After some much-needed time off for the NHL All-Star break, it would be fair to assume the Boston Bruins would be a little sluggish returning to practice Thursday afternoon.
But that wasn't the case.
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery liked what he saw from the B's at Warrior Ice Arena after a week off, but there were no signs of rust or fatigue.
"Surprisingly really good," Montgomery told reporters Thursday of how his team looked. "I expected it to be sloppy and, man, they were passing the puck and kept themselves in really good shape, it looked like, because that was not an easy practice. It was very brisk getting up and down the ice and we didn't see people huffing and puffing. They were scoring a lot of goals, which was good."
Having a 39-7-5 record probably helped keep the morale high, and coupled with some rest and relaxation, the energy in the building was noticeable.
"You can tell the energy here (Thursday). The break was good for everybody," Montgomery told reporters. "You could tell everyone was excited and just the pace and the purpose of what we were doing out there, and for me to be back around with our group, looking at what's ahead, we know it's going to get harder here in the regular season and then, obviously, in the playoffs it gets even harder and we're getting ready for that."
The Bruins do have a tough schedule ahead of them and still are working their way back to being 100% healthy. Jake DeBrusk, who's dealing with a hand and lower-body injury, was in line to return Saturday afternoon but he's not quite ready for game action just yet, while Tomas Nosek still is about a week away from being reevaluated for a non-displaced fracture in his foot.
We'll see if that energy will carry over into Saturday when the Bruins welcome the Washington Capitals to TD Garden for a 3:30 p.m. ET puck drop.
