John Bishop is the beat writer for BostonBruins.com. He covers the Black & Gold hoping to offer a positive look at the team, not only from the stands and the press box, but also from inside the locker room. A graduate of Boston U. and Northeastern, 'Bish' grew up in Connecticut and moved to the Hub of Hockey in 1993. Since then he has made all four rinks at the Beanpot schools, as well as both Gardens, his icebound homes away from home. Prior to joining the TD Banknorth Garden staff in 2005, Bishop had written for several publications, with his primary focus being college hockey. He coauthored the book Bygone Boston in 2003 and hopes someday to pen a bio of Hobey Baker.

So what's going on at the Garden?
Not much today, my friends. The team has been given a much-needed day off.

Yesterday, in Halifax, the Bruins fell to the Canadiens, 4-3, and head coach Claude Julien felt as if the team needed a breather.

"It's been a long ten days (of training camp)," said Julien. "We've been pretty hard on our guys and obviously there is a fatigue factor, not only physically, but mentally, right now.

"(Monday) we are going to enjoy and day off and try to give ourselves a chance to recover."

As far as the game goes, the B's were, admittedly, sluggish until the third period, when the tempo that we saw in the first preseason game returned.

And it wasn't just fatigue. Another key ingredient was missing, according to P.J. Axelsson.

"Competing," said P.J. "We played better in the third when we started skating, and winning 1-on-1 battles. That was our problem in the beginning."

Glen Murray, who scored a goal in front of his home crowd, intimated that there was no need to panic.

"We have two games left to see if we can get things going the right way," he told reporters.

"Right now we are a work in progress," said Julien. "We're trying to change some things in our play.

"We're giving up way too much. We're not making it hard enough on other teams and we have to change (our) approach.

"We've done it (before), but the last two exhibition games we've had some slow starts," he said.

Today, he gave the squad the benefit of the doubt and allowed them to recuperate.

Anything else?
One nice story that has been chronicled here is that of Nate Thompson.

Thompson first captured my attention last season during the AHL playoffs, and since then he has been a consistent reminder of what hard work can bring.

I sat down with Nate and you can listen to our most recent conversation by clicking below.
Nate Thompson  

Noke speaks…
I was also able to talk to Petteri Nokelainen about his being traded to Boston, training camp and what he brings to the Bruins table.

To listen to that talk, click the link.
Petteri Nokelainen  

Last but not least…
Many, many of you have been asking for photos of the masks for the three goalies in camp.

Well, here is a photo gallery for all of you goalie geeks out there!