Monday night, they’ll convene at the Loews Theatre on the Boston Common to view their Championship DVD. Then, finally, the Bruins offseason can begin.
The event on Monday is VIP only, unfortunately, so if you want to get in, you better know somebody who knows somebody.
The Bruins offseason won’t last long – Shawn Thornton and Milan Lucic are both hosting charity events in August, and Training Camp gets underway in mid-September – but it should be long enough to heal their wounds (here’s looking at you, Nathan Horton) and reflect a little bit on the season that was (don’t expect Tim Thomas to do a whole lot of looking back though, Jesse Connelly writes in the New England Hockey Journal).
When they do reconvene, they’ll notice that Michael Ryder and Tomas Kaberle aren’t present, but everyone else – as long as Brad Marchand gets signed (and he will) – will be at Ristuccia in September. Douglas Flynn writes over at NESN.com not to expect the absence of Ryder and Kaberle to hinder a team that got a little bigger, presumably a bit stronger and maybe a bit younger, too.
The biggest story of the next two months is going to be the performance of the younger Bruins. With Boston well under the salary cap, they’ll have the luxury of carrying additional players, which should mean that Jordan Caron has a full-time roster spot and other Providence Bruins like Jamie Arniel or Matt Bartkowski could compete for a roster spot – that is, if Jared Knight lets them.
Knight, who along with Ryan Spooner had a head-turning training camp in September, 2010, had a strong season in London (OHL), put on some weight and confidence and had the best development camp of any Bruins’ rookie. If he continues his strong play in September, expect to see his name on the opening night roster, too.