Boston Bruins Take the Ice for Tune-Up

With all NHL teams still technically in lockout mode until the ratification of the new collective bargaining agreement–which is expected to happen on Jan. 9–the Boston Bruins who are already in the city can’t go to Ristuccia Arena for informal practices yet. They’re still borrowing ice space from local universities, which is an ideal solution since Boston is chock-full of high-caliber college teams.

Today they have chosen to use Agganis Arena, the home of the Boston University Terriers. In town to practice and hang out together again are Shawn Thornton, Gregory Campbell, Tyler Seguin, Milan Lucic, Adam McQuaid, Andrew Ference, Brad Marchand and Tuukka Rask. McQuaid is still recovering from his extensive surgery last year, with a targeted return date of February, but it is still good to see him at least getting out there and stretching his legs.

Seguin is wearing a very unique practice jersey–it’s one of the throwbacks that Ference got from HC Mountfield. See?

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/288302584932995072

https://twitter.com/Ferknuckle/status/276675922625703936

How nice of Ference to let his teammate borrow his threads. Since Seguin is in yellow while everyone else is in generic white or black (lockout rules still apply, no Spoked B allowed yet), it also makes him much more noticeable when he zips across the Agganis ice. He’s apparently doing just that and moving pretty fast on his feet. Clearly that experience in Switzerland served him well.

It’s also good that his linemate Marchand is in town–Patrice Bergeron is driving down from Quebec City and should arrive in Boston soon to reunite the Bruins’ best line last season–so he can get back into the flow of working with him.

One observer noticed that Lucic isn’t exactly in tiptop shape yet. He often needs water breaks and a few moments to just take a rest. In his defense, he hadn’t been looking for a European temporary team to skate with because of his pregnant wife, who’s getting ever closer to her due date and will now have a husband bringing in the bacon again. I’m sure he’ll return to ideal shape over the coming days, especially whenever he is reunited with his linemates, David Krejci and Nathan Horton.

It’s just really nice to see the guys practicing together again. It’s one of those little returns to normalcy that I think people will enjoy seeing as we amble towards an abbreviated 2013 season.