Where we stand, five weeks til camp begins

With training camp only five weeks away, I decided to take a look at the Bruins roster and see where we stand. Now new GM Peter Chiarelli has made a valiant effort to rekindle hockey in the Hub and has brought in some talent in Chara and Savard. That said, Savard needs someone who can put the puck in the net, yes Muzz can do that but without a legitimate threat on the opposite wing, Muzz is too easy to cover as we saw last season.
According to BostonBruins.com the Bruins have 34 players on their roster. To me this would mean you have 34 players signed sealed and delivered for day one of camp September 12th. Well taking a look at who is on the roster shows that at least three of those listed are "hopefuls" one is Patrice Bergeron (he had better be there, after signing Boyes, they had better be inking Patrice as he is obviously a much higher caliber player than Boyes) another is Jurcina, now this is an interesting one as he is a defensemen and we seem to have a plethora of D right now. Of the 34 players on the roster there are ten defensemen, now I know you need D to win but five sets of D on your roster is absurd. Break it down a little further and you will see that four of the ten are set in stone, (Alberts, Chara, Mara and Brad Stuart) that leaves six guys fighting for at most four slots on D and that is saying that they plan to carry four sets of defense which may be a little much. Now throw into this mix the fact that Brian Leetch remains out there and would likely play in Boston for the home town discount of a million bucks and you now have six guys fighting for three slots. That said look for Wade Brookbank, Jurcina (if signed) and likely Jason York to fill out our D.
On to the forwards....
The first line will likely be Bergeron (if signed) Sturm and Boyes. Not sure if I keep it that way but it seemed to work last season. Now if Kessel signs and I was the next former Bruins coach I may set a first line of Savard centering Muzz and Kessel (yes he is a center but would likely play wing until he got used to the NHL, this would open up Murray and also give him two set up men, think of the possible out come there, it makes you drool doesn't it). For fun, plus this is my blog and I choose to do so let's say that Kessel does not go back to school so our top two lines would be as stated above in either order depending on who your opponent was. Do you want fast with no much hitting? Well then start the Bergeron line. Do you want one fast as hell guy (Savard) and two guys who can hit anything that moves? Well start Muzz and the boys. It could turn out to be one of the best one two combinations the "Hub of Hockey" has seen in a long time.
Now for the bangers, the third line looks to be shaping up with Primeau (number three unsigned but on the roster player) P.J. Axelsson and Shean Donovan. The fourth line if there is one would likely not see much if any playing time and would likely be one or two guys who are on the bubble splitting time between Providence and Boston.
The bid signing of the summer of course is Chara. He was in many folks minds the cream of the free agent crop and some how Jeff Gorton pulled one out of his ass and landed him. Kudos Jeff, but I think the fact the Chiarelli was coming to town may have helped with that one. Not sure why nobody has thrown up the red flag on Chara leaving for Boston when Chiarelli was sitting in Ottawa "helping" with their frsigning signings. I know that Ottawa is run by a bunch of Canadians but are they really that dumb? Never let someone who is leaving help you do anything, except clean out their office. Thanks Ottawa we owe you one there.
With the signing of Chara instantly made folks in Boston realize two things, the new commitment to winning may not have been bullshit and we are now once again looking like the BIG bad Bruins of old. Well not so fast, I will not throw the bullshit flag on the commitment (I am hopeful) but I will throw it out on the BIG, well kind of. We certainly are big, with an average weight of 202. Wow that reads like a football team doesn't it! Well now for the kicker, Chara's 6'9"frame does little for team height, we are a measly 5'10". That means I am the size of an average Bruin, and my fat ass could shed at least fifteen pounds, Hell when I played real hockey, I was listed as 5' 10" 185 (and I am sure they added some weight there as I would guess I was MAYBE a buck 80 and no more than 5'9") Bottom line is, like my brothers tell me, I still have my hair but some day I will be bald like them and then I will be short, fat AND bald! This makes the Bruins short and fat. Granted that should change after camp as one of the less likely roster spots is that of Chris Collins who is only 5'8" and weighs 195 (Holy crap he is fucking round, or he is freaking ripped like you wouldn't believe!)
Last but not least I took a look at the player place of birth. We have 9 U.S. born players. Three, will see the ice (Alberts, Mara, and Tim Thomas) the other six will likely see the ice but it will have a broken spoked B on it that looks a lot like a P for Providence. We have 13 Canadian players, nine will likely be skating on Causeway and the other four are up in the air as to where they end up. The remaining slots are taken up by players from other countries, Slovakia, Germany, Sweden and Russia if you count Zhamnov (I wouldn't even if he was healthy he would have been gone)
Bottom line is we definitely look different on paper than we did last year, I will give them that, first two lines could look pretty solid, net remains a question mark unless Toivonen picks up where he left off and Thomas remembers to keep the flopping to a minimum, as I am sure everyone has figured out to go high by now. Overall I see the Bruins starting the season ranked second in the Northeast behind Ottawa, or Buffalo, not sure which of those is likely to come out better or worse than last year. I will make my season prediction after the first few games.
Till then..... 33 days until camp opens!