"As the Bruins wrap up the preseason and fine-tune for Thursday night's opener against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Garden, they are in about as good a shape as any defending Stanley Cup championship team could hope to be.

Training camp has been generally quiet and routine, with no drama, no calamitous injuries, no significant surprises — just a very strong and confident team going about the business of being ready when the games start to count.

Nearly all of the bookkeeping issues were tied up yesterday, when forwards Max Sauve and Lane MacDermid were sent to AHL Providence. A decision is still to be announced regarding veteran free agent Chris Clark, who will need a contract if the club wants to keep him around as a spare forward."