Morning Skate: Winter press

My friends, it is Tuesday.

I didn’t even realize that Monday was the first day of winter, so my apologies for not wishing you a Happy Winter. Please forgive me.

Yesterday’s bits of Bruins-related news came mostly from Cam Neely, who held a virtual press conference on Monday afternoon.

Neely touched on a variety of topics.

On Zdeno Chara:

We still have to flush that out...I think [Chara] was waiting to see what the schedule looked like, how it may impact his decision, so we’re still flushing that out. We certainly respect Zdeno and everything he’s done for the organization and what he’s accomplished as a player and what he’s done both on and off the ice here in Boston...it’s really just a matter of what his desire is and how the coaching staff and we feel what our lineup should look like or could look like depending on the development of some of these young guys.

I think he means “flesh that out,” not “flush,” but...yeah. Or at least I hope that’s what he means.

On whether or not any players have started working out on their own:

We’ve had some players that have been in town that had been on the ice obviously following the protocols that we did similar to last restart. More and more players are starting to trickle in. Everybody wants to get in town, make sure that they follow the proper quarantine issues and guidelines and get on the ice when camp is supposed to start.

Hockey’s getting closer, folks! Expect to see guys start to show up shortly after Christmas, then the real fun begins.

Today’s highlight

Looking forward to more of this from Charlie McAvoy this season.

Today’s discussion topic

A Christmas Story is on while I put this post together. What’s the best gift (Christmas or otherwise) you ever received?