With Stamkos giving Recchi his praise and telling media that Recchi really taught him what it's like to be in the NHL, many believe that it will be Recchi's role to take youngster Tyler Seguin under his wing. Seguin, drafted number two overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, hasbeen linked to having the same playing style as Stamkos. Milan Lucic, Recchi's linemate last season, didn't shy away from praising Recchi when Something's Bruin caught up to him at his Rock 'n' Jock Charity Softball Event.

"We know what we're going to get from Rex," said Lucic. "He wouldn't be out here if he couldn't go 100% every day, I mean he's the Recching ball. What his role is is up to coach, but I think we'll have another big year from him."

The 42-year old, 21-year veteran will look to lead a familiar core into unfamiliar territory. The Bruins have been unsuccessful in getting to the Conference Finals, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in 7 games in 2008-2009 and losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in 7 games in 2009-2010. While Recchi's leadership will never be in question, expecting a 42 year old to produce similar stats from 2009-2010 or 2008-2009 is a little unrealistic. It should be noted that despite his age, Recchi has played 65+ games every year after the 1994-1995 season where he played 49 games (39 in Montreal, 10 in Philadelphia). At some point, his body has to break down, doesn't it?

Last season the Bruins saw Marc Savard, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Mark Stuart, Andrew Ference and Dennis Seidenberg - even after being acquired in a trade - all miss significant time due to injuries. Recchi, Ryder and Wheeler were the regulars on the ice. This season will be no different for the elder statesman in the Bruins locker room. Another year brings another challenge for the former Stanley Cup Champion; bringing a cup to Boston.

The AHL released their 2010-2011 schedule today, including the P-Bruins schedule. Along with the usual division rivalry games, the baby B's will play in a home-and-home with the Springfield Falcons to start the season, wearing their Providence Reds throwback jerseys. The Falcons will wear their vintage Springfield Indians jerseys to commemorate the AHL's 75th season.

Games of note at "The Dunk" include the following: the P-Bruins will host the new Albany Devils at the end of October, Abbotsford of the North division (Calgary's AHL affiliate) for two games in November, and the newly created Charlotte Checkers (Carolina's affiliate, formerly the Albany River Rats) in December and again in March. The reigning Calder Cup champs, Washington's affiliate Hershey Bears, swing through Providence in February.

Providence will also travel to Abbotsford, BC to square off against the Heat for two games.

You can view the entire Providence (and AHL) schedule here.

The drive from Boston to Providence isn't an unpleasant one.

There's traffic if you hit it at the wrong times; if it's warm out, you still have to deal with Cape Cod traffic for part of it and if you try to head out of Boston on 93 south at rush hour, you'd better hope you've got some good tunes on your MP3 player or stereo, because you'll be sitting around for a while.

The Bruins are lucky that traffic is the greatest of their problems when calling up players to fill in for injuries. It makes the 13th forward / 7th defenseman a completely optional situation; why make a guy sit in the press box if he can drive an hour south and get some actual playing time in? Although this isn't an option for players on one-way contracts, there are clearly some advantages to having two-way guys just a short drive away. For a team like San Jose, this isn't an option - they fly players across the country only to have them sit in the press box, stuck without a place to play.

Last season, there was never a question about who to call up as the 13th foward. Providence struggled offensively all season, and there were no prospects who were prepared to make the jump to the NHL. Brad Marchand was injured for part of the season, although he was used as a callup several times; behind him, Mikko Lehtonen and Zach Hamill were the two youngsters who may have been closest. Considering that they've both been busts in one-game callups in the past, Boston opted to go with veteran presence and use Trent Whitfield as the Boston-Providence floater.

Was that a good decision, in retrospect? Absolutely. Why throw an untested forward into the mix when he's not proven in the minor professional leagues - or worse yet, if he's a proven bust? Although Whitfield may not have scored a single goal in his time in Boston, he wasn't exactly on a scoring line - paired with Steve Begin and Shawn Thornton, their job was to fill minimal minutes and stir up the other team.

Trent Whitfield is out for the season rehabbing a torn achilles. Who will be the 13th forward in a season that starts brightly for both Boston and Providence, with Jordan Caron, Joe Colborne, Brad Marchand, and even Max Sauve chomping at the bit to get a chance to wear the spoked B?

Answer: none of the above. Remember this guy?

Jeremy Reich battles against the team he played for in 09-10

Jeremy Reich floated between Boston and Providence for the 2006-2007 season, before playing an entire season in Boston the following year and an entire season in Providence the year after that. He's familiar with the system, he captained the Baby B's to an Eastern Conference Final against the Hershey Bears two seasons ago, and he's widely regarded as one of the two best locker room presences the P-Bruins have seen recently. He played in the New York Islanders' system last season, although he spent a majority of it on injured reserve recovering from an injury to his wrist.

If disaster strikes and a forward goes out in October or November, you can put money on the fact that it'll be Jeremy Reich - or possibly Brad Marchand, if his season starts well - that will be driving up 95 to 93 to the Garden over Colborne or Caron.

Arguably, this is something that's been pretty standard for the Bruins over the last few years - giving veteran AHLers a spot on the big club over potentially stellar rookies. We saw it last year with the callups of Wozniewski and Larman, and in previous years with the callup of Pelletier; the Bruins seem to like to give new players a chance to simmer and develop in the Prov before giving them their shot. Matt Hunwick and Mark Stuart both went through it, Adam McQuaid is going through the process right now and will likely make it to Boston by the All-Star break, and the possibility is definitely there for Caron or Colborne to make the jump mid-season.

For now, though - it's all on Jeremy Reich, the former and future baby B's captain. Get ready for the return of number 53.

About two weeks ago I wrote about Johnny Boychuk and his chances to hit the dreaded sophomore slump. Although the article was well received, the feedback I got stated that a player can only hit a slump when there are expectations to be met. Taking that into consideration then, it's time to look at Boston's rookie phenom from last year, Tuukka Rask.

Rask didn't come into this world a Bruin. He was the first round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs (21st overall) in the 2005 and was traded to Boston on June 24, 2006 for Andrew Raycroft. Tuukka finally broke in to North American hockey during the 2007-2008 season when he played 45 games for the Providence Bruins, posting 27-13-2 record (W-L-T), a save percentage (S%) of .905 and a goals against average (GAA) of 2.33. In that same season, Rask played 4 games in Boston, went 2-1-0-1 (W-L-T-OT) posting a 3.26 GAA and a S% of .886.

The 2008-2009 season saw an increased workload for the Finn in Providence. Rask played 57 games for the P-Bruins, posting a record of 33-20-4, 4 shutouts, a GAA of 2.50 and a S% of .920. Unfortunately for Tuukka though, his time in Providence won't be remembered for his fine play but for an incident after a shootout against the Albany City River Rats.

From an ESPN.com article on March 24, 2009:

"With Providence leading 1-0 after the fifth round of the shootout, Albany's Jakub Petruzak skated in, appeared to lose control of the puck wide of the net after Rask poke-checked. But Petruzak collected the puck and shot it, scoring the tying goal.

The Bruins protested, arguing that the puck was not in constant motion forward before Petruzak shot it at the net, which is mandatory in a shootout.

Then in the sixth round, Harrison Reed launched a slap shot that Rask insisted hit the crossbar, but L'Ecuyer ruled went in.

That apparently was the last straw for Rask, who slammed his stick against the crossbar, skated toward the still-closed door leading to the tunnel, threw himself against the glass, then hurled his stick across the ice."

The 2009-2010 season saw Tuukka Rask finally up in Boston, something he was clamoring for during the 2008-2009 season in Providence. In his rookie season, Rask posted fantastic numbers that no one expected. In 45 games (39 starts) last season, Rask posted a 22-12-0-5 record with 5 shutouts and led in the NHL in S% (.931) and GAA (1.97). Despite these numbers though, Rask was not in the running for the Calder Trophy as Buffalo's Tyler Myers edged out Matt Duchene (Colorado Avalanche) and Jimmy Howard (Buffalo Sabres).

With an amazing 2009-2010 season under his belt, what can be expected from Tuukka Rask in the 2010-2011 season? Tuukka will certainly see an increased workload and it should be noted that he has never played over 60 games in his career. With a quality back-up goaltender like Tim Thomas, it is okay to think that Tuukka Rask will only play about 60 games in the 2010-2011 season, but a starting goaltender should be pulling 65-70 games a season.

Last season 6 starting goaltenders played over 70 games (Martin Broduer [77], Miika Kiprusoff [73], Henrik Lundqvist [73], Jonathan Quick [72], Evgeni Nabokov [71] and Craig Anderson [71]) and 8 more goaltenders had over 60 games played. Anything less than 60, unless that number is not reached by injuries, should be considered a failure. For Rask to play 45-50 games next season means that he is not a clear #1 goaltender. Last season Tim Thomas played 43 games, 2 fewer than Tuukka Rask, and posted respectable numbers. In fact, Thomas' numbers are comparable to Rask's especially in terms of S%. Thomas ended the season with a 2.56 GAA (Rask, again, with a 1.97) and a S% of .915 (compared to Tuukka's .931).

So what kind should be expected from Rask in 2010-11? Unlike Johnny Boychuk, who might get by doing little more than hitting people and smiling, Rask is an integral part of this team. Boychuk has an allowance to slack a little bit and not have people notice, but when you lead the league in S% and GAA (two stats that measure the effectiveness of a goaltender) your margin of error is quite small.

A sophomore slump is born because of a few things:

1. The expectations of the player are so lofty that said player will never be able to exceed them.
2. The player sustains an injury and can not play.
3. The player gets comfortable and complacent in their setting and doesn't work as hard as he/she should

With a healthy Tim Thomas in the fold, Rask should be pushed by the ex-Vezina Trophy winner to play at a high level, but we've seen the sophomore slump before.

After a successful Calder Trophy campaign in 2003-2004 where he posted a GAA of 2.05 (6th in the NHL) and a S% .926 (5th in the NHL) in 57 games played. After the lockout where Raycroft went to play for Tappara Tampere of the SM-liiga league, Raycroft came back to the NHL and had a very disappointing season. Raycroft played 30 games and ended up winning 8 games before becoming a healthy scratch and demoted to thrid string behind Tim Thomas and Hannu Toivonen.

Even though Raycroft may be a negative extreme, there are very few goalies in the NHL who have saw an increased work load and also an increase in production. A great example of this is the LA Kings' goaltender Jonathan Quick. Quick played 44 games in his rookie season going 21-18-0-2 with 4 shutouts, a .914 S% and a GAA of 2.48. In 2009-2010, Quick saw an increased work load with 72 games played, a record of 39-24-0-7 with 4 shutouts, a .905 S% and a GAA of 2.54. Although Quick's numbers did not change drastically, would a decrease in save percentage and an increase in goals against average cause a panic in Boston?

Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets saw a spectacular rookie season fall to the way side as the dreaded sophomore slump hit him, hard. In 2008-2009, Mason sparkled in Columbus. He played 61 games and ended the season with a 33-20-0-7 record, 10 shutouts, a 2.29 GAA and a S% of .916. The 2009-2010 season, however, was not kind to Mason as he played 58 games with a record of 20-26-0-9, 5 shutouts, a GAA of 3.06 and a S% of .901. It's clear that Mason suffered a setback from his rookie season to his sophomore one, but would this be acceptable by Bruins fans?

In the end, if Tuukka Rask plays horribly and the Bruins make it into the playoffs, is there a cause for concern or is it still a young kid adjusting to life in the NHL? With Tim Thomas sitting behind him, holding that door open, does it really matter how Rask performs? Is there any leeway for a down season? Where are your expectations for this young kid?

A source familiar with the player today confirmed that Trent Whitfield has torn his achilles tendon and is likely to miss the entire 2010-11 season. The Providence captain had surgery to repair the tendon last week.

In seven games with the Bruins last season, Whitfield tallied one assist and seven PIM. He also played in four playoff games without recording a point.

Whitfield's absence will open up the competition for a center's slot in Providence, and it is likely that there will be multiple contenders for his vacated role. The aquisition of Jeremy Reich in free agency this summer should be highly beneficial to the P-Bruins, as Whitfield's leadership was a crucial part of his role on the AHL team.

It was June 25, 2009 at about 2:00 PM PDT. The news came in: Michael Jackson was dead.

There was something strange about the untimely death of the King of Pop, however, and it had nothing to do with the fact that it seemed premature. What was strange was that anyone who was watching CNN or happened to stumble across ABCnews.com at 2:44 PM local time, when Jackson’s death was first reported, had no way of knowing about it.

According to the UK news journal, The Guardian, The LA Times reported Jackson as dead at 2:51. It wasn’t the Times, the AP, the Globe and Mail or anyone else who scooped the story. It was TMZ - the entertainment news site owned by Time Warner that had quickly made a name for itself as the place no celebrity wanted to be mentioned - that broke the news.

By the time CNN, ABC and the more well-established outlets had picked up on  the story, it had already flooded Twitter and Facebook feeds the world over. By 2:51 it was, effectively, no longer news.

You’re wondering, of course, why a hockey website is digging up news from 14 months ago that has nothing to do with hockey. This past Wednesday, Pension Plan Puppets, an SBNation blog covering the Toronto Maple Leafs, released this English translation of a Czech newpaper’s interview with Tomas Kaberle’s father in which the elder Kaberle expressed his discontent with the Leafs and their efforts to trade his son. The translation was provided by one of the blog’s regular readers.

Two days later, on Friday, the Toronto Sun published an article discussing Kaberle’s future as a Maple Leaf. No big deal, until you get to the ninth paragraph in the Sun piece, written by Dave Fuller. Looks sort of similar to the seventh translated paragraph in the Pension Plan post. In fact, it’s the exact same thing. Again, not really a big issue; Fuller’s a reputable journalist, he must have credited PPP for the translation, right?

Wrong.

Well, okay. Everybody makes mistakes - it’s getting close to hockey season, Fuller’s surely under tight deadlines and it just got lost in the hustle of a busy newsroom.

But then this happened.

A series of emails between the editors of the blog and the editors of the Sun produced two notable results: one, that PPP should “get over it” and two, that the blog plagiarized in the first place.

***

Let’s get two things straight. First, The Toronto Sun is not the Globe and Mail. They are not The New York Times. They’re not Reuters, the AP or even the Boston Herald. They’re owned by Sun Media Group, a publisher whose European papers are known for featuring topless women on Page 3.

Second, this is far from the worst thing that the mainstream media has done to independent sources. Keith Lavon of Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub notes that “radio gets ripped off all the time,” and he’s right. With the rise of Twitter, Facebook, UStream, podcasts and various other social media, access to the media has become simple and almost instantaneous, and the words of writers and journalists has become to the 2010s what open-source software was to the 2000s - easy to access, easy to manipulate and unable to be stopped.

But this is one of the first times it’s gone the other way, and Pension Plan Puppets’ claims are legitimate - unlike the claims of a disgruntled 98.5 caller who, Lavon said, believed himself to be ripped off by the Boston Globe because the Globe used the cliche, “nail in the coffin” to refer to the Red Sox’ season after he used it in his own blog.

Go ahead, shake your head in dismay. I’ll pause.

Good? Great.

The issue is an absolutely tantalizing story for bloggers on the whole, because there’s no middle man; when bloggers write about sports, their work is almost always a reaction to a scoop or a feature by a professional journalist, but this time, the spotlight isn’t on athletes, it’s on the media themselves. And the bloggers are the ones who get to do the interviewing.

Except that no members of the mainstream media are responding. Steve Simmons, Fuller’s colleague and lead columnist at the Sun, is deriding anyone attempting to engage him professionally on the matter; attempts by Something’s Bruin to contact members of the Bruins media have not been returned. In fact, the only media member who has spoken on the matter is Greg Wyshynski, editor of the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo! Sports.

Fortunately for anyone looking for a sound bite, Wyshynski’s been more than willing to share his thoughts. From calling out Simmons to discussing the reasons for citing another’s work (he intimates here that it’s less about professional responsibility and more about personal integrity) to simply putting the Sun in its place.

The conversation began with the Pension Plan Puppets asking for credit, calling the Sun out for plagiarizing and being unwilling to admit their fault. A simple apology, email acknowledging the error or update to the article citing the source would have been enough. But it has evolved into something bigger - the Sun’s stubborn refusal to fess up has left them looking ignorant, vulnerable and afraid of change, much like the LA Times looked 14 months ago when they refused to admit that they’d been scooped.

The reason that the coverage of MJ’s death is relevant is because TMZ covers events as they break, getting help from fans, writers or whoever happens to be in the right place at the right time. It’s the same thing that’s happening to the sports world - it’s getting too big for the major news outlets to handle on their own. Newspapers, especially, are cutting back their staff, relying more heavily on alternative media and sources and hoping they don’t get beaten to a story.

It’s easy for a local affiliate or a radio station to cover a game, give its pre- and post-game anaylsis and gather some sound bites. But so much of the game happens off the ice/field/court now that it’s getting harder and harder for them to keep up. The chances that somebody who has no connection to a network or paper of any kind might just find themselves in the right place at the right time are increasing each day. And what happens if they scoop a story?

Watch ESPN “break” a story after local outlets or somebody who just happened to be in the right place at the right time broke it on Twitter or their own site. Eight times out of ten, Bristol’s most decorated talking heads neglect to credit the source who first announced Big News Item X, Y and/or Z. And they’re the Worldwide Leader. It’s not even that they’re selfish or hungry for recognition, but that it’s getting increasingly hard to keep up with where news is coming from.

The plagiarism issue is important. It’s about integrity, honesty, honor and, in a day when the term “networking” is seen as regularly as Cheerios for breakfast, respecting your colleagues, even if they aren’t as well-paid as you. It’s the one that will get the most press - how the Sun was unwilling to credit their sources, how Fuller’s greedy, how Simmons might be related to a fuzzy green character that resides in trash cans on Sesame Street. But it’s the underlying issue here that’s the big one.

The decline of the newspaper was not an anomaly - journalism as we know it is fading, too. Our attention span has shrunk as a people (for an interesting take on that, check out ESPN’s Ryan Corazza’s initial blog post here) and we can’t be bothered with stories anymore. What Twitter created merely confirmed our unwillingness to comprehend entire paragraphs, much less essays when we could simply have headlines.

This is a sports story that doesn’t involve athletes. It may be an landmark, a turning point for future sports stories - it’s too soon yet to know that for sure. But it proves something else: in a world where we get our news delivered to us in real-time via countless different media channels, those delivering the news have become as popular as the athletes whom they write about. And as long as writers like Dave Fuller are allowed to play above the rules, traditional journalism will not be done in by the growth of social media, but by the growth of journalists’ ego instead.

****

For more information regarding the Toronto Sun - Pension Plan Pupppets fiasco, look here:

Broad Street Hockey, Pension Plan Puppets, Diagram of Fuller's transcriptions

Follow Chemmy from PPP on Twitter

Follow Puck Daddy Greg Wyshynski on Twitter

Anyone who denies that Milan Lucic is competitive hasn’t seen him on the ice over the past three seasons. Anyone who claims that the big left winger with the soft hands isn’t hungry hasn’t seen him play softball.

After sporting street clothes for extended periods of the 2009-10 regular season, Luch is healthy, rested and has his eyes on the prize. Something’s Bruin caught up with the Bruins’ winger at his Rock ‘n’ Jock Celebrity Softball Game recently, and he didn’t mix words when asked about his thoughts on the upcoming year.

“As players, we’re all happy with the way the team’s looking. We’re just reading to get things going,” said Lucic when asked what his thoughts were on the year ahead. “It feels like [last season] was so long ago.”

Lucic would definitely like to make last season a distant memory. He missed 32 regular season games with a broken finger and later, a high ankle sprain that never healed. In the abbreviated season, he registered 9-11 - 20, but returned more to form in the playoffs where he scored a 5-4 - 9, with all five goals coming against the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, including two goals in game seven of that series.

While fans adore his explosive bursts and passionate style of play, consistency has been something that Lucic has struggled to find. In 77 games in his rookie year, Lucic averaged about 12 minutes on-ice per game, putting up 8-19 - 27. In the two years since, he’s averaged about 14:30 TOI in playing fewer games (72 and 50), amassing 26 goals and 36 assists. His plus-minus was 17 in 2008-09 and was -7 last season, surely a reflection of the Bruins’ offensive woes during the 2009-10 campaign.

But if his performance in last year’s playoffs is to serve as a benchmark of his future success, the Bruins have a lot to be excited about in their hybrid left-wing/enforcer. Lucic really stepped into a leadership role in the Philadelphia series, and although it wasn’t enough to win the series, the front office and coaching staff were both very pleased with the charisma he showed, jumping into the zone, taking and making hits all with an ankle that still throbbed everytime he pushed off on it.

Lucic admitted at the charity game that his ankle never really healed until the offseason. He confessed to being very excited about the year ahead, excited both about the new talent on the team and the Bruins’ chances to make a deep, deep run into the playoffs. But he’s also keeping a perspective on the situation, focusing on taking it one day at a time.

He’s heard how good Seguin is, how promising Colborne, Caron and Knight are. He knows how well Rask, Boychuk and Wheeler can play. And he doesn’t doubt for a second the hunger of the likes of Chara, Bergeron, Recchi or Savard.

But how will it all come together?

Although everyone around him seems more than ready to go, Lucic believes that the year ahead is one in which the Bruins need him more than ever. After telling Something’s Bruin that he was ready for the pressure, he went out and proved it, tying the game twice in extra innings before bringing home the game-winning run on a long single.

In talking to Bruins fans over the course of the offseason, it’s definitely clear that there’s a change in attitude in the air. The fanbase isn’t dwelling too hard on last season’s failure; rather, they’re trending in the opposite direction, getting hyped about new draft picks and prospects. However, before you go out and buy that Joe Colborne jersey or try to figure out what number Jordan Caron will wear, here’s a few things to consider about the three guys most fans consider the players closest to making the big squad behind the one, the only Tyler Seguin.

Jordan Caron

Probably the most prepared prospect to make the adjustment to the professional game is Jordan Caron, a guy who hasn’t been spoken of much. He was overshadowed at prospect camp by Joe Colborne’s media accessibility and outstanding leadership, but this player will surprise people. Likely another reason he’s not talked about too much is the fact that last year, rather than making the jump to the AHL like Sauve, Colborne, and other players did when their seasons were over, he remained in the QMJHL playoffs past the point when Providence finished up their regular season run.

Caron has been billed as a prototypical power forward. He’s 6’2 and around 200 pounds, and isn’t afraid to throw his weight around. Although development camp is a controlled situation and should not be used to completely judge a player’s abilities, Caron consistently threw checks to get other players off the puck, and looked perfectly confortable doing it. And, he can score. Through three and a half seasons with the Rimouski Oceanic and half a season with the Rouyn-Norada Huskies of the QMJHL, Caron put up 100-103-203 totals through 204 regular season games. He lit it up in the playoffs last year, as well – 33 points in 33 games, several of which were played against fellow Bruins prospect Max Sauve’s club from Val d’Or.

As Joe Colborne said, the AHL and NHL are much more similar to a Juniors style of play than to college, and Caron has had four good years to ripen in “the Q.” Last year when he was drafted, the only problem scouts saw was in his skatinig ability; he’s a good two-way forward, has a good shot, and isn’t afraid to go to the net. Plus – solving yet another Bruins problem this year – he provides depth at wing, something the B’s do not have even down into the system in Providence. If he has a good training camp and starts the year off solidly in Providence, expect to see him make the quick trip up 95 before anyone else.

Joe Colborne

It seems like everyone these days is hyped for Colborne, as he got nearly as much media attention at development camp as Tyler Seguin. Granted, the kid is a good interview, he’s a great leader of his peers at the ripe old age of 20, and he’s comfortable in front of a microphone. But interviews do not make the player, and the spindly center has some things to work on.

To Colborne’s advantage, he can make the switch to wing quite easily, which hypothetically sets the stage for a callup - Boston’s depth at center means he’ll probably not be seeing ice time at that position in Boston for some time. Colborne has stated his willingness to “play goalie if that’s what Boston needs me to do,” and his enthusiasm is definitely commendable.

However. Colborne is a college player, and with the exception of outstanding players like Erik Johnson and Jonathan Toews, college prospects typically need time to adjust to the professional style of play. Colborne came to the P-Bruins to play six games at the end of his college season last year, effectively ending his college career; through those six games he notched only two assists. He looked lost on the ice at times - and although six games is a good start to making this transition to playing professionally, he needs more time to sharpen his game.

Realistically, Bruins fans can expect to see Joe Colborne in a Mark Stuart or Matt Hunwick rookie capacity this year. In 05-06, Stuart was the injury callup, appearing in 17 games for Boston and 60 for Providence. The following year he did the same, and in his third professional year, Stuart made the big club full-time. Hunwick had a slightly quicker transition, but the idea here is that Colborne will likely do the same. If he can develop his game, prove that he should be selected as a callup when injuries inevitably strike the big club, he’ll get his shot. Will he stick in his first call up? No. Expect to see Colborne make his first full-season Boston debut in 2011-2012 - definitely not this season.

Jared Knight

One prospect that many Bruins fans seem to be hot on is Jared Knight, the player selected with Toronto’s second round pick in the 2010 draft (Thanks, Phil Kessel!). But despite Boston’s desire to see everything that resulted from the Kessel trade produce immediate awesome, it’s not going to happen.

Even if Knight has a spectacular camp, he will not make the NHL this season. Is that an outlandish prediction to make? No. There are strict rules governing underaged (under 20 before December 31st of the current season) players, and Knight doesn’t even come close to making this cutoff - he’ll be 19 in January 2011. It’s likely that he’ll play two more years of Junior hockey, developing until the OHL isn’t an option anymore - the same way Caron, Sauve, and Krejci were developed. Milan Lucic took a similar path, but broke into the NHL a year earlier - drafted in 2006, played for the Vancouver Giants in 2006-2007, and made it past his ten-game tryout period on the Bruins to secure a full-time roster spot.

The problem with Knight is Seguin-related. Seguin is projected to be a fantastic NHL rookie, but he, as all rookies do, is eligible to be sent back to his OHL team as long as he appears in fewer than ten games for the Bruins. As soon as that tenth game is played, Seguin is stuck on the Bruins’ roster for the remainder of the season. He can’t be sent to Providence but for conditioning stints, the idea being that if he were to warrant development, he’d still be with his OHL club. That’s the point of those nine “freebie” games - the Bruins have a few weeks to decide whether or not he needs more time in Juniors, so Seguin can avoid being buried in the AHL.

Jared Knight is in the same situation, with considerably less talent than Seguin. If the Bruins are questioning taking Seguin on for his nine games, why would they ever take on someone with lesser skill, when that prospect could benefit far more from slow development in the OHL? All signs point to Knight taking the long road through London for at least the next season, so don’t mock up those Knight nameplates just yet, B’s fans. In years to come, Knight might be the next Recchi - he certainly isn't afraid to park his diminuative frame in front of the net for battling purposes  - and he isn't afraid to crash the net, much to the chagrin of Zane Gothberg at development camp. But don't rush him. Let him develop.

Bonus - the sleeper picks

“But what of Zach Hamill?” Bruins fans cried. Okay, maybe not, Hamill’s been buried in Providence since he was eligible to appear there and most Bruins fans have probably forgotten about him. He’s a poor two-way forward, and probably the most disappointing first-round draft pick for the Bruins in so many years. Although he was a solid first-line center last season, expect his first-line throne to be usurped by the combination of Caron, Colborne, and the guy under everyone’s radar - the diminuitive Max Sauve. Although injured at this year’s development camp - an injury he picked up in the QMJHL before scoring two goals in six games for Providence last year - he’s expected to center Caron and Colborne in Providence to start this season. Sauve had seven points in six games against Caron’s Huskies in the playoffs last year;  the majority of the points in that series came off our two prospects’ sticks. He’ll be hurt by Boston’s depth at center, but keep an eye on this scrappy Tours, France native in the coming years, for sure.

A brief pause from our build-up to Bruins training camp. And a premature thanks to anyone who obliges me long enough to read this entire post.

As many of our readers (especially those based in New England) are aware, the Jimmy Fund has once again partnered with the Boston Red Sox and today and tomorrow is the fund's annual telethon.

As fans, we all watch sports, we all attach very strong feelings to our favorite teams, knowing that, when the season is over, we'll all go back to living our own lives, regardless of whether or not that team wins a trophy/pennant/large silver chalice or finishes dead last in the league. That's one of the great things about sports; while they can take us away from our problems (and create new ones all at once), we know that there's an end to the road that we're on as fans.

We wake up in the morning. We go to school, knowing that soon it will be over and we'll graduate and start our real lives. We wake up in the morning and go to work. For years, for decades, knowing that soon it will all be over and we'll retire and start our real lives.

For some, life isn't so easy.

Cancer knows no regular season, no playoffs, no retirement. It is a bitch of a disease, one that takes lives of the perfectly healthy, the well-endowed, the unkempt, the brilliant, the strong, the poor, the hungry, the satiated and anyone else you can imagine. It doesn't care what anyone thinks, where anyone comes from, what lifestyle anyone lives. It just chooses its victims at will, and slowly, painfully cripples them, sucks the will to live out of them and leaves them. And we still don't know how to stop it.

Last Christmas Eve, my family lost a very good friend to her third battle with cancer. She was 50. Her only daughter was getting married this year. She had an awful lot of life left ahead of her, and it was taken away.

Before my senior year of high school started, one of my best friends lost her mother to her third battle with cancer. She was in her mid-40s. My friend was 18. Imagine walking across the stage at graduation, going to prom, getting into college and not having your mom there to share in the joy with you.

My junior year of high school, my grandmother lost what was, mercifully, a fairly brief battle with emphysema. She'd brought eleven kids into the world, and at that point had some 40 grandkids and a handful of great-grandkids. Those numbers, thankfully, are still rising. The circle of life, after all, is just.

George Karl, speaking at this year's ESPYs, noted that the government has avoided funding research for the disease because, as our friends and fellow bloggers at Surviving Grady point out, they're "too busy buying missiles and Mars probes to donate money to such worthy causes."

This isn't a ploy for pity. This, really, is nothing more than a series of statements of fact. I'm not trying to guilt anyone into giving their money to fight this terrible disease, because I don't feel like I have to. As humans, we should want to help our fellow humans. Just like Jimmy V said we should.

All I know is this: many of us will sit down to watch the Red Sox game tonight. We'll hear Don and Jerry talk about how great a cause the Jimmy Fund really is and why we should all donate tonight or tomorrow. But here's the thing: we shouldn't need them to tell us and we shouldn't restrict our generosity to two days.

Sure, a lot of us are struggling to hold down jobs and pay the mortgage and put money in our kids' college funds. Probably most of you reading this are wondering how the hell you'll ever finish paying off your student loans.

But if those are our biggest problems, and I sincerely hope that for each and every one of us, they are, we're not in nearly as rough shape as the people asking for your help tonight, tomorrow and every day of the year. If you have it in you, donate five bucks today. Have one less beer this weekend and call it even.

Because as Jimmy V said, "We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's life. It may save someone you love. And it's very important."