Personnel dilemmas abound

The Bruins play their next-to-last exhibition game this afternoon, with the Islanders on Causeway Street at 4 o'clock, and coach Claude Julien will continue to sort through his line combinations and defense pairings as he prepares for Thursday's season opener in Denver.

Meanwhile, general manager Peter Chiarelli, with his salary space tighter than a capped eye tooth, continues to massage the financials, in part with the hope of finding room for promising new faces such as Blake Wheeler (W), Nate Thompson (C), and Matt Hunwick (D), all of whom skated during yesterday's late-morning workout at TD Banknorth Garden.

"We have a lot of interesting decisions to make," mused Chiarelli, front and center during the club's annual media day.

On Thursday, said Chiarelli, he and his fellow Black-and-Gold cognoscenti ruminated over how to proceed with the roster, especially in light of this season's salary-cap quirk. With the Players Association still uncertain about whether to terminate the collective bargaining agreement after this season, this season's salary cap of $56.7 million doesn't give an inch when clubs calculate the bonuses that many entry-level players and older veterans have.

For instance, if the Bruins opt to keep Wheeler, his salary has to be calculated as $2.85 million, the maximum he would make if he achieved all of his bonuses. In the end, it's possible he will make less than $1 million this season, but with the CBA effectively in limbo, he must be logged as a $2.85 million item. Prior to this season, clubs were allowed a 7.5 percent cap cushion in factoring potential bonuses, which this season would have allowed clubs to be over the cap by $4.253 million. That significant bit of wiggle room to $60.953 million has been eliminated, and it could prevent a fair number of young players from making the leap to the varsity in 2008-09.

Meanwhile, Chiarelli keeps rebooting the calculator, and continues to hash over the various roster possibilities with his top aides, Jim Benning, Don Sweeney, and Cam Neely.

"Yesterday, we went over 50 combinations, or [roster] permutations," said Chiarelli. "Wheeler's had a strong camp. He's a big body [6 feet 4 inches, 215 pounds] with skill, and he's played at or above our expectations."

But will the ex-University of Minnesota standout still be around Monday, following the preseason wrap-up tomorrow in Washington? That could depend on whether Chiarelli is able to deal a body or two in the next 24-48 hours.

Is there a taker out there for Peter Schaefer, the left winger who barely showed up on the 2007-08 radar until the playoffs? Probably not, given that he'll take in $4.6 million over the next two years.

It's a better bet that Chiarelli could move blue liner Andrew Alberts ($1.4 million) or versatile forward P.J. Axelsson ($1.85 million). However, unlike Alberts, Axelsson maintains a limited amount of veto power should Chiarelli opt to deal him.

Less than a week to go before the opening faceoff, and the decisions ain't easy.

Bills don't fit

Owner Jeremy Jacobs was in the house for media day. Now three decades plus at the helm of the spoked-B franchise, the 68-year-old Jacobs doesn't sound like a man who will be buying his hometown Buffalo Bills. In fact, said Jacobs, the NFL does not allow someone to own another team outside the league, and he is grateful for that stipulation.

"I kind of like owning the Bruins," said Jacobs, with executive son Charlie at his side during an afternoon press conference. "The simple answer is, the Bruins aren't for sale, and they aren't going to be sold."

On a follow-up question, Jacobs seemed to dismiss the possibility of his Delaware North Companies Inc., or one of his sons, buying the Bills from longtime owner Ralph Wilson.

"It's a hypothetical," said the elder Jacobs, sidestepping the answer. "But I like hockey." He later added, "I am in for the long haul [as the Bruins' owner], as you've seen."

Man-for-man coverage

The morning workout included the following lines:

Axelsson-Marc Savard-Michael Ryder; Marco Sturm-Patrice Bergeron-Phil Kessel; Schaefer-David Krejci-Shawn Thornton; Wheeler-Stephane Yelle-Chuck Kobasew; Milan Lucic-Vladimir Sobotka-Thompson. Petteri Nokelainen and Jeremy Reich traded spots on the line centered by Krejci.

Julien still has eight defensemen in camp: Shane Hnidy, Andrew Ference, Dennis Wideman, Hunwick, Alberts, Zdeno Chara, Aaron Ward, and Mark Stuart.

Julien will start the season the same as in 2007-08, with Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez as his goalies.

Rask disappointed

Chiarelli said Tuukka Rask, the club's goalie of the future, was disappointed to learn Thursday that his address for the near future will be Providence (AHL). The GM said he took time to explain to Rask that the 21-year-old remains a vital part of the team's overall building strategy. "I told him what we've got in mind for him," said Chiarelli. "But I think it went in one ear and out the other."