The Bruins will be doing a little more traveling than usual before the start of next season. The NHL announced Wednesday that they'll be heading to China in September to play a pair of preseason games against the Calgary Flames as part of the O.R.G. NHL China Games.
This will be the second straight year the NHL has had games in China, after the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks made the trip this past September.
The Bruins and Flames will play in Shenzhen on Sept. 15 and then Beijing on Sept. 19.
"The Boston Bruins are excited to be part of the 2018 NHL International Games in China," Bruins president Cam Neely said in a statement. "Over the past three years we have collaborated with Mr. Zhou Yunjie, the Chairman of ORG Packaging, on growing the game both within the Chinese community in Boston and with youth hockey players in China. We look forward to continuing these efforts by bringing Bruins hockey to China with these two preseason games."
While these will be the first games the Bruins have played in China, they have made trips there each of the last two years. In July 2016, players Matt Beleskey and David Pastrnak and alumni Andrew Raycroft and Bob Sweeney hosted youth hockey clinics for over 200 Chinese children on the organization's first official visit. The next summer, Pastrnak returned with teammates Torey Krug and Tuukka Rask, along with former Bruin Hal Gill, for another visit.
It's worth noting that the 2022 Winter Olympics are in Beijing. While NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has suggested that the league will likely skip the Games as it did this year, it has not officially closed the door. If the league is serious about growing the game in China, as these trips suggest, participating in the Olympics there would seemingly be a logical fit.
