A break, if you will.
Happy Friday, folks!
I have to admit, this brief break in the schedule snuck up on me — I’d gotten so used to the every-other-day cadence that I didn’t realize until Thursday morning that there wasn’t another game until Saturday.
So, with that in mind, you get a Morning Skate so you don’t have to use the Tampa recap thread for another day!
The B’s will be in Canada’s nation’s capital of Ottawa on Saturday to face the Flying Ullmarks, this time with less Ullmark.
Ottawa is (prior to Thursday’s action) just three points behind the Bruins in the Atlantic, and they have games in hand as well, so Saturday’s game will be a pretty important one.
There hasn’t been a ton going on in Bruins World over the past few days, aside from the team’s annual gala on Wednesday night.
That featured the return of James Bond Patrice Bergeron, so it was a treat for everyone in attendance.
There were also some media availabilities with a few figures, Cam Neely among them.
Per Conor Ryan of Boston.com, Neely acknowledged that the team is deciding between “buying” and “retooling” at the trade deadline:
“I think right now, we’ve got to look at two paths — one that we’re buying and one that we may be just retooling a little bit,” Neely said Wednesday at the Boston Bruins Foundation’s gala. “We still feel like we’ve got a playoff team here, and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize getting out of the playoffs because we’ve made some moves that may be good for the future, but not good for the present.”
With the deadline less than two months away, you have to think the next 3-4 weeks will likely decide this team’s buying/selling fate.
More mediocrity and we’ll likely see some guys (Trent Frederic? Justin Brazeau?) moved; if the team can get it together, maybe a reinforcement or two will come in.
Either way, we’ll have plenty to argue about for the next little while, so that’s fun!
What’s on tap for today?