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Hockey Notes

Sounding the attack at camp

Bruins want a tad more aggression

CLAUDE JULIENSystem works CLAUDE JULIENSystem works
By Kevin Paul Dupont
September 13, 2009

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Hope abounds with the start of every NHL season, and unbridled enthusiasm will be evident today when the Bruins officially start training camp on Causeway Street. But as far as job openings go, much like the real world these days, there just isn’t much there for the taking.

“It’s going to be tough,’’ said Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli, who spent much of last week in Kitchener, Ontario, watching many of the franchise’s top rookies play in a four-team tournament. “We moved a player [Peter Schaefer] last year to allow Blake [Wheeler] to play - he was outstanding and he deserved it. But you are going to have to knock the socks off of us to [make the team].’’

All of which, short of a Stanley Cup, is the best measure of a franchise’s success. The Bruins rolled up 53 victories and 116 points last season, tops in the Eastern Conference, and even with 36-goal scorer Phil Kessel out of the mix (temporarily or permanently), coach Claude Julien has a roster that underwent minimal offseason makeover.

Tuukka Rask will supplant Manny Fernandez as the Vezina-winning Tim Thomas’s backup. Matt Hunwick, back in full working order after rupturing his spleen during the playoffs, is expected to move into full-time work as one of the Julien’s six defensemen, leaving Johnny Boychuk possibly to pick off the No. 7 spot. Vladimir Sobotka or Brad Marchand could win a spot aside fourth-liners Shawn Thornton and Steve Begin. Otherwise, despite being upended by Carolina in the second round of the playoffs, the emphasis is on status quo for the Black and Gold.

According to Chiarelli, the main points going into both camp and the season will be attitude and execution. One of the key changes during Julien’s first two years behind the bench was to consistently bring a defenseman into the offensive attack, along with emphasizing the need to make better decisions with the puck - both on the attack and while in transition - through the neutral zone. This year, the GM and coach hope an improved forecheck will aid in upgrading the attack across all three zones.

“We added the defenseman to the rush last year and I think it helped, opened up our game,’’ said Chiarelli, about to enter his fourth season as Causeway Street’s chief decision-maker. “With that defenseman joining the rush, No. 1, you’ve got four men [attacking] instead of three.

“Sure, there is a risk that you don’t have a defenseman back, but you score more goals. Now, I’m not saying that it is directly attributable [to increased scoring], but it was part of the mix. So what we talked about this year is the forecheck, being just a little bit more aggressive.’’

Begin, a Canadien during Julien’s tour as Montreal’s bench boss, will be counted on to help lead that up-tempo charge. He was hired over the summer as a free agent, ostensibly because veterans P.J. Axelsson and Stephane Yelle couldn’t add the desired bite to the front-end game. Byron Bitz, promoted from Providence later in the season, added great energy and proficient work along the wall, which should make him another prime candidate to add to the aggression game.

“Push the forecheck a little bit,’’ summed up Chiarelli. “But keep in mind, our bread and butter is from the back end out. Claude’s bread and butter in his coaching career has been defense first, so that’s what we are always going to stress. And when that’s in place, all the other stuff is easier to do.’’

In other words, figure Thomas in net for at least another 50 games, if not 60. Ink in Zdeno Chara, fresh from winning his first Norris Trophy, to log 25-30 minutes a night, depending on quality of opposition and numbers on the scoreboard. Big Z should have some of his workload eased by the arrival of free agent Derek Morris. Look for the forwards to be active and supporting their defensemen whenever play is in Boston’s zone.

The Bruins allowed the fewest goals (196) in the NHL last season, a drop of 93 from the squad Julien inherited from Dave Lewis, while scoring 274, second in the league only to the Red Wings. Even if Kessel is gone, it’s a game plan that still centers on back-end defense, and perhaps negates some of the lost Kessel goals by virtue of a ratcheted-up forecheck.

“We are in a different spot now,’’ said Chiarelli, his club no longer stigmatized as a loser but as one of the league’s solid, proficient performers. “We are going to be challenged more, so you have to think differently. That type of thing is going to take place in different things in practice. It’s going to take place in our attitude, in our day-to-day approach. So these guys know and think, ‘This is what we have to do.’ ’’

The first workout is 10 this morning at the Garden. Time to do it.

Show of support for Kelly

Paul Kelly, victim of an ugly railroad job by a segment of misdirected (read: easily misled) players who tossed him out of office as executive director of the Just Say No Players Association, has had little to say since his dismissal.

Word in Toronto, from HQ of the JSNPA, is that Kelly’s severance package has yet to be finalized. It’s a good bet that the longer they stall, the more it will gouge their wallets, given the growing amount of poor publicity the union is receiving throughout Canada and the United States.

In the days since the abrupt termination, which Boston defenseman Andrew Ference delivered to Kelly in the middle of the night at a Chicago hotel, respected voices such as Bobby Orr, Ted Lindsay, and Bill Guerin have supported Kelly and brought into question the PA’s methods, intentions, and sanity.

Orr to ESPN: “I don’t understand why they did it. I just hope they move on and don’t attack his character because he’s one of the most honorable men I know. His integrity cannot and should not be questioned. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.’’

Guerin to the National Post in Canada: “Paul has been done a huge injustice here. Maybe I am not educated enough on the situation, but I think there are people out there with ulterior motives that wanted Paul out. That’s what I was led to believe with my information.’’

Thursday night in Toronto, Gordie Howe and Lindsay coaxed Kelly into attending an NHL Players Alumni dinner in Toronto, where a banquet room full of retirees treated him to a protracted and boisterous standing ovation. These are guys with a memory, recalling that it was Kelly, in his days as a Boston-based prosecutor, who finally exposed the evil deeds perpetrated against the players by former PA boss Alan Eagleson, sending the Eagle off to the slammer.

All these years later, it seems the players have adopted Eagleson’s calculating and tyrannical approach, shooing Kelly off the watch without just cause.

Leave it to the PA. They had the right guy, and they Just Said No. Again.

Etc.

Vitale information
Ex-Northeastern center Joe Vitale reported to his first Penguins training camp, following a tuneup last week with the Pittsburgh freshmen in Kitchener, Ontario. Vitale, 24, left Northeastern last spring to turn pro with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL). “I got in 17 games, and when you think about it, that’s equal to about a half of a college season,’’ said Vitale, who grew up in Chicago, often competing against Boston prospect Jeff LoVecchio. “I got to meet the guys, got used to the style of play, and that really gives me some confidence going into camp. Just a great overall experience. I think I did the right thing, leaving school when I did.’’ Vitale still plans to complete the handful of courses that will bring him a journalism degree. “That’s important to me,’’ he said. “NU invested in me as a player and in getting my education. I want to finish.’’ Vitale was selected 195th in the 2005 draft, the one in which the Penguins took Sidney Crosby No. 1.

State of unrest?
Bruins season ticket-holders will report en masse to TD Garden Thursday night for the annual State of the Bruins ritual that will have club owner Jeremy Jacobs, son Charlie Jacobs, front office brass, coach Claude Julien, and players Milan Lucic and Derek Morris on hand. Based on fan unrest over Phil Kessel’s status expressed on Internet sites, especially boston.com, those who plan to attend may be asked to empty their pockets of tomatoes and eggs as they report for the 6:30 p.m. start. Fans love scoring, because it’s the most obvious of the game’s multiple, complex arts. Three years ago, prior to Zdeno Chara’s arrival, the Bruins couldn’t dream of letting Kessel go. But now, with a winning and defense-first game plan in place, it’s a club that can take the calculated risk of moving on without him. The hardest micro-decision in keeping Kessel is whether or not to deal away the 29-year-old Michael Ryder instead. Ryder makes $4 million, and something around $5 million would likely be enough to take care of the 21-year-old Kessel. But for now, Chiarelli & Co. seem intent on keeping Ryder over Kessel.

Short people
Desperate for scoring, Edmonton brought back prodigal son Mike Comrie, who bolted six years ago in a very public pay dispute with the Oilers. Hilary Duff’s best bud took a one-year deal at $1.25 million. Still too many short guys in the attack for Edmonton to be considered a player in the West. And big stud Dustin Penner, ex- of Maine, put the “put’’ in Lilliput.

Loose pucks
Of the 24 kids the Bruins brought to their rookie tournament last week in Ontario, 14 were 6 feet 2 inches or taller. Defenseman Scott Fletcher topped ’em all at 6-4. “Yeah, some big boys,’’ mused Chiarelli, “and that’s a trend that we will continue.’’ . . . One bewildered GM over the firing of Kelly by the NHLPA: “What a joke. The players deserve everything they get.’’ . . . Ex-Bruin Dave Scatchard, one of the failed pieces brought in to patchwork the Boston lineup out of the lockout, is in Vancouver’s camp on a tryout. The Canucks also have vets Ron Petrovicky and Keith Carney on invites. Total NHL games for the trio: 1,871 . . . No sighting of Mats Sundin in any NHL camp. No telling if he will retire or, like last year, reenter at midseason for a huge payday. However, with the cap increasing this season by only $100,000, to $56.8 million, few clubs will have the room to maneuver the way Vancouver did last season . . . Three good coaches still without work: Peter Laviolette, Dave Tippett, and Craig MacTavish.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.

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