The talented young forward was kept out of the lineup Tuesday in Wednesday after sleeping through the team breakfast and a team meeting that morning.
Seguin was back on the ice with the rest of his teammates Thursday for the club’s morning skate as the Bruins prepared to play Florida at the Garden, and coach Claude Julien insisted that all parties have moved on from the situation.
“All I know is this is old news,” Julien said. “This is two days old and for us, we’ve really turned the page on that. It’s not even an issue today and old news is old news. We’ve moved on, so I don’t even know that I want to go back to that. He’s fine and I’m fine. He’s in the lineup tonight, he’s going to be playing and I think unfortunately, you guys are trying to make a bigger story out of this than it is. He’s missed a game, he’s paid his dues. It’s a 19-year-old that is fine with us, he’s a good professional, and that’s it. Page turned and we move on.”
Seguin wasn’t allowed to say much on the topic after the skate.
“I talked about it the other day,” Seguin said, referring to the postgame availability in Winnipeg. “I’ve already kind of moved on and will be ready for tonight’s game.”
After that, Bruins media relations shut down all questions about the incident.
Seguin’s teammates were looking to put the incident behind them as well.
“It’s a mistake, it’s done, it’s over,” Bruins forward Shawn Thornton said. “We’ve got a game to worry about.”
Thornton admitted that he had had his own tardiness issues when he was a young pro starting out with St. John’s of the American Hockey League.
“I missed a plane once,” Thornton said. “Try getting a flight to Kentucky from St. John’s when you’ve missed the first flight out of town. Thank God I knew some people at Air Canada back then.
“We used to have stretch for 45 minutes before pregame skates back then and I think my first year there I missed the stretch one time,” Thornton added. “I made it to the ice on time, but it was the same thing. My alarm didn’t go off. I had to sit out two games, but I was barely in the lineup as it was. We’ve all been through it. It’s a learning thing. People forget he’s 19.”
Seguin’s age doesn’t exempt him from following team rules, but the rest of the Bruins seem willing to move on from the incident now that he’s served his punishment by sitting out a game.
“I don’t think anybody in here has really talked about it,” Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. “I haven’t talked to him about it. It’s just something he has to deal with and I’m sure he’ll be fine. He knows why he got sat out and I’m sure it’s not going to happen again.”
Unlike Thornton, Seidenberg couldn’t relate to Seguin’s oversleeping quite so easily.
“I don’t think I ever missed a meeting,” Seidenberg said. “But it’s just something that happens. It’s no big deal.”
Seidenberg wasn’t in the NHL when he was a teenager, making his debut with Philadelphia when he was 21. But even when he was playing in his native Germany as a youngster, Seidenberg never ran into such a problem.
“Even in Germany, I don’t think I missed a meeting,” Seidenberg said.
Nathan Horton offered a similar tale of punctuality when asked if he had ever missed a meeting.
“I haven’t,” Horton said. “I’m too afraid to miss them, so I show up real early. Things do happen, and you just can’t let it happen I guess.”
Or Seguin’s case, the Bruins are just counting on him not letting it happen again.
