"The Bruins [team stats] opened the rookie portion of training camp yesterday at Ristuccia Arena, and it was tough to spot the latest coming of Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic or Blake Wheeler.

Fairly regularly in years past, at least one rookie has played so well he made it impossible for the B's brass not to keep him.

But given a deep, veteran team that three months ago hoisted the Stanley Cup, there just doesn't appear much chance any of the 22 youngsters who'll skate for the next week and play exhibitions on Long Island against the Islanders rookies Monday and Tuesday are going to be on the opening night roster.

"I would tend to agree, since the team has won the Stanley Cup," said assistant general manager Jim Benning after Day 1. "But we don't know for sure. We're going to go through the process of this camp and the main camp. The one thing about (GM) Peter (Chiarelli) and (coach) Claude (Julien), if a player deserves to be on the team then they find a way to get the player on the team. With time, that will work itself out."