Sorry...sometimes I forget this is an international forum
. And I try to forget the Dougie version of Hamilton. But I hope the Bruins play a preseason game in Hamilton for you soon, my new Canadian friend.
And, unfortunately, not only are the Hamilton musical tickets hard to get if you didn’t put in for all the other shows...they’re hard to trade. They usually let you switch in and out from one day of a production to another, as there are typically plenty of available seats, and the shows hang around in town for two weeks. But Hamilton’s booked solid - no seats to buy, no trades. But, then again, frankly I don’t really care too much about missing the preseason Bruins/Wings game, so it’s an easy choice.
I do have a feeling that a lot of the big name players will make the trip. I mean, maybe a couple of vets will stay back - in particular, anyone with a wife more than 35 weeks along, or with family who’s getting married. But it’ll definitely be more Providence Gladiators and Atlanta Bruins than usual this year.
It makes me wonder how the split squad will affect how the front office evaluates the players. Obviously watching the taps of the games can help, but you’ll have some of the front office mainly seeing the vets in China, and some mainly seeing the young’uns in the US. I also wonder how they’ll “round out” the team - obviously they have to send some borderline players to China, and keep some borderline players here. Will the players who go to China feel like they’re “preordained”, and the ones who stick around feel like they have no chance? Will the borderline players in China benefit from the increased concentration of veteran players who go there, and will the ones who stay here not get that key aspect in their development?