BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins know last year was far from good enough. It's been emphasized over and over again. As a result of that, they've been tossed aside by almost every preseason prediction. While it fuels some Bruins, all of it is just noise.
"A lot of people are gonna say what they want," said Charlie McAvoy on Thursday. "It's the same thing every summer, every year. People are gonna pick who they think are good and who are bad, it really doesn't matter to us in here. Our expectations in this locker room don't change. As long as we're still the Boston Bruins, that'll never change."
Once the Bruins stepped on that ice on Thursday, the chapter officially turned. It's now the Marco Sturm-coached Bruins, led by David Pastrnak and McAvoy. Pastrnak did not skate with the team, but skated on his own prior to the beginning of the group sessions.
After practice, Sturm remarked Pastrnak could be with the group now, but they're being extra cautious with the Czech superstar.
As for everyone else, they got a taste of what Sturm wants to see out of the team.
"It's speed, it's simplicity, it's straight lines, it's routes," said the returning Sean Kuraly. "We're going to know where to be. We're going to have very repeatable ... patterns. And I think it's going to be really black and white on how we want to advance the puck, how we want to move from zone to zone and eventually get the puck in the net."
"He seems honest," said Nikita Zadorov. "He seems pretty straightforward. I think he's direct, he's fair. That's how he wants to coach."
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Across the board, Sturm's patience received rave reviews. Everyone who spoke to the media noted Sturm stayed true to his word yesterday about keeping the first day simple.
"I thought today was a great day," said McAvoy. "I understand you don't want to throw too much at guys day one. Let's get our legs under us, let's get sharp where we can be. But I'm assuming he'll continue to throw more at us, compete more in those first couple of days, when everyone has a good foundation."
On the ice, it was a standard first day of training camp. Nothing was perfect, and Sturm didn't hesitate to let the Bruins know. Multiple times, he stopped a drill and urged his team to get it right.
"I appreciated him stopping it dead a couple of times when it wasn't sharp," said McAvoy. "When it wasn't where it needed to be. So he's gonna get that message across, which is great because we need to be striving for perfection out there. That's what the mindset needs to be."
Everything starts with little things. From fixing the drills to the locker room, the players walked into. Sturm did away with an old line of demarcation.
Traditionally, there's a veteran room, with all the established NHLers, and a younger player room, filled with AHLers and players not expected to make the cut.
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Instead, the Bruins did away with that. Groups A and B were mixed evenly and shared their own locker rooms. Sturm made it clear that it was his call. For the next few days, as far as he's concerned, Group A and Group B are their own teams. They should act like it.
"We have to come together as a team," Sturm said, then added with a laugh. "I told Group A, they have to buy a beer for Group B because they are in the [worse] locker room."
Zadorov and Kuraly praised the mix, both saying it gets everyone together and makes everyone comfortable with one another early.
As for some Xs and Os, the big tactical omissions from Sturm revealed he's going to play Pavel Zacha in multiple preseason games, specifically to see him at both center and wing. Today, Zacha centered Tanner Jeannot and Matej Blumel.
Viktor Arvidsson seemingly would've begun on that line, but instead was bumped up to play with Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie due to Pastrnak's absence. Blumel, in turn, receives a massive opportunity to make an impression.
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