The Anaheim Ducks were busy on and off the ice Friday, swinging a trade while their entertaining game with the Chicago Blackhawks was already underway.

The Ducks acquired veteran blue-liner Eric Brewer from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a third-round pick in June 2015 (a pick originally acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in the Viktor Fasth trade in March 2014, so it's going to be a high third-rounder given the way the Oilers' season is playing out so far).

The Lightning, by the way, are retaining 26 percent of Brewer's salary ($3.75 million) and cap hit ($3.875 million), two sources told ESPN.com. Still, Tampa cleared some room under the cap, which it needed.

Brewer has slowed down a bit but still is a smart player whose experience will be of value in Anaheim. In Tampa, he had been a healthy scratch of late and with Victor Hedman nearing a return any day now, Tampa's blue-line depth would have pushed Brewer even further down. Out of a show of respect to a solid person and player, the Bolts wanted to send Brewer to a place where he could play.

The Ducks have been looking to add on defense for quite a while now, all the way back to when they were after Johnny Boychuk (who was traded by the Boston Bruins to the New York Islanders before the season) but felt the price was too high. They had talked to a number of teams ever since looking at different options on defense.

But certainly with news Friday that Francois Beauchemin would be out four to six weeks with a broken finger, joining Mark Fistric and Ben Lovejoy on the IR, Ducks GM Bob Murray had to act now.

Add to the fact defenseman Clayton Stoner was diagnosed with the mumps and also missed Friday’s game, half of the Ducks’ blue-line against the Blackhawks were AHL call-ups. So there was urgency on Murray to act, for sure.

I don't think Murray is done tinkering with his lineup, either. My Spidey senses tell me he's going to keep looking to improve his contending team and I'd be shocked if he didn't.

In the meantime, Anaheim's depleted blue-line can't be discounted as a factor as the high-flying Blackhawks prevailed 4-1 Friday afternoon at Honda Center.

Mind you, the way the Blackhawks have played this month, there aren't too many teams that are stopping them these days, healthy or not.

They lost 1-0 at Winnipeg on Nov. 2 to fall to 6-5-1 on the season, and at the time for whatever reason, the Hawks had been having issues offensively. Since then, they've gone 8-3-0, including Friday's win in Anaheim and scored 40 goals, an average of 3.6 goals a game. That's darn good in today’s NHL.

Patrick Kane is on fire, Corey Crawford is mounting his Vezina Trophy case, and there's lots of things going on these days with the Hawks that we've seen before.

All of which leads up to Saturday night's tilt in Los Angeles for the Blackhawks, a rematch of last spring's unbelievable Western Conference finals, Chicago wrapping up its excellent six-game road trip at Staples Center, which so far features only one loss.

I picked Chicago in September to win the Stanley Cup (over the Montreal Canadiens), and I've no reason to deviate from that thought at this point. The Blackhawks' transition game, again on display and then some Friday afternoon, is second to none. It's what today's game is all about and no team does it better.

Those spoiled Blackhawks fans in Chicago are in for a lot more fun this season.