Hopefully, no hard feelings between Andrew Alberts, Flyers

At the very least, Andrew Alberts knows that the Philadelphia Flyers will finish their checks:

The Boston Bruins today traded Andrew Alberts to the Philadelphia Flyers, who were probably one injury away on defense from reaching out to Terry Carkner.

Going back to Boston is prospect Ned Lukacevic and a conditional 2009 4th round pick, which turns into a third-rounder should Alberts sign with the Flyers in the off-season.

Alberts bit his lip last season after Scott Hartnell was given a two-game suspension for hitting the Bruins defenseman while he was on his knees near the boards.

The punishment came amid outcries that the Flyers winger deserved a much more severe deterrent-of-a-suspension. We'd pay good money to see the handshake between these two.

Alberts missed a good portion of 2007-08 with head and neck injuries that the team hinted were aftereffects from the Hartnell hit. His road to recovery this preseason (video) only earned him depth defenseman status; he was a spare part for Boston with a $1.25 million cap hit.

So what can he give the Philadelphia Flyers?

Bruins coach Claude Julien told Bruins Blog:

When commenting on the trade, Claude Julien mentioned that Alberts was better during camp at rebounding from errors than he had been before.

"There was a time where after he made a few mistakes, that would push him out for the rest of the game," Julien said. "I thought he'd been doing a great job of bouncing back and finishing strong. That was a positive."

But the fact that Alberts was still making those mistakes in the first place was one reason why the Bruins shipped out the 27-year-old ex-Boston College star.

"We'd seen Albie play some solid games," Julien said. "We'd seen other games where he struggled with his confidence."

But for Philly, the bottom line is that he's a healthy defenseman that can play. And that they could have done worse.

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