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Bruins’ top picks fail conditioning test

2015 NHL Draft - Round One

2015 NHL Draft - Round One

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A summer rife with not-so-good headlines continued for Boston Bruins fans, as the team’s trio of 2015 first-round picks seem to be limping out of the gate.

All three of those top picks - Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zach Sensyshyn - failed the team’s conditioning test on Thursday, according to CSNNE.com.

Here’s a quick description of the drill, which could be filed under “reasons fans shouldn’t always envy professional athletes.”

The test consists of a series of six back-and-forth 300 meter sprints with three minutes of rest in between each run, and all of them must be completed in under one minute’s time.

There are some caveats, as GM Don Sweeney told CSNNE.com that they were running on a “wet, slippery turf surface.”

On the other hand, it’s worth noting that the trio fell short of the mark with that same test back in July.

DeBrusk was the closest one to pass the drill, and he seems confident that he’ll do better next time.

For naysayers, this is another bullet in the chamber after some labelled one or more of those picks as “reaches.”

More sober observers will probably laugh the whole thing off.

Let’s not forget that:


  • People freaked out about Calgary Flames prospect Sam Bennett being unable to do pull-ups, and he’s looking like a gem. (He’s also able to do pull-ups now.)
  • The Bruins’ training staff once worried that Milan Lucic was too much of a “string bean” to make it in the NHL. Yes, that Milan Lucic.
  • These players are very young and the Bruins probably want to bring them along gradually rather than throwing them right into the fire.

Hockey fans will look back at this off-season as turning point for the Bruins, but few will remember anyone’s sprint times.

At least we got some jokes out of it.