Captain's Practice and Rookie Camp Begins

The past two days Chara has held a captain's practice for anyone who wants to start skating around with the team.  If these are anything like my high school soccer captain's practice, these will make or break these players.  Just kidding.  It's probably a nice way to ease back into the routine, get reacquainted with teammates, and get settled in before training camp starts.  Whens that you ask?  ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!

Rookie Camp officially started today, with 22 of the Bruin's prospects (most noticeably our 1st round pick Dougie Hamilton) taking the ice today.  They will practice for the next few days and then have two rookie games against the Islanders on the 12th  and 13th (on the Island).  The Islanders have sucked the past few years, so you'd think they would have some good young talent in their organization.  The games last year were a lot of fun because you got to see who potentially could make an impact for the B's in the near future.  Seguin was the main attraction last year, who's going to stand out this year?  On the 16th, the big boys come to town for their physicals and training camp officially begins!

Normally there isn't too much to talk about when it comes to captain's practices, but there are three very noteworthy items to mention:

1.) Brad Marchand, even without a contract, is skating with the team.  That is an awesome sign.  He clearly wants to be with the Bruins and he's taking the right approach throughout these negotiations.  Maybe he just has a few bar tabs he needs to pay off...  Or buy a few shirts, he may have lost some earlier in the summer...  Who knows.

2.) Nathan Horton skated with the team today.  A few weeks ago he said he didn't have any post concussion symptoms and would be ready for camp, and this just reassures that.  What would we do without that smile?!

3.) Check out the sweet statue that is outside their practice arena!