News Bruins Team Notes

[Boston Bruins]

Morning Skate: Last Number for the Chorus

Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images

It’s the last day of SBN’s use of Chorus. Let’s sing it out.

Happy Monday! We’re back.

This is very likely the last thing I will ever write using the Chorus software that’s used throughout the SBN-osphere, and set us on our WordPress based future.

Incidentally, all of the sites that survived and went independent? They went WordPress first. Even now in it’s current state, SBN-NHL innovates.

Either way, the Summer Showcase has finished up, and it’s clear; Jimmy Hagens might be the real deal. Will Zellers definitely needs a little extra time and will hopefully find a new groove playing with North Dakota, but that’s fine. Both acquitted themselves marvelously to the summer stage and I hope they both get the chance to go to the World Juniors this year. Canada did in fact got their act together enough to beat the States, and Finland got one over on Sweden in a convincing game. Really not looking forward to Rimpinen being a mainline NHLer in like two or three years.

Away from Boston; USA Today (!!) went and published a wild expose on the overwhelming control the Dallas Stars have lorded over youth hockey in the state of Texas on Friday; the Stars as it turns out have been strongarming players and rink owners for years (if they don’t just own the rinks outright) and have been doing some real shady shit to keep complaints down and have largely stacked the Texas Amateur Hockey Association with employees of the Stars.

This is hardly new; local teams tend to press their thumb on the scales of their local youth programs, and in some cases it’s probably a good shot in the arm for the local NHL, AHL, Major Junior team to try and give a little help for local programs in non-traditional markets; give a little money, pay for some gear, clear some ice time for the Under-10 program, that’s all good; great even. The way some of the western conference squads are going about it where they are essentially thee only game in town? In some cases for an city, or even an entire state? That’s a little newer for the sport. Many of them are often extremely cash-strapped organizations that are competing directly against Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Basketball. The embrace of the local NHL team would, should, and often is a major boon for a great many programs, and if they can set up a network of support across the state? even better. But the minute you become a dictator of icetime, if any criticism is responded to with bans, threats, and not sitting down with the families and hashing shit out because they are your customers in hostile, unfamiliar territory for the sport like the Stars have?

That’s going a step and half too far.

Source: https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com/2025/8/4/24479235/morning-skate-last-number-for-the-chorus

 

[Boston Bruins]

Welcome to the new Stanley Cup of Chowder: A fresh look, fewer ads and a new feature

Things will look a little different around here today.

A few weeks ago we told you something new was coming to Stanley Cup of Chowder and today it’s here. Things are cleaner, faster and easier to use. There are the same writers, coverage, comments, and community you’ve come to rely on, now with less clutter and clunkiness.

Let’s dive in. If you scroll down the page on your phone or computer, it’s smoother. You’ll notice that the most talked-about stories have a bigger font displaying the number of comments. You’ll also see a section called Active Conversations to point you to the busiest conversations right now.

But there’s two changes we’re most excited to tell you about:

Fewer ads for logged-in users​

Our loyal readers and commenters are the heartbeat of our communities, and with this new design we’re excited to offer them fewer ads when they’re logged in. Specifically:

• Video players will no longer chase you down the page. Just scroll past one and it will be gone.
• Full page pop-ups that would sometimes interrupt your commenting experience have been disabled.

You can log in or sign up here and check it out.

A new feature by the community, for the community: The Feed​

Today we’re launching a brand new space for you to come together. The Feed is a running stream of posts and updates from you, the community, mixed in with links and updates from the team and our staff. Think of it as our community’s group text where you can easily grab your phone and share a link to a story, post a question or write your own post on the day’s news.

You can find it in two places:

• On the homepage, adjacent to the top stories. Community participation is core to who we are, so we want it right on the front page to share your stuff.
• A devoted homepage for The Feed where you can see the full stream of posts coming in from the community. You might want to bookmark that.

Log in or sign up here and you can start posting on The Feed and seeing fewer ads immediately.



Today’s launch is a big deal for our community, and it’s also a kickoff of broader efforts to build around the community we have here. Soon you’ll get alerts when someone replies to your comment or your post on The Feed, with more to come thereafter. We want to put the community in the driver’s seat, so let us know what you want in the comments below or in The Feed.

If you want to dig into more of this updated experience, head over to this post on sbnation.com from SB Nation’s Head of Product Ed Clinton, where he expands on the changes in our ads and design. Ed will be responding to questions in the comments. If you have any questions about how to log in to our new system, check out this article from last week.

Source: https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com...wder-a-fresh-look-fewer-ads-and-a-new-feature

 

[Boston Bruins]

We’re back, and with a new look!

I know you were very concerned, but we’re now fully functional with our new look!

I’m sure that you were concerned you’d be having a preseason Public Skate in that same SBN-authored post, but we managed to get our access sorted and can continue with your regularly scheduled programming.

As far as Bruins news goes, well…there’s really none. Not much is happening. It’s August 8, so that’s to be expected.

Around these parts, however, things have changed quite a bit, so let’s dive in:

A new look and feel​

As you can undoubtedly see by now, your faithful Stanley Cup of Chowder’s layout has changed.

This is only the second time in the last decade or so that there’s been a major overhaul, so obviously that will cause some confusion.

I’d encourage you to explore the site a bit to see what might have changed, where things might have moved, etc.

In terms of whitespace, how XYZ looks, menu items, and all that stuff, that’s out of our hands – SB Nation handles the templates at a network level, so we just get to add our branding.

Overall though, you should experience less ad intrusion, more white space, and a generally snappier experience.

If you’re a frequent lurker who doesn’t have an account, I’d encourage you to make one, as I believe logged-in users have a slightly different ad experience and different interactions with comment counts.

As usual, please report any major issues in the comments, and we can escalate as needed.

The Feed​

The Feed has already been a topic of discussion, and I’m glad to see people using it.

To answer some questions:

• No, participation in The Feed isn’t mandatory.
• No, we don’t plan to use The Feed to replace Morning Skates/Public Skates.
• Yes, The Feed is a replacement for what used to be FanPosts/FanShots.

We were encouraged to think of The Feed as a kind of sub-reddit for our site.

The best things for The Feed are things that don’t quite rise to the level of a full post, but still merit discussion. That could be a funny Tweet from a player, a random highlight you stumbled upon, a discussion topic you’d like to bring up, etc.

In some ways, The Feed is bound to cannibalize the comments section, but that’s okay. If you’d like to put something in the comments of a Public Skate and in The Feed, no problem.

We’ll work out the best way to use it over the next few weeks, but until then, I encourage you to try it out – it’s much quicker and more intuitive than FanPosts.

If you’re someone who comes back to the site multiple times a day (thank you, by the way), it’s a good idea to check in on The Feed to see if there’s new content, even if there are no new articles.

More to come​

While our new look is set, we’re still going to be figuring out how to use these new tools as the season approaches.

For example, would it make sense to post a recap, plus a “Post-Game Reaction” item in The Feed? Should we have more polls in there? Should everything remain the same?

Time will tell.

In the meantime, we welcome your feedback. If you have thoughts on how you’d like us to change the site moving forward, please let us know.

If something is broken for you, please let us know either in the comments or via email (you can reach the site manager at bruinshockeynow(at)gmail.com).

In the meantime…welcome back.

What’s on tap for today?

Source: https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com/general/55494/were-back-and-with-a-new-look

 

[Boston Bruins]

Morning Skate: Thinking International

Welcome welcome! Happy Monday.

Much of the hockey world has fallen into rest over the past month and change. The ever-present football held by Lucy in a McTavish offer sheet might still exist, but until someone actually goes out and does it, I don’t think we’re actually gonna see it. He’ll probably get signed in camp, as is usually the case with these kinds of things. Too many teams are still concerned about getting burned by a failed sheet (or hell, maybe even a successful one) that I don’t think one will ever be done unless it happens to involve some pretty wild circumstances.

So anyway the Bruins should 1000% break that stigma by going after Adam Fantilli next season. Surely this time Lucy will keep the football down long enough to kick it!

Anyway, the big early season story will be players putting their whole ass into their starts, because that could help in being considered for the Olympics.

The Winter Olympics will finally have their highest possible talent threshhold raised for the first time in decades, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the players are already getting excited for it. David Pastrnak of course is expected to help carry the Czechs to victory (big whoop, he does that in his day job), but plenty of other Bruins will likely get a look here or there; Jeremy Swayman certainly would love an opportunity to prove that last year was just an ugly fluke in a season full of ugly flukes, Charlie McAvoy would sure love to play for Team USA in a way that doesn’t immediately threaten his health I’m sure, and Elias Lindholm realistically has one more kick at this can before Tre Kronor decides to get a little younger in their next go-round.

As for Canadian Bruins? Well, let’s just wait and see how Hockey Canada tries to build their team before we go anywhere on that. It’ll probably be easy to say “McDavid, Crosby, Marner” and whatnot, but recent international teams made by Red and White (and sometimes Black) don’t exactly suggest that they’ll be making the best choices out of the gate. I’m sure they’ll be able to beat Latvia and Italy and whoever, but you never know with Hockey Canada these days…

We’ll have to see as the season plays out where each team plans on going. It’s a little easier with the middle powers (their answer will be EVERY NHLER PLEASE AND THANK YOU), but the main powers of the sport will be very interesting to watch indeed…

Either way, what’s on tap for you, Chowder?

Source: https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com...ds/56364/morning-skate-thinking-international

 

[Boston Bruins]

Morning Skate: School

Welcome to Friday, folks!

It’s mid-August, the humidity is nuts, summer is fading…lots of emotions at once.

The return to school looms for many kids, with most in the Boston area heading back around Labor Day, while others are already back in some parts of the country.

The Bruins won’t return to their version of school in any meaningful way until September, but the team did hold its annual Back to School celebration earlier this week.

That party involved donating more than 3,000 backpacks to Boston students and also involved Mason Lohrei, Johnny Beecher, and James Hagens teaching the youths a thing or two.

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Side note: the Lohrei Marketing Machine has been in overdrive this offseason, as it seems like he’s been everywhere. Jersey unveilings, shaping the next generation…a busy guy.

Elsewhere:

• The Bruins announced their Fan Fest dates for this year: September 5 in Hanover, MA; September 6 in Fitchburg, MA; and September 7 in Concord, NH.
• Will Zellers, acquired in the Charlie Coyle trade, discussed the opportunity he sees ahead as a member of the Bruins organization.
• Hockey bloggers keep banging the “trade a Bruins goalie to the Oilers” drum.
• Former Bruin Brad Marchand continues to embrace his love for Dairy Queen.

Last, but not least, I aim to start some kind of season review/preview content next week.

Based on feedback, I don’t think we’re going to do full season reviews and votes like we’ve done in the past. With those, we often spent a lot of pixels discussing guys who weren’t with the team anymore.

Instead, we’ll likely do a combination of a brief recap of last season and a look ahead at what’s to come. Think of it as a bridge between August and when things ramp up in September.

Other than that, stay cool in this humidity.

Source: https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com/morning-skate-open-threads/56387/morning-skate-school

 

[Boston Bruins]

Morning Skate: Learning

Welcome to a new week, folks!

We’ve officially hit mid-August, and we’re actually in for a weird bit of fall-like weather in New England this week.

In case you weren’t already feeling the looming end of summer, a high temperature of 71 degrees should get you thinking about upcoming flannel and pumpkin-flavored everything…just not quite yet.

In a clear sign that we are still firmly in off-season mode around these parts, I realized this weekend that the Morning Skate I’d painstakingly, lovingly crafted for Friday published, but never made it to the home page.

In other words, it may as well have not been published at all, so…yeah. Still learning this new CMS and working out a few kinks. Please bear with us.

As we get closer to the end of August, we hope to start a new combination of both looking back and looking forward with posts on Bruins players.

These will take the place of the traditional “rank the player” posts, and will serve as a sort of recap/preview for each player, all in one.

The reasoning behind this is relatively simple: in the past, we spent a lot of time putting posts together for players who were no longer with the Bruins, which didn’t make a ton of sense (as much as we know you enjoyed arguing about Oskar Steen).

With this year’s trade deadline exodus, it didn’t seem to make much sense to spend time talking about Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, etc. in August.

Instead, we’ll do posts on guys currently on the roster, giving a snapshot of what happened last year and a look at what’s in store for this year.

Hopefully that isn’t too disappointing, but it’s meant to strike a balance between things that are interesting and things that aren’t a waste of everyone’s time/digital ink.

If you have any feedback or would prefer to see a different approach, you know where to find me.

Anyways, it’s another August Monday. What’s on tap for today?

(If you’re reading this post, I’m already a step ahead of last week, so…things are looking up!)

Source: https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com/morning-skate-open-threads/56393/morning-skate-learning