Here are all the links from around the hockey world, and what I’m reading, while shaking my head that it’s already August and summer is just about O-V-A-H.
*What’s more meaningless than Jordan Caron’s stint with the Bruins, you might ask? How about a Montreal columnist pleading with the Habs fan base for a reasonable debate among the fandom? C’mon, buddy. Know the audience you’re playing to. These are the same fans that rioted and burned police cruisers after their No. 1 seed Canadiens beat the No. 8 seed Bruins in the first round of the playoffs in 2008. There’s no middle ground there. For better or worse (and it makes for a great, raucous atmosphere at the Bell Centre), Habs fans are lunatics and asking them to act differently is totally ridiculous.
*So are the Toronto Maple Leafs headed for a regression this season after making so much progress with last year’s group of young guns?
*Former Ottawa Senators and Nashville Predators center Mike Fisher will be remembered for very real and very admirable humanity as much as anything else as he retires from the NHL.
*The Pittsburgh Penguins are in the market for a third-line center, and it may be that they don’t fill it until midway through the regular season. I feel like the same scenario exists for the Bruins on the left side of their defense depending on how the regular season starts for them.
*PHT writer Joey Alfieri wonders if the Detroit Red Wings are in a spot where a full rebuild would serve them best after missing the playoffs last season.
*Anytime that Dick Pound decides to rip into the NHL for their decision to skip the Olympics, you’ve got to cede the floor to Mr. Pound.
Boston Bruins
*For something completely different: Apparently the notion that “a good ole boy is never meanin’ no harm” has changed over the years. I drove by this sign in Waltham a couple of weeks ago billing that Tom Wopat, of "Dukes of Hazard" fame, was going to be starring in a musical there, and wondered how that had even happened in the first place.