Kostitsyn's goal, Price turned into a brick wall, as the Penguins had a trio of power plays in the final period, and peppered the Montreal netminder. Of course, if you're Pittsburgh, you have to be a tad frustrated you failed to convert on five power plays, after going 0-for-5 one night ago in New Jersey. How a power play that features Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Petr Sykora and Ryan Whitney, among others, can consistently have so many 0-for-5 and 0-for-6 nights seems to defy all logic. Yet, here we are.

Crosby and Pascal Dupuis each finished with a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh.

A few things occurred to me after I spoke with New York Islanders defenseman Chris Campoli last night. First, the kid bears an unmistakable resemblance to Shia LaBeouf, which made me wonder if the Islanders' team bus was actually a giant robot. But more importantly, watching Campoli play against the Capitals -- to the tune of 4 assists in 18 minutes, 37 seconds of ice time -- made me reconsider the quality of this Islanders defense.

They've got a nice mix of young players like Campoli (23) and established veterans like Brendan Witt and the recently-added Bryan Berard, a player that Campoli admired and now considers a mentor. "You just pick his brain on situations," he said. "The game's easy when you move the puck, skate and do the things you need to do. I usually talk to him about areas on the ice where I can find some space, where he's had success."

Along with Berard, Campoli also idolized Ray Bourque as a young player growing up near Toronto, saying that he tries to move like Bourque. "Well, he doesn't move like he used to," he said with a laugh. "He plays the game like I like to play it. I told him that the first time I met him, and he said, 'You're making me feel real old.'"

If you look at the Atlantic Division's rosters, I think the Flyers have the best defensive corps and that the Islanders, if anything, have an underrated group. Campoli had a slightly different take. "You know what? I don't think we're underrated because we haven't proven anything. If you want respect, you gotta prove that you deserve it. I'm a young guy, Bruno [Gervais's] a young guy, we're playing together. We're going to have to work hard to get respect from people around the league."

When it comes to respect, Campoli has it for the Islanders, saying it's an "honor" to play for the franchise. I explained to him that as a Devils fan, I have an intense, almost genetic hatred for the Rangers -- and I've never even been in a preseason battle royal with the Blueshirts. So as a proud New York Islander, has he been able to develop a deep hatred for the Rangers yet? "That comes naturally," he said. "It doesn't take very long."