Bruins coach Claude Julien indicated after Friday’s practices that a second round of cuts may come after Friday’s preseason game against the Islanders.

“I think we’re going to be minimizing our roster I guess starting probably after tonight’s game,” Julien said Friday. “There’s a possibility there. A lot of that depends on the game tonight and who shows well, and etc., etc. The number we anticipate may be changed, but I think there might be some changes made after tonight’s game and leading into that trip to Halifax we’ll minimize our group a little bit.”

The Bruins made six cuts on Wednesday, sending Tyler Randell, Yannick Riendeau, Stefan Chaput, Calle Ridderwall and Kyle MacKinnon to Providence and Anthony Camara back to Saginaw of the OHL.

If things this time last year were about responding to one of the worst collapses in professional sports history, the Bruins can consider themselves fortunate to have a different frame of mind as they prepare for next season.

The coach made that clear Friday following the opening of training camp, as Claude Julien noted that it’s important for his players to not lose focus because they are the defending champions.

“What we accomplished last year really doesn’t matter this year,” Julien said. “It’s going to be starting from scratch and building our team up to go through the highs and lows of a season and battle through it and work your way into a playoff spot and be ready to battle for it. There’s a lot of things that need to happen throughout the course of the season for us to have success again.

“The famous Stanley Cup hangover that everybody talks about, I don’t think we should be different from anybody else. What we’ve got to be better at is how we’re going to handle it.… Obviously it is a real thing, and we need to be ready this year even more than last year.”

Bruins coach Claude Julien had his day with the Stanley Cup on Saturday, and he used it to combine some good family time with a day’s worth of sharing. Stops at the Rideau Canal, which is said to have great views of Ottawa, and his family’s home town of Navan, Ontario, were made. After being had by Julien and Peter Chiarelli lately, the Cup is back with the players. Patrice Bergeron has it on Sunday.

Here’s an NHL.com video documenting part of Julien’s day.

WILMINGTON — Bruins coach Claude Julien discussed the Bruins’ offseason moves and their prospects on the final day of development camp Monday. The B’s lost Michael Ryder and Tomas Kaberle to free agency, replacing them with Montreal’s Benoit Pouliot and Carolina’s Joe Corvo.

In the case of Kaberle and Corvo, Julien said the 34-year-old Corvo can help the power play, much like Kaberle was expected to when the B’s sent a package of commodities (a 2011 first-round pick, a 2012 second-rounder and center Joe Colborne) to Toronto or the defenseman.

“It’s not about replacing [Kaberle] but taking on his role,” Julien said of Corvo. “I think you look at Corvo, who’s got a really good shot. He’s a player that may be a little bit more physical and more engaged. We’re going to have to work with him as far as making him understand the way we play here. And I think the way we play will certainly help him a little bit, because we don’t want him running around. We want him playing well positionally.

“Again, he skates well and he’ll move the puck well. That’s where Kaberle … people that thought he underachieved a little bit. I think at the beginning we weren’t quite getting what we wanted. But once you saw him get a little comfortable, we’ve got to give him credit. He’s a smart player, he sees the ice well, makes good plays and that’s where his strength is. When you look at Corvo, his shot is going to be a lot better and hopefully on the power play which we did [get] some good shots from the back end, it will certainly help us.”

Corvo, for whom the Bruins traded a fourth-round pick, had 11 goals and 29 assists for 40 points last season. Kaberle had four goals and 43 assists for 47 assists with the Maple Leafs and Bruins in the regular season. He signed a three-year, $12.75 million deal with Carolina last week.

Shawn Thornton

Bruins forward and two-time Stanley Cup winner Shawn Thornton joined The Big Show Monday to review the Stanley Cup finals and the entire Stanley Cup playoffs. To hear the interview, check out The Big Show audio on demand page.

Following Game 7, rookie forward Brad Marchand said that he hated the Canucks given how “cocky” they were throughout the series. Thornton wouldn’t use Marchand’s words, but he did share the same feelings.

“No, I mean I don’t want to talk bad about them and be a sore winner, but I will say some of the comments that were made and kind of the way everyone had us dialed in,” he said. “They were planning the parade on Monday and they hadn’t even won the game yet. Stuff like that motivates the other team. We did a good job of toeing the line and not letting anything get out into the open. Even though we were a confident bunch as a group we weren’t out there talking about it as much.”

Even though Thornton’s line, the fourth line did not score much during the playoff run, Thornton knew what their role was and how it changed from series to series.

“Our line, when we played over a certain amount we did a good job getting the puck deep, and creating energy,” he said. “That’s our role. In different series’ our line was used in different ways. The Montreal series not as much, they are run and gun, the Philadelphia series we were used a little more and Tampa not as much again because they are built a little different, but that Vancouver series the first couple games they came out and were really physical, so our line did the same thing and we wanted to push that and be physical.”

Thornton did not play in the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals, but was inserted into the lineup for Game 3.

“Right before warm up I found out,” Thornton said. “That was tough, I’m not going to lie. I thought he [Claude Julien] was going to make the change, but you are never 100 percent. I was ecstatic. I prepared like I was playing, but it’s different when you’re not sure. You’d rather know, but I guess it was a last minute decision and it worked out just fine.”

After going down dropping the first two games in Vancouver the Bruins knew that they weren’t out of it.

“We knew we were in them, we were a goal away in each game,” Thornton said. “We knew if we got back playing the way we needed to play we could win. We did a good job all year of not letting the highs get too high and the lows too low, and we did a really good job after that game of just focusing on the next game and the game after that. That was our main focus going into those games.” Read the rest of this entry »

NBC analyst Pierre McGuire was a guest on The Big Show on Thursday and he noted that as the Bruins were inching closer toward capturing the Stanley Cup on Wednesday night in Vancouver, there was a major difference between the two teams.

“There were definitely chemistry issues on one bench,” McGuire said. “Coaches overreacting. I thought in the case of Alain Vingeault when the frustration set in, and the composure and the focus and basically every one of the Bruins players acting as coach. It was really an interesting dynamic to witness.”

McGuire added, “When you have a knockout game and things start to go south in a hurry, guys just deviate from the plan and you could sense that. You didn’t see the same Vancouver Canucks team in the third period that you saw in Games 1 or 2 or Game 5 when they were in Vancouver.”

McGuire said that he thought Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo hurt himself with his comments about Tim Thomas after Game 5. “The damage was done to Roberto Luongo [after Game 5],” McGuire said. “The whole thing, the two-day break, putting the foot in the mouth, questioning Tim Thomas’ ability to make a save against Maxim Lapierre in Game 5.

“The one thing I thought was very apparent and I’ve been through this twice as a coach winning a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh in 1991 and 92, you have to manage the message and make sure your players are debriefed before dealing with the media. You’ve got to be so careful because everything is scrutinized. I really felt the Vancouver PR machine went off the rails going into Game 6. They were too brash, too arrogant. I give Boston full credit. They managed their message the entire playoffs and they deserve a lot of credit for the way they handled themselves. On the Vancouver side I don’t think it was handled very well.”

McGuire also had praise for Bruins’ coach Claude Julien, particularly his decision to practice as soon as the team landed in Vancouver. “Instead of practicing the day of the game they practiced as soon as they got off the plane,” McGuire said. “They had a much better start. They had livelier legs and they were ready to go. They really believed in their plan. That little deviation helped them a ton. That’s where Claude Julien isn’t getting enough credit.”

McGuire also felt Julien was more willing to adapt this year as opposed to last. “The one thing I was really impressed with from Claude compared to a year ago, the ability to make adjustments both in-game and during the series,” McGuire said. “We didn’t see that last year. I think that’s a big reason they lost last year. [Peter] Laviolette outrcoached him and obviously the injury to [David] Krejci. But this year I saw a man prepared to make changes. He could deviate from the matchups if he had to, he wasn’t afraid to get his fourth line on the ice and I thought they were a huge factor in Game 7. Claude deserves a lot of credit.

VANCOUVER– The Bruins bus arrived just a short while ago at Rogers Arena and the Canucks fans made sure they gave them a warm welcome.