The Bruins will not be fully healthy for the start of training camp

When the Bruins get on the ice for their first true day of training camp on Thursday, they will do so without their best player with them, as David Pastrnak has already been ruled out for the first day of on-ice activity.

“David Pastrnak won’t skate for the first couple of days," Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said. "In his last training block, he got a little tendinitis, so we as a group said load management at this point in time is what’s best course of action. He’s on the ice still, but he’ll be back at full practice early next week.” 

Sweeney offered a quick 'yes' when asked if it would only be an issue for a couple of days, and said that everyone else arrived to camp healthy and ready to go.

Pastrnak, who took up cycling as part of his offseason program this past offseason, ramped up his offseason skating in a camp led by Michael Nylander over in Sweden (as he normally does) before reporting to Boston earlier this month. Pastrnak has been on the ice with the Bruins as part of the club's informal skates at Warrior leading up to the official opening of camp on Wednesday.

With Pastrnak out, the Bruins could begin camp by moving projected top-line left winger Morgan Geekie over to the right side of a line with Elias Lindholm. The Bruins could also elevate offseason addition Viktor Arvidsson up from his projected second-line right wing spot. (For what it's worth, new Bruins head coach Marco Sturm already noted that Arvidsson will begin camp in a top-six role for the Bruins.) Some other possible candidates at that spot with Pastrnak out include Fabian Lysell, Matej Blumel, and Alex Steeves, while Matt Poitras is another skater who has played some right wing since turning pro.

But — and this honestly goes without saying, as you all know — all of those options do not come close to making the same impact as Pastrnak.

Not only was last year Pastrnak's third straight campaign of at least 100 points, but he also had a direct hand in 47.7 percent of Boston's total offense with either a goal or assist. And the Bruins, as a team, finished the year with 72 goals in over 1,266 five-on-five minutes with Pastrnak on the ice, compared to 80 goals in 2,732 five-on-five minutes with Pastrnak not on the ice.

And even with Pastrnak, Sweeney outright acknowledged that this is a Black and Gold squad that's going to have to find "scoring by committee" in 2025-26.

In other words, the B's have to hope that this a couple of days and nothing more.