BOSTON — The Bruins’ 2019-20 season begins Thursday night, but the reigning Eastern Conference champs will have to wait some time before they take the ice in front of their hometown fans.
Boston will open its slate with a four-game, eight-day West Coast road trip, with a matchup against the Dallas Stars first on the docket. While some might view a long trip away from home as a rough way to start a campaign, the B’s are looking forward to making the most of the opportunity.
“It’s great,” Brandon Carlo said Tuesday at Bruins media day. “Obviously with being in the NHL, it was a transition for me from junior because when you’re with the junior guys nobody has families and whatnot at home and those kind of responsibilities. That opportunity on the road to be able to go out and have a beer with guys at dinner and just sit and talk and bond in different ways, especially with the couple new faces that we have. I think it’s a great way to start the year. I’m really excited to get on the road. I’m off my entry-level (contract), so I get my own room now. So that will be nice, too, but it will be a great opportunity to go to dinner with guys and hang out.”
Fellow blueliner Charlie McAvoy echoed Carlo’s sentiments.
“Getting out on the road is always fun. I know for tomorrow (Wednesday), we have a team dinner in Dallas. Team dinners are always fun, just to get out of the hotel and do something all together. I’m sure we’ll find some time to have some fun. Just being out there, being together. There’s new guys who are going to be with the team. Just getting that camaraderie and obviously the culture we have is pretty well-established and you just bring everybody along and up to speed. This is a great opportunity to do that.”
Luckily for the B’s, they won’t have to go to great lengths to establish chemistry. Following a fairly quiet offseason, Boston will embark on the new campaign with largely the same group from a season ago. This theoretically should allow the Black and Gold to get off to a hot start, which certainly would not bode well for the rest of the league.
