BOSTON — There won’t be actual on-ice work until Thursday, but the first training camp of the Marco Sturm era began for the Bruins on Wednesday.
The players arrived and did their fitness testing and physicals while general manager Don Sweeney and Sturm spoke to the media.
Here are some things that stood out.
David Pastrnak’s health bears watching — The Bruins said that Pastrnak will miss the first couple of days of training camp with tendinitis.
“David Pastrnak won’t skate for the first couple of days. (In) his last training block, he got a little tendinitis and we just said load management at this point in time is what the best course of action is. He will be back on the ice. He’s on the ice still, but he will be in full practice early next week. That’s the only surprise we have. Everybody else is fully up and running.”
If that’s all it is, then this will be forgotten before long. But for a team that is short of goal scorers, any injury to their most reliable one is noteworthy.
Plus, NHL teams are historically vague with injuries. Elias Lindholm had an injury early in camp last year and never quite got right. Not cause for panic, but worth watching.
Pavel Zacha’s position is undetermined — Throughout his time as a Bruin, Pavel Zacha has played both wing and center. He’s been reliable enough defensively to fit on a defensive line and productive enough to play in the top six.
Sturm said he wasn’t ready to make that decision.
“I love him as a centerman, absolutely love him, but he might have to play on the wing. I don’t know,” said Sturm, who said he’ll mix and match from practice to practice and preseason game to preseason game. “So there will be some changes because I want to see it. I can look all summer long at clips, but I’ve got to stand behind the bench, I’ve got to see it in practice, I’ve got to see it behind the bench, I’ve got to feel it. And I can tell you right away, when I see [Pavel] Zacha for example, when he plays wing or centerman, I can see right away. I can tell you what’s the best not just for him, but for us as a team, and as a line where he’s in to get the best opportunity.”
Workload for goalies still to be determined — Last year, the Bruins went into the regular season declaring Jeremy Swayman their clear No. 1 goalie with a clear plan to give him a share of playing time that was commensurate with the contract he’d just signed.
Swayman, who’d missed training camp, struggled all year. Several factors, including workload, were possible reasons, but none was definitive. Late in the season, Joonas Korpisalo, Boston’s No. 2 goalie, thought he’d played well enough to earn more playing time.
Sweeney said the Bruins may have erred last year in giving Swayman starts at times in hopes of playing his way back into form.
“I respect that Korpi said, ‘Hey, listen, I don’t think he played me enough,’” Sweeney said. “And at times we had internal debate on whether or not we were forcing the issue to get Sway back in rhythm and going through some of those things.”
This year, he said back-to-backs and travel will influence decisions, as will performance and that Sturm and goalie coach Bob Essensa will make the decisions.
“Performance is going to dictate how our team makes the ultimate decisions, and between Marco and Bob,” Sweeney said. “The data, the history, all the things should carry weight as well when we make that decision. Do I think we could have done it better last year? A lot of things (could have been) better, including that.”
Some veterans could see more preseason game action than usual — Because this is his first year coaching these players, Sturm said he’ll consider playing his veterans a little more in preseason games to give him a chance to try combinations.
He said the players have indicated they want to play in those games.
“There’s nothing really set yet, but what I’m hearing from the guys is they want to play. So that’s a good thing,” he said. “I know it’s going to be a lot of information moving forward the next few days. I’m probably using a different language on certain things system-wise. We’re going to tweak a few things. At the end of the day, I want them to get to know everything right away, as much as we can. And how many games will those guys play? I don’t know yet, but the good sign is they’re all ready to go. They’re all excited and they all want to play.”
Don Sweeney will miss the fitness tests — Beginning next year, as part of the new CBA, teams will no longer conduct fitness tests, which have historically marked the start of training camp.
Sweeney said he’s prepared for the change, but thought the testing had value.
“Would we like to? Yeah, because there’s a competitive aspect to the physical testing. It’s a measuring stick that I think we still want to adhere to because let’s be honest, it’s a competitive business,” he said. “Winning puck battles and being able to play at the highest level, you have to be at a fitness level that is unique.”