Delay of game for Stuart

Mark Stuart's summer vacation brought him to the Greater Causeway Street area late last month, but the trip from Minnesota didn't lead him to the Garden. Instead, the promising young defenseman landed in the Bruins' home away from home: Massachusetts General Hospital.

Bert Zarins, the club's longtime orthopedist, removed a piece of cartilage from Stuart's right knee after the 22-year-old back liner experienced pain and swelling during offseason workouts. The procedure was straightforward, and Stuart plans to return to the Hub of Hockey just before Labor Day. But the Bruins anticipate that he'll be slow to join training camp workouts and likely won't be ready for the start of the season in October.

According to new general manager Peter Chiarelli, the setback is part of the reason the Bruins signed free agent blue liner Nathan Dempsey, ex- of the Maple Leafs, Blackhawks, and Kings. Stuart played in only 17 games with Boston last season but projects as a regular in 2006-07, and now it looks as though the 32-year-old Dempsey will have to fill the roster spot while Stuart rehabs.

``The knee was fine during the season," said Stuart, reached at his family's home in Rochester, Minn. ``But when I started to train, toward the end of June, I began to get fluid building up in the knee. I talked to my dad about it, to see what he thought, and we got the MRI and all that. I guess it's just a wear-and-tear thing that needed to be fixed."

Mike Stuart, the defenseman's father, is also an orthopedic surgeon, which led to the quick diagnosis and the proactive plan to get the knee repaired. According to Mark, Zarins also ``did some extra work in there to get some scar tissue to form around where the cartilage was removed."

The extra bit of repair, explained Stuart, most likely extended his recovery period.

``It's going to take a while for all that scar tissue to grow, I guess," he said. ``I have to be careful. Dr. Zarins said he didn't want me putting any pressure on it for a while, and that's even kept me off the golf course. Sure, I could swing a club, but I'm afraid I'd be out there, forget about everything, and bend the knee -- and that could lead to some problems.

``We really don't know how long this will take, but Dr. Zarins thought it would be two or three months. So right now, it's take care of it the best I can and wish for the best."

Stuart, the 21st pick in the 2003 draft, should log ample minutes on a second or third defensive pairing when he's healthy. Once past Zdeno Chara, Paul Mara, and Brad Stuart, he factors in with a handful of other candidates, including Milan Jurcina, Andrew Alberts, Jason York, and Dempsey.

``Chara's obviously a big-time player," said Stuart, who was back home when the Bruins made their biggest splash of the summer, signing Chara to a five-year, $37.5 million pact -- the richest deal in club history. ``I know, just from reading everything, you can feel the excitement that he's brought to the town already.

``For me, it's going to be a big challenge to walk back in and earn a spot, but overall, it's great for the organization to plop a guy like him back there."

For now, all Stuart can do is continue his off-ice workouts, which include pedaling a stationary bike with one leg, lifting weights, and swimming. As the holiday weekend approaches, he'll jump in a car with his sister, Cristin -- a Boston College blue liner who is about to begin her junior year -- and make the drive to Boston.

``That gives me a couple of more weeks to do what I can here at home," he said. ``Get in some more workouts, build up my strength more, and find out what the trainers tell me when I get there."

Bruins throw back jersey

The Pooh bear is dead.

The Bruins' third sweater, honey gold with the smiley Pooh head centered on the chest, is officially being mothballed.

Beginning Oct. 26, when the Canadiens come to Causeway Street, the Bruins will sport vintage renditions of their spoked-B sweaters, styled after the ones Bobby Orr and his fellow Black-and-Gold swashbucklers wore in the late 1960s. Think: split neckline with string lace. (Bring back a bench-clearing donnybrook and the picture is a Picasso!)

According to Charlie Jacobs, the club's executive vice president, the Bruins intend to wear the black version of the vintage sweaters in all home games against Original Six opponents (Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, and the Rangers).

``No more third jerseys -- we're going vintage," said Jacobs.

Provided the league approves, the Bruins would like to wear the vintage sweaters in road games at Chicago and Detroit. The club also plans to wear the black vintage sweaters for the final regular-season home game vs. Ottawa April 7, as part of the annual Shirts Off Our Backs promotion.

Putting a premium on front-row seats

Hold on to your hats and wallets, front-row patrons, the cost of putting your nose against the glass at the Garden for a Bruins game is about to skyrocket.

The Bruins, getting in lockstep with much of the sports industry, will attach a high premium to the 190 front-row seats. Last year, season ticket-holders paid $90 -- the uniform price throughout the loge -- for Row 1. This year? Bruins vice president Charlie Jacobs said the final price was yet to be determined, but he confirmed that it would be a ``big boost."

``Every club I talked to, when I said we get $90, they just laughed," said Jacobs. ``It's a $350 seat [Canadian funds] in Toronto, and it's $450 [California funds] in LA.

``Now, we're not going near that, but we are going to raise them. I know that's not fun for our fans to hear, and I'll be candid, especially given the team we've had in recent years, we have to be cognizant of what we're doing with our prices."

Elsewhere in the building, ticket pricing in general will go up $2 per seat, with no increase at the low ($19) end. In the loge, seats along the ``straightaway" will be increased by $5, while the corner loges will jump by $2.

The front-row loge, where prices could crack $200, also will carry a different level of service, according to Jacobs. The attached benefits, he said, were still being sorted out.

Etc.

Harry Sinden's nudge out of the presidential suite was hardly a shocker, given how the product plummeted the last dozen years, and especially given the comments in March by Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, noting that key changes in club management would have to be made ``with" Sinden or ``around" him. ``Statistics tell me that men over 70 don't live as long as men over 40," Jacobs said then. ``He can tell time, like everyone." It was reported here in the days leading up to the hiring of Peter Chiarelli as general manager a few weeks later that Sinden would be eased into an emeritus role. ``That's not going to happen," Sinden said on the day of Chiarelli's news conference. ``I've got no interest in that." In fact, said Sinden, such a move would lead him to ``go behind the barn." But in the end, Sinden quietly and dutifully segued into a ``senior adviser" position for the final year of his contract. Jacobs also said here weeks ago that he hoped to keep Sinden on indefinitely as an adviser, and one former club employee (of which there are many) speculated last week that Jacobs would keep Sinden in that role for at least three more years. For now, and perhaps for some time, the Bruins are without a president. Dan Zimmer, brought aboard last week from Delaware North headquarters in Buffalo, will oversee nuts-and-bolts business operations, leaving Chiarelli to concentrate on restoring integrity to the hockey product.

Chiarelli and top personnel lieutenant Don Sweeney went to Fenway Park last Wednesday night, and their closing up shop early on Causeway Street all but assured they had a deal done with top draft pick Phil Kessel. By night's end, Kessel agreed to a three-year contract, prompting Chiarelli to make a congratulatory call to Kessel's home in Madison, Wis. ``But he was sleepy," Chiarelli said, ``because he'd just had his wisdom teeth pulled." Chiarelli also added that his newest recruit is a Yankees fan, and noted that Kessel would have to be converted. ``Sorry, Phil, the cat's out of the bag," said Chiarelli. ``Yeah," said Kessel, ``wonderful."

Headed into the weekend, former Bruins Jason Allison and Anson Carter were without new homes for the 2006-07 season. Allison notched nearly a point per game (66 games/60 points) with Toronto last year before exiting for the final 12 games with a broken hand. Carter scored a career-high 33 goals with the Canucks. What gives? Allison is slow, but he showed he can still post numbers. If he wants to play for relatively short money ($1 million-plus), he'll find takers, even at this late date. One potential suitor opened up Friday when Carolina announced that playoff standout Cory Stillman would be sidelined up to four months by shoulder surgery. Carter, who is faster than Allison but not nearly the point-getter, was rumored earlier this summer to be headed to Toronto. He is reportedly looking for $3 million a year on a three- or four-year deal. With many clubs already creeping toward the cap limit ($44 million), Dancin' Anson will have to dial back his expectations to something more like two years at $2 million per.

Another ex-Bruin, Brian Leetch, remains out of work, the new Boston regime having no interest in helping him fulfill his wish to retire as a Bruin. The Oilers, however, could be interested in the former Rangers star. The Cup finalists last week saw defenseman Dick Tarnstrom hook on with Lugano (Switzerland), only a couple of days after Rem Murray signed up for a year with Helsinki (IFK). The Helsinki coach is Bob Francis, once on track to be Boston's bench boss. Francis, who went on to be Coach of the Year in Phoenix, agreed in April to a two-year deal with Helsinki.

Reminiscent of the Stastny brothers bolting Czechoslovakia to join the Nordiques a quarter-century ago, Evgeni Malkin tiptoed away from his Russian squad last weekend during a training camp stay in Finland. After holing up there a while with J.P. Barry, Joe Thornton's agent, the sure-shot superstar bolted to the United States and late last week resurfaced in Los Angeles, practicing with NHLers. ``The Americans' arrogance is beyond bounds," Gennady Velichkin, head of Malkin's Russian team, told Soviet Sport. ``This is the theft of the century. They don't care that Malkin is Russia's national treasure." Meanwhile, it could be a long road for Malkin to get to Pittsburgh, the club that drafted him second overall in 2004. Had Russia signed off earlier this year on the transfer agreement that the NHL forged with the IIHF, the whole issue could have been avoided. Now that he's here, Malkin will want to sign and play for the Penguins, but the NHL, if it were to allow him entry, risks further alienating the Russians.

Owen Nolan and the Leafs each promised not to divulge what he'll be paid to settle the claim he had against the team. He was on the books for $5.6 million last season, but the Leafs refused to pay, contending his knee injury was not work-related. Now he's gone, for good, and the Coyotes were quick to pick him up for $1.25 million.

Faithful equipment manager Peter Henderson, a.k.a. ``Hendu," was among the recent casualties in the Bruins' vast makeover. The new hire is Mark Dumas, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins' AHL affiliate.

Kevin Paul Dupont's e-mail address is dupont@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.