Bruins return to the ice on Monday

Surprises are fairly common during training camps, and teams often welcome them.

Maybe not this summer, though. The best surprise a team could get would be a camp with no surprises at all — and those cases may be rare.

The Bruins, for example, couldn’t even get to Monday’s first day of camp without a surprise. One of their players returned a positive test last month when he attempted to join optional, small-group Phase 2 workouts at Warrior Ice Arena. [...]

Surprises are fairly common during training camps, and teams often welcome them.

Maybe not this summer, though. The best surprise a team could get would be a camp with no surprises at all — and those cases may be rare.

The Bruins, for example, couldn’t even get to Monday’s first day of camp without a surprise. One of their players returned a positive test last month when he attempted to join optional, small-group Phase 2 workouts at Warrior Ice Arena. And on Saturday, defenseman Steven Kampfer, a candidate for promotion from AHL Providence, announced that he had opted out of Phase 3 and the remainder of the season, citing his wife’s and son’s congenital heart defects and complications they could experience if exposed to COVID-19.

General manager Don Sweeney said on Sunday that he didn’t expect other opt-outs by Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline, and while allowing for the potential, temporary absence of "one or two" players who hadn’t completed international quarantine restrictions, Sweeney expected an expanded roster of 19 forwards, 10 defensemen and four goalies to begin preparing for a relatively quick run-up to the resumption of the season. The Bruins are due in the Eastern Conference hub city of Toronto on Sunday, July 26, will play one exhibition game that week, and have a game scheduled against the Flyers on Sunday, Aug. 2.

Amidst all the restrictions and uncertainty, Sweeney is happy to be doing what GMs do, although not necessarily at this time of year: Managing a roster, consulting with coaches, watching players practice and play.

"We’re all excited about playing hockey again," Sweeney said.

The primary reason for the excitement is that the Bruins, who fell one victory short of the Stanley Cup in 2019, overcame that disappointment to craft the NHL’s best record (44-14-12) when the league had to declare the regular season complete as of March 11. That performance allows the B’s, currently seeded No. 1 in the NHL and Eastern Conference, to sidestep a best-of-5 play-in series and advance to the best-of-7 first round of playoffs — after completing a three-game round robin against the three teams behind them (Lightning, Capitals, Flyers) to determine their playoff seeding.

The Bruins are healthy, experienced, and with their roster expanded, they like their depth. The nine players (five forwards, two defensemen, two goalies) summoned from AHL Providence are an eclectic mix of young, blue-chip talent with relatively little NHL experience (forwards Jack Studnicka and Trent Frederic; defenseman Urho Vaakanainen) to seasoned veterans like Weymouth, Mass., native Paul Carey, the 31-year-old forward who scored 22 goals for the P-Bruins this season, and has 100 NHL games on his resumé.

"I think we’re all comfortable that at any point in time, they can jump into our lineup," Sweeney said. "Those players have all been an integral part of what we’ve tried to accomplish this year, and they’ve earned the right to be here."

Whether any call-ups get to play depends on the health, readiness and performance of those ahead of them on the depth chart, and while Sweeney wasn’t allowed to watch Phase 2 workouts (head coach Bruce Cassidy couldn’t observe, either), the GM got good reports.

"I really believe our players have taken care of themselves," Sweeney said. "The feedback has been that they’re ready to go physically. Mentally, it’s obviously a challenge, but I think (Cassidy) and his staff do a really good job of turning the dials as we go forward."

Cassidy will have to spin those dials faster than in a traditional fall camp, which covers about three weeks and can include a half-dozen exhibition games. Veterans who can usually pick and choose how many or few preseason games they play before an 82-game regular season might not have the same option.

"Normally, in the course of training camp, you may be able to approach a veteran and say ‘Do you want to play one, two, three games, not play the last game?’ " Sweeney said. "We don’t have that luxury this time around.

"Players have to understand it’s a very short window to get back up to full speed. You’ve got to be ready."

That includes being prepared for a teammate or teammates to have to sit out for a period of time. Sweeney fully anticipates players to be sidelined by the coronavirus, whether they play for his team or another. Cases may be less prevalent in Toronto and Edmonton (Western Conference hub, and also the site of the conference finals and Cup final), where all will be housed in "bubble" environments, but players, staff, etc., are only subject to local restrictions while in training camp.

"We’re going to have positive cases throughout this, in Phase 3, Phase 4, whatever," said the GM, who indicated that "We just have to avoid an outbreak, which could be hurtful to the situation.

"The league has done a really good job of lining things up accordingly. … We’re going to give it our best effort, and hopefully we’ll be able to carry it off."

mloftus@patriotledger.com