BOSTON — The Bruins are coming off the shortest offseason in their history after playing into the middle of June to chase down the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 39 years.
But the lack of time between seasons wasn't reflected in the results of their fitness tests as the Bruins veterans returned for the start of training camp on Friday.
"What I've heard from [strength and conditioning coach] John Whitesides [is that] everybody was pretty well in good shape," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "There's always areas where certain players are going to have to pick up a little bit, but as far as our veterans are concerned when you've only got a couple of months off, I don't think they had the time to get out of shape too much and for the most part I think our guys did a great job at taking some time off to rest and making sure they came back to camp in pretty good shape because they look good right now."
That includes goalie Tuukka Rask, who underwent minor knee surgery over the summer but has been cleared to participate fully in camp.
"Right now, he's ready to go," Julien said. "Whether he has a little bit of stiffness, which is a normal thing for anybody coming off surgery, we'll be able to tell more as we grind through camp here, but right now there's no limitations for Tuukka and we're going to go about as if he's 100 percent."
Forward Nathan Horton also appears fine for the start of camp. His postseason came to a premature end when he suffered a concussion on a late hit by Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome in Game 3 of the Cup Final. Horton had also suffered a separated shoulder earlier in the playoffs, but declared him himself fit with no post-concussion symptoms earlier this summer and Friday's testing didn't raise any new concerns.
"As we speak right now everything seems like it's a go," Julien said of Horton. "There have been no red flags yet, and we don't expect any."
The rest of the Bruins didn't get much time off after the long postseason and a hectic offseason filled with celebrations and public appearances, but there were no complaints about the abbreviated vacations as the players were eager to get back to work.
"It's time to close the book and open a new one," center David Krejci said. "That was the best summer I had in a long time, maybe in my life. I know it was short, but last year and the year before I had some injuries so I had to do some rehab and stuff. This summer was short, but it was pretty good."
Krejci was rehabbing from hip and wrist surgeries the past two years, so this summer was an easy one for him despite the heavy workload late into the spring. And his healthy offseason was reflected in his performance on the fitness tests.
"Personally, I did really well," Krejci said. "I was happy with the testing I did today. The last two seasons I wasn't able to do all the testing. This year I did really good and I'm happy about my offseason."
