WILMINGTON, Mass. — The Bruins wrapped up their fifth annual development camp Monday afternoon at Ristuccia Arena, and the club's management team was once again pleased with what it witnessed from the two dozen prospects on hand.
"I liked what I saw," Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said after the final scrimmage Monday afternoon. "Each day they got better, they were pretty sloppy to start, but they hadn't played in a bit."
The prospects shook off any rustiness quickly, which was important for them. Although Chiarelli and assistant general manager Don Sweeney, who ran the camp with help from Providence coach Bruce Cassidy and power skating instructor Besa Tsintsadze among others, continually stressed this camp wasn't about trying to win spots on the roster, there was still plenty of evaluating going on.
"Any time you watch them, you're always assessing them," Chiarelli said. "What I told them to start the camp was, pay attention to every little detail in this camp, on the ice, off the ice, and treat it as if, not that you're trying out, but treat it with the utmost care and attention and determination. We want to instill at an early age the work ethic, the level of expectation that they're going to be facing from us. At the end of the day, it's a development tool and it indoctrinates the new players into the organization, and that's what we hope to accomplish."
Boston head coach Claude Julien was also on hand for the final couple days of the camp to get a look at some of his future charges, and he too stressed the goal of the camp being more about teaching the prospects what they need to do to become a Bruin rather than a tryout to actually become one.
"I think for a lot of those guys, it's almost like an initiation of how we do things around here, what's expected of them," Julien said. "I think it's a great thing for them to learn at a young age, so that when they do come to training camp it's not a first-time experience. It's not a shock. They're less nervous, and when they're less nervous it helps them perform even better."
There were some mixed reactions from the Bruins brain trust on whether any of this year's campers would be ready to perform well enough to challenge for a spot on the big club at the main training camp in September, when they'll be competing not only against established NHLers, but also older and more seasoned minor leaguers.
"I don't want to kill any dreams that these kids have, but we have a whole other strata of players like the [Jamie] Arniels, the [Jordan] Carons, the [Matt] Bartkowskis," Chiarelli said. "I mean we have a whole level [of prospects] that are really close [to reaching the NHL]. But usually every year there's one or two. Like last year, [Ryan] Spooner stayed 'til the very end. Now was it realistic that he was going to make it? Probably not, but he played so well that at least we talked about it. So in that sense there probably will be someone that is there and wows you, and you have to talk about it and think about it."
Sweeney was a little more optimistic about the chances for at least a few of this year's campers to make an immediate impact, particularly prospects like Spooner and Jared Knight, participating in their second camps.
"Ryan Spooner is a great example, he went through all of training camp last year and pushed it," Sweeney said. "And then it was decided for him to go back, physically it probably would have been a stretch for him. But he's stronger. There's no reason why those guys shouldn't be encouraged. I mean we've had guys emerge out of our camp the first year and play. And you know, Peter's been very consistent that if a young man is ready to play and help his hockey club and help Claude in the areas that we want and we've identified, then we make room.
"Each of those two guys have things that we're excited about," Sweeney added of Spooner and Knight. "They don't have the experience yet playing, so they'll go through camps, play some exhibition games and see how they continue to react, but there's no reason why each and every one of those guys shouldn't be coming here and saying I don't have to go back to junior."
The campers did their best to leave a good final impression with a spirited scrimmage to close out camp on Monday. For the second straight day, the Black squad prevailed 3-1 and the line of Spooner, Brian Ferlin and Justin Florek was particularly impressive.
That unit produced the only goal of the first segment of 5-on-5 play, with Ferlin scoring from the left circle. Defenseman Rob O'Gara went top shelf for a goal during the power-play drills and Spooner scored on a sweet backhand move in front, while Brett Olson scored late to avoid the shutout for the White team.
The scrimmage also featured plenty of physical play, with 2011 third-round pick Anthony Camara in the middle of most of it. He laid a hit on Ferlin early, but Sweeney took the worst of it as they clipped him along the boards. Camara later lined up Alexander Fallstrom for a big hit, but missed the mark and slammed himself into the stanchion between the benches.
"It didn't surprise me that it was him because he likes to hit," Chiarelli said. "He's got a sturdy body. I think under normal game circumstances, I think you might have seen his gloves off his hands at some point because that's the way he plays. But I like what I saw in him. Again, he's a robust player, he can make a play too and he skates well. So I wasn't surprised."
