Bedard's Weekend Briefing: Bruins impress in opener, new kicker for Patriots, why it will be hard to add to Pats

Good morning!

A few random thoughts while I wonder how much TD Bank is paying for those ridiculous in-game Bruins advertisements...

• Bruins opened up the season with a 2-1 win in Dallas and they looked prettay, prettay good.


• Just in that game, you had one guy stretchered off after a scary run into the boards, and then blood all over the ice when another player took a puck to the face. Hockey is back!


• Charlie Coyle leads the long list of Bruins studs in that game.


• Brett Ritchie scored on his first Bruins shot against his old team.


• The only real negative, if you can call it that, is that Patrice Bergeron is very much working his way back, as expected. That didn't look like Patrice out there. Hopefully he doesn't do any further damage to that groin.


• Mike Nugent is the Patriots' kicker. I don't think a huge breakdown on him is warranted. They picked him, it either works or it doesn't. With this team, not a lot of games should come down to the kicker. Shayne Graham worked so good people barely talked about him.


• You want a new receiver or tackle? It's going to take a lot of hoop-jumping by the Patriots, the kind they've never done before.


• On Stefon Diggs, I covered Vikings GM Rick Spielman in Miami. He's one of the most stubborn personnel guys I've ever covered. He signed Kirk Cousins to that big contract, and gave recent big extensions to Diggs and Adam Thielen. Trading either receiver would be akin to saying, "You might as well fire me right now." The Vikings are 2-2. I would be completely shocked if they did anything.


• And you wonder why I don't get wrapped up into every "rumor" in this social media age.


• Celtics rookies are looking good.


• No, I don't like the new NESN logo. It could be: ski slopes, the position you have to get in to sit in some seats at Fenway, the job trajectory of a Red Sox GM, ticket prices at Fenway.


• Seriously, NESN, what the heck was this?

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Brett Ritchie scores on his first shot as a Boston Bruin. pic.twitter.com/WxM9W1DQOT

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 4, 2019