| 03 October 2011
For Yannick Riendeau, it has been a productive preseason so far, between Bruins camp and P-Bruins preseason. The 22 year old forward came into camp this year in better shape than he has been in for the past three years. Riendeau spent the week training in Providence after being sent down from Boston, participated in the AHL club's training camp, and even tallied a goal in the P-Bruins' 4-0 preseason victory over Springfield on Saturday.
Riendeau Participated in Bruins training camp in September.
The former President's Cup winner attributed his good start to working on his conditioning in the offseason.
"The last two years I [came into camp] with bad conditioning. I also didn't have surgery this year, the last two years I had [offseason] surgery (wrist and shoulder), so i think that's going to help me a lot. With my personal training I did a lot of conditioning work, a lot of cardio, weights, all the things that'll help me be a better player."
After a slow start last year, Riendeau was assigned to Reading, where he spent the majority of the season. He had 23 goals and 28 assists for 51 points in 62 games with the ECHL club, and scored on a point-per-game pace in two rounds of playoffs. Riendeau is hoping that his character-building experience in the AA league will help him boost his compete level this year.
"It was tough to go to the [ECHL], I went there a little bit two years ago too. It helped me with my character, it's never easy to go down, to get sent down, so I think I learned a lot from this past year and now this year I'm ready to go," Riendeau noted.
The native of Brossard, Quebec is no stranger to winning, and that hunger for a championship might make for a volatile piece on an AHL team looking for their first playoff appearance in three years. Riendeau played under Tampa Bay Lightning coach Guy Boucher during his time in Drummondville of the QMJHL, a team that won the QMJHL league title in 2008-2009 and made a solid Memorial Cup run, eventually losing to the champion Windsor Spitfires. To get to that place, Riendeau's Voltigeurs had to go through Rimouski, who featured future Bruins prospect Jordan Caron.
"We're good friends," Riendeau said of Caron. "It was a good experience. That last game [of the Memorial Cup], even though we lost in OT, it was a great game, a lot of intensity. I'll always remember it."
Riendeau took note of how his former coach fared in playoffs this year as well.
"I think [Boucher] did pretty well, he's a good coach...he knows what he's doing.He's really good behind the bench, as soon as you make a mistake he's behind us. He was good with little details, a big point of his game was to tell us, when we made mistakes, to come right away and help us with that."
The Bruins have been waiting for Riendeau to get himself into good enough shape to make the AHL club full time, and this could be his best shot. If the right winger can find his groove - he did, after all, score 87 goals and 91 assists for 178 points through 83 games in his overage year with Drummondville - Riendeau could factor in nicely to the scoring mix in Providence this year.
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