September arrived a little late in this corner of the internet, but the NHL calendar is finally starting to wake up with it. The month brings the familiar shift into hockey mode for a lot of people - kids heading back to school, routines changing, and the league’s quiet stretch giving way to real activity.
For the Bruins, the clock is already ticking toward Opening Night on September 29. That leaves just over three weeks before the season begins, and plenty has to happen before then.
Rookie Camp gets things moving on September 11. This year’s camp will feature the two prospect games against the Buffalo Sabres, rather than the more tournament-style Prospects Challenge used in recent years. A Rookie Camp roster should be out within a few days.
From there, regular training camp opens two weeks from yesterday, on Wednesday, September 16. The first preseason game follows quickly after that, with Boston hosting the Washington Capitals on September 20, just two weeks from Sunday.
It’s that time of year when the schedule starts piling up fast after a long summer, and soon enough everyone will be back to debating the bottom-six line combinations.
Elsewhere around the league, the streaming landscape keeps shifting. On Wednesday, the NHL announced that Prime Video will be the exclusive in-market streaming service for six teams this season: Carolina, Anaheim, Columbus, Dallas, Minnesota, and St. Louis.
Each of those clubs is taking a different approach to how games will actually be shown, and that makes the whole setup messy. Some teams will still air on cable as well, while others won’t, which only adds to the confusion.
For Bruins fans, though, the situation is still relatively stable. NESN has its issues, and the cost of following every game can still be a headache, but Boston has largely been spared the regional sports network chaos that has hit other fanbases.
Diamond Sports, FanDuel Sports Network, and others have run into major trouble in recent years, while NESN has kept moving along. There’s also growing talk around the league about more teams eventually shifting to centralized streaming models with NHL production involved, but that doesn’t seem likely to change much in Boston anytime soon. With Delaware North part-owning NESN, the local setup looks pretty firmly in place.
In Other News...
Why Celtics Felt Jaylen Brown No Longer Fit Joe Mazzullas Vision
After consecutive postseasons that fell short of expectations, the Celtics reached the point where keeping Jaylen Brown no longer aligned with the direction Joe Mazzulla wanted for the team. Boston has leaned into a possession maxing approach under Mazzulla, and the front office apparently decided that style mattered more than simply preserving a star name on the roster.
Basketball Universitys analysis helped frame the issue by pointing to Browns lower possession value, even with the strong individual numbers he continued to post. The move sends ripple effects beyond Boston, with Philadelphia now in the picture too, since Brown may be a cleaner fit in Nick Nurses system than he was in the Celtics increasingly rigid vision. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Suddenly Have A Reason To Watch Jalen Duren Closely
Jalen Durens extension standoff in Detroit has quietly turned into something worth tracking well beyond the Pistons own building. The big man is looking for a deal worth more than $40 million per season, while Detroit has apparently been reluctant to go past $35 million, and the gap has lingered long enough that the sides still do not appear close. For the Celtics, the connection is indirect but real, since they are holding a future draft pick that could be shaped by where Duren ends up next.
The more the impasse stretches on, the more the possibility grows that Duren could take the one-year qualifying offer and head toward unrestricted free agency next summer. If he gets there, the market could get complicated fast, with the Clippers already mentioned as a possible landing spot. That is the kind of front-office ripple Boston will be watching closely, because even one roster move in another conference can change how valuable that future pick looks down the line. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Set A Massive Price For Jaylen Brown And Minnesota Walked Away
The Timberwolves explored the possibility of prying Jaylen Brown away from Boston, but the talks never got far once the asking price came into focus. The Celtics reportedly set a steep bar that included Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid, a reminder of how highly Brown was valued and how hard it is for rival teams to even get serious traction on a deal of that magnitude.
Minnesota ultimately chose a different path, sending Naz Reid out in a move that brought in LaMelo Ball instead, with the front office clearly preferring a younger point guard to fit alongside Anthony Edwards. Brown ended up with the Philadelphia 76ers, where he now joins a roster that already looks far more dangerous, while Bostons willingness to hold firm helped shape a deal tree that sent the market in another direction. [Read more 🡒]