Bruins talk NHL lockout at golf tournament

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They were golfing on Monday, and by the looks of things, the Bruins may have plenty of free time for more golf this fall.

Claude Julien, Cam Neely, and a number of Bruins players took part in the team's annual charity golf tournament on Monday, but golf wasn't exactly on the minds of everyone in the organization.

The NHL lockout deadline is Saturday, and without a new CBA in place, it looks more and more likely that it'll occur.

CSNNE's Jessica Moran was on the scene, where Bruins players like Shawn Thornton and Andrew Ference don't seem particularly happy with the process to date.

"We want to fix the problem but we're not just going to take a 20-percent cut or a 24-percent cut or whatever it is across the board and give it to rich teams to get richer," Thornton told reporters. "That's not the answer. It didn't work last time, we were told it would, and now we're looking for solutions and I think our proposal addresses those issues."

But are the players optimistic in a deal soon? Unfortunately, no.

"I don't know if optimistic is the right word, not the way things have been going so far," Ference said. "It's pretty tough to be optimistic. You know, I think that at the beginning of the summer there were a lot of great talks. Hopefully that can continue."

But the talks have slowed, and the two sides are still far apart. The NHL has been through a lockout in the recent past, with many players bolting overseas. That will certainly be the case again.

"It would be the Czech Republic for sure," David Krejci said when asked where he would play if there was a lockout. "That's where I live, that's where I'm from, so that's my home. It would be Czech, but I'm here, I really hope it's going to start. It was a long summer.

"I want to play somewhere because I haven't played in a while," Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said. "If you don't play and you jump right in the NHL you have an eight-month layover and you could be a little rusty."

Rust could be an issue for the Bruins once the NHL season beginswhenever that is. But rest and health certainly shouldn't be. Unless any players get injured while playing overseas, the B's should be plenty healthy for the upcoming season.

"Never felt so healthy, so it's good," Thornton said. "All the injuries have healed up. I think that's probably true across the board. I've seen the guys I've been skating with and everybody looks ready to go."

Coach Julien expects each and every player to show up in shape when the time comes.

"I don't think there's a single lazy player on our hockey club that would stop training or stop getting themselves ready for a season," he said, "because I think everybody is anticipating that there is going to be a season and that's the way it should be."

But that anticipation diminishes by the day.

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