But there is one area of concern as the Bruins prepare for a new season, and that's the dreaded "Stanley Cup hangover." Is it real? And should the Bruins be worried about its effects?
There's no doubt the grueling chase for the Cup takes a lot out of a team. The Bruins played an extra 25 games this spring, each at ever-increasing intensity as they battled their way through four playoff series, three of which went the full seven games.
That takes quite a toll on your body, and after playing to the middle of June, the Bruins will have a lot less time than usual to recover from those bumps and bruises. And there were plenty of injuries suffered that went well beyond the bump-and-bruise level that the Bruins played through. Some required offseason surgeries, others just need extended rest, but Boston has precious little time for either this summer.
"As to a Stanley Cup hangover, each team experiences it in a different way," Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said. "But I can say that the summer is considerably shorter. And in my exit interviews with our players, I told them keep your eye on the calendar. This isn't a typical summer. So there's that side to it. We're prepared to face a challenge from the quote-unquote hangover perspective to start the year. And we certainly want to deal with it in our preparation of the players and kind of our themes going into training camp."
Recent Cup champs have experienced far different effects from their abbreviated offseasons. Last year, Chicago limped out of the gates with a 1-2-1 start and was still under .500 on Nov. 13 at 8-9-2. The Blackhawks eventually backed into the eighth and final playoff spot in the West despite losing their final game, then fell to the Canucks in the opening round. But were the Blackhawks' struggles caused by their short offseason or the result of cap purge that forced them to jettison half of their championship roster?
The Penguins certainly had no problem getting out of the gate as defending champs in 2009, rolling to a 9-1-0 start. Detroit was almost as good the previous year at 7-1-2 through 10 games. The Ducks had more trouble staying afloat in 2007, with Anaheim just 4-8-1 at the end of October, and Carolina never overcame an 0-3-1 start, missing the playoffs completely in 2006-07 after winning the first Cup following the owners' lockout.
Clearly, there are ways to avoid the ravages of the Cup hangover, but it is a danger that can't be ignored. Complicating the issue for the Bruins is that with Mark Recchi's retirement, Shawn Thornton is the only Bruin who has experienced preparing for a new season after a championship run before. And he didn't even stay in Anaheim for its title defense, as he signed with Boston that summer.
Hockey players are creatures of habit, by and large a superstitious lot that places much faith in the value of their rituals and routines. Those offseason routines have been altered this year, and the Bruins will have to ramp up their workouts quickly and come up with a schedule to be ready both physically and mentally after a summer truncated by their long playoff run and ensuing celebrations.
"To me the biggest thing right now is managing what is going to go on between now and the start of training camp," Bruins coach Claude Julien said at the club's breakup day. "There is not much time and I think the guys really need to have a mental break, a physical break. And when we do come back we have to be ready to go.
"We know the importance of at the start of a season, making sure you're in playoff position," Julien added. "So we really have to work on that part of it. We have a couple of months to think about how we want to approach that, but I think that's going to be a really important part of next year."
The Bruins did catch a break from the schedule makers. They have just 10 games in October, their lightest month of the year. And seven of them are at home, so they'll face minimal travel early in the season coming off their short summer. Still, they'll have to deal with the fact that as the reigning champs, every opponent will be especially pumped up for games against Boston for the chance to measure themselves against the Cup winners.
Of course, it could be worse. The Bruins could be the Canucks. Vancouver played just as many postseason games and has just as short an offseason to prepare for the upcoming campaign, and the Canucks didn't even get to celebrate anything.
NESN.com Bruins beat writer Douglas Flynn will be answering one question facing the Bruins this offseason each day until Aug. 8.
