Back In Black and Gold
The NHL lockout has finally ended and we, the hockey depraved people, can finally talk hockey again. The Bruins have no glaring needs and there have been no shining moves made this off season. The only open slot in the lines is on the third line where Carons slot is open due to his injury. Ryan Bourque, Lane Macdermid, and Jamie Tardiff are fighting for the slot and as of now Bourque has the edge. Another gap is on defense with tough guy Adam McQuaid out till mid February. Matt Bartkowski could end up filling in for McQuaid. Another new defensive slot was opened after Corvo left. It's expected that Dougie Hamilton will win the job and usher in the new Dougie Hamilton era on defense. In 32 games in the Juniors Dougie has 41 points with 33 assists and 8 goals. There is also a few question marks on the team this year. The most obvious is Tuukka Rask. Rask will be given a full year to prove he deserves to be the Bruins starter for years to come. The other big question mark can be packaged into one question; how will Lucic and Horton perform this year? Lucic has done nothing this year and reports say he's out of shape. Can he get back to his tough and aggressive ways while putting up a few goals? Or will he be forever caught between a scoring winger and a tough winger? Now onto Nathan Horton. Horton is finally coming back from his concussion and has been and will be the key of the Bruins offensive success. A line of krejci, Seguin and Horton could go up against any first line in the NHL. All these questions will be answered January 19th and further into the season. All in all it's about time hockey is back.