from Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated,

Around 3 p.m. EST on June 29, right before the news struck like claps of thunder—or, in one particular case, a bolt of Lightning—P.K. Subban was sipping red wine and studying the dinner menu at an upscale restaurant in Paris. North of his off-season home, Steven Stamkos had just teed off on the 15th hole at Goodwood Golf Club in Stouffville, Ont., and judged that it was his best drive of the summer. Across the continent, in British Columbia, Shea Weber was busy catching waves on the waters of Okanagan Lake. His cellphone, stashed away ashore, was starting to buzz.

Consider this: Had the NHL simply returned to its usual summer rhythm after the Oilers’ trade of winger Taylor Hall (the No. 1 pick in 2010) for Devils defenseman Adam Larsson (No. 4 in ’11) broke at 3:34 p.m., talking heads and fans would have considered themselves well-fed. Instead, six minutes before the hour, an even bigger blockbuster hit Twitter—Subban to Nashville, Weber to Montreal, a straight-up swap of the league’s two highest-paid defensemen, made even more intriguing by their divergent playing styles and dispositions. “People said it was a hockey trade,” Subban says. “I think it’s the furthest from that. I think it was a personality trade.”

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