Bruins Pre-Season Underway

Anticipation builds for the Boston Bruins opening night at the TD Garden. As Bruins fans are anxiously awaiting the puck-drop to kick off what looks to be a promising 2010-2011 season. The off-season saw an abundance of change. The hiring of a new tenacious General Manager led to an overhaul of the team roster.

GM Valente wasted little time shaking up what he perceived as a complacent attitude to under achieving. Some of the players that were moved out to name a few were Jonathan Quick, Nikolai Khabibulin, Curtis Glencross, David Backes, Mark Fistric and Andrew Ference.

The newest member of the Bruins include: Jimmy Howard, Nathan Horton, Kris Russell, Dustin Byfuglien, Chad LaRose, Fredrik Sjostrom and Olli Jokinen.

In a recent interview GM Valente explained the string of moves,  “we had a lot of people within the organization taking up roster spots that we felt didn’t earn it. A lot of these moves free up some roster spots for promising young guys like Darren Helm, Michal Neuvrith and Jack Hillen. The previous regime did a great job in developing some of our younger players but we felt they were not given a fair chance to compete.”

GM Valente eluding to trades that saw some quality youngsters like Jamie Benn, Nick Foligno and Mikkel Boedker shipped out. GM Valente knows that nothing comes without a price and acknowledges he has departed with some great young players along the way to acquire this group of young men. To his credit has also been able to bring in an abundance of picks and prospects. This includes, Kieth Aulie, Jarred Tinordi, Jesse Blacker and Dan Sexton. The Bruins were also able to recently acquired another 1^st overall pick in the 2011 entry draft from Calgary along with Andre Kostitsyn for Antti Nemi and Milan Jurcina.

For coach Cory Clouston and the newest members of the Boston Bruins, the upcoming season provides a clean sheet of ice and a fresh start.