Lane MacDermid & Jared Knight (Photo Courtesy of AHLBruins/Twitter)
Tomorrow night is opening night for the Providence Bruins who are set to take on the Manchester Monarchs in their home opener at 7:00pm ET at the Dunk. Last season the two teams met up for a total of ten times with the Bruins falling 6 games to their 4 in the season. In the ten games played there were 12 registered fights leading one to assume that the physicality in this season opener will be brutal and provide some key entertainment.
Today the roster got trimmed by another four players, three being released to the Sting Rays while one was let go from his tryout agreement. Tommy Cross, Tyler Randell and goaltender Adam Morrison were sent down to South Carolina while Kelsey Wilson was let go. With the signings of Lane MacDermid and Chris Bourque to AHL contracts and these cuts the roster remains at twenty-four members, a solid team to begin the 2012-2013 season.
Through the pre-season Providence beat the Falcons 4-1 in their opener then fell to the Sound Tigers and Springfield leaving them with a 1-2 record as a start. Forwards Jamie Tardif, Carter Camper, Matthew Pistilli and Justin Florek provided scoring for the first game;while Christian Hanson and Trent Whitfield secured the lone goals in the final two games. Manchester on the other hand came out of the jungle roaring winning all three of their pre-season games, including a 7-1 victory over the Portland Pirates, their Atlantic Division Rivals.
For Monarch Andrew Bodnarchuk it will be his first game suiting up against his former team since being signed by the Kings over the summer.
“I am excited,” said Bodnarchuk. “It is nice to get it out of the way early. I think everyone in the first game of the season has a little bit of jitters so it is good that I won’t have jitters midway through the season so to say. Their team has changed quite a bit from last year so it will be interesting to see what type of group they have but excited to go back to the old barn. It will be a little eerie being on the other side of the rink and in the other locker room but looking forward to it.”(via Manchester Monarchs)
While these two teams are no stranger to each other, the added chemistry from the fans (including some Boston fans who are sure to attend due to the lockout) should provide a pretty exciting atmosphere for a season opener. It’s exactly 26 hours and 44 minutes away until the puck drops, but who’s counting…
A Cup A Bruin 