Morning Skate: Missed opportunity

Folks, as training camps approach, there’s all kinds of stuff happening across the NHL.

Mike Hoffman’s PTO. Tampa dumping more salary by trading Braydon Coburn and Cedric Paquette. Henrik Lundqvist announcing that he needs open heart surgery.

But perhaps no move feels more like a missed opportunity than Corey Perry signing with the Montreal Canadiens.

No, not because the Bruins should have signed him, but because Perry is a uniquely dislikable (is that a word?) player who could have injected new life into the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry.

Just imagine the Bruins playing a Perry Canadiens team eight times this season, with back-to-backs included? It would have been beautiful chaos!

Alas, we’re stuck with Buffalo and the Islanders. The worst.

The new division alignment is hard to get used to, as when I saw the Perry news, my first thought was “well those Montreal games should be more fun.”

It’s going to be a weird season with no Bruins-Canadiens match-ups, and even weirder to think that if the Bruins DO play Montreal this season it’ll be in the Eastern Conference Final.

Weird, wild times.

Today’s highlight

Nice guy, that Corey Perry.

Today’s discussion topic

Are you going to miss Montreal and Toronto, or are you glad to see them elsewhere?