It’s almost here.
Welcome to Friday, folks!
It’s Memorial Day Weekend in the United States, which is normally considered the unofficial start of summer.
We’ve had a decent run of summer-like days here in the Boston area, so hopefully the weather is decent wherever you are.
There’s not a ton happening with the Bruins at the moment: the players and management have had their end-of-season availabilities with the press, and there wasn’t a ton of earth-shattering news tidbits.
The notable ones that I can think of, that many of you have already discussed:
- Charlie Jacobs doesn’t foresee any changes to management/coaching this offseason.
- No Bruins had injuries severe enough to require offseason surgery.
- Don Sweeney suggested that the Bruins had made a good offer to Jake DeBrusk and that negotiations are a “two-way street,” which seems to put the onus back on DeBrusk’s camp.
Other than that, David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha’s Czechia eliminated the United States in the IIHF Worlds earlier this week, with Zacha scoring the lone goal on the power play.
(WHERE WAS THAT A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, he shouts, definitely not mad at all.)
It’s kind of funny though, as the goal was credited to Zacha after a puck took a few bounces, hit him in the chest/stomach, and went in.
During the Florida series, those bounces were hard to come by.
The two Bruins spent a lot of time playing on a line with Ondrej Palat, which is certainly a decent trio.
The Czechs will face Sweden in the semifinals on Saturday, with Canada and Switzerland playing in the other semifinal.
The bronze medal game and championship game will be on Sunday.
In NHL news, the Oilers took a 1-0 series lead on Thursday night, beating the Stars 3-2 in double overtime. That looks like it will be a fun series.
The Panthers will look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers tonight.
Finally, in local hockey news, Nathan has you covered for PWHL Boston’s playoff game against Minnesota tonight, which will be broadcast on NESN at 7 PM.
One housekeeping note: as we head into summer, I’ll likely go to every-other-day Morning Skates for a bit. We’ll start the usual offseason stuff (player ratings, etc.) in a couple of weeks.
If there’s anything you’d like us to cover or discuss in the meantime, please let us know.