VANCOUVER — Whenever the stage gets as big as it does with a championship on the line, there are adjustments players must make to their routine.
The 2011 Stanley Cup Final is no different, with the start of the series out west in Vancouver forcing an unusual start time for Games 1 and 2. While the games will be televised in primetime with an 8 p.m. start back in Boston, the puck drop will come at just after 5 p.m. locally, a bit of a departure from the usual faceoff time.
"The routine is a little changed, but that's fine," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said at the team hotel in Vancouver as the Bruins prepared for Game 1 on Wednesday. "It's kind of the same thing as a 4 o'clock game that we had late in the regular season. You just have to find a way to be ready for the game."
The adjustments for the players included the Bruins opting to skip their usual game-day morning skate, as well as some changes to their sleep and meal schedule.
"Whatever your body tells you, if it gets up, it gets up," defenseman Andrew Ference said. "We get two meals in, so 5 o'clock is actually not a bad start time. It's those 3 o'clocks that get you when you have to start guessing whether you should eat two meals or one meal. But 5 o'clock is alright. It's no big deal."
Bruins coach Claude Julien also downplayed the changes necessary to be ready for the early start to the game.
"I don't think it's much different than afternoon games we played throughout the season, so it really doesn't change much for us," Julien said. "It's basically an 8 o'clock game if we're in our time zone. But we've been used to these afternoon games. We've played them all year long. So I don't think it's going to be an issue at all."
