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  • Roster shaping ahead for Bruins as World Cup players return

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    Roster shaping ahead for Bruins as World Cup players return

    Tim Rosenthal October 1, 2016
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    BRIGHTON — The pomp and circumstance of Warrior Ice Arena is still a topic of discussion. Even as the rave reviews of the new rink continue throughout Bruins training camp, there were a few notable vacancies during the first week of the preseason.

    Slowly, but surely, those vacancies are being occupied.

    After Team Canada swept Team Europe in the World Cup of Final — behind Brad Marchand’s heroics — the state of the art locker room at Warrior Ice Arena will soon have a full house. Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara are expected to arrive within the next few days. Claude Julien was the first to return from his duties as Canada’s assistant coach.

    A week ago, the Tuukka Rask (Finland), David Pastrnak (Czech Republic) and David Backes (USA) all arrived at their new training facility following their eliminations in pool play.

    Much like the crew that returned a week ago, Chara, Bergeron, Marchand and Christian Ehrhoff, who will arrive this week on a PTO, will take a few days off before joining their Bruins teammates.

    “First they need some rest because they won’t be here until Monday morning, so they’ll probably get some days off as well,” Julien said about the World Cup returnees. “They didn’t feel comfortable about taking too many days off straight. They don’t want to lose that edge, so they have an opportunity to rest, and get on the ice sooner rather than later and then rest again. That’s probably the best approach for our group and I think that’s what we’re going to end up doing in the coming week.”

    Two of the prior World Cup arrivals, Pastrnak and Backes, will make their preseason debut against the Flyers on Saturday.

    For some, Saturday could mark their last game with the Bruins this preseason. The first round of cuts will likely come once the final buzzer sounds in Philadelphia.

    “I think we got to start cutting down numbers probably after tonight,” Julien stated after Saturday’s practice. “A lot of it depnds on the showing of certain players on the last game night, which is tonight, but I think we got to bring our numbers down.”

    As tough as some decisions will be, Julien is happy to return to business following the two-week tournament up north.

    “I’m excited to get going again,” Julien said.

    “While I was there [at the World Cup] I was excited to be a part of it and it was a great tournament [but] at the same time this is my jobe here. I was excited about getting back. We had the opportunity there — the players and the coaches — to play some playoff hockey for a whole month, in the month of September. So when you come here, I know we’ve been in the playoffs and [in the past] when the playoffs were over the adrennaline was still there, but there was nothing to do. So here I have the opportunity to take that adrennaline and bring it here and hopefully we get this thing going in the right direction.”

    “This is a business. It’s a business that runs on success, and you have to do what’s right for the team, and the players have to do what’s right for them.”

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    Tim Rosenthal

    Tim Rosenthal serves as the Managing Editor of Bruins Daily. He started contributing videos to the site in 2010 before fully coming on board during the Bruins' Stanley Cup run in 2011. His bylines over the last decade have been featured on Boston.com, FoxSports.com, College Hockey News, Patch and Inside Hockey. You can follow Tim on Twitter @_TimRosenthal.

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