If you have some free time this week, you might want to take a trip to the Boston Bruins' practice facility in Wilmington late some morning. The Boston Globe blog reported the Bruins will begin informal skates at Ristuccia Arena starting this morning. The skate will start at 11 a.m. and players are not known yet.

Informal skates are a precursor to training camp. Some of the full-time NHLers and some of the prospects that are "too old" for rookie camp who are returning the area should skate. It is worth checking out if you have the time and are craving hockey. You might see Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic or Tim Thomas.

I went last year and have gone in past years. You can check out pictures from last year in the gallery. You never know who you'll see or what you'll see when you go.

I am planning to go to a few skates since my schedule is wide open the next couple of weeks. I can't wait to freeze my butt off and watch the Black and Gold!

The Boston Bruins rookies will open their camp on September 5th with off-ice testing in Wilmington. The rookies will travel to Kitchener, Ontario after that and return to Boston on September 10th. The complete schedule is here.

The rookies attending are:

Goaltenders (3): Adam Courchaine, Matt Dalton, Michael Hutchinson
Defensemen (7): Ryan Button, Scott Fletcher, Brad Good, Alain Goulet, Mark Isherwood, Rob Kwiet, Marc Zanetti
Forwards (13): Jamie Arniel, Chris DeSousa, Zach Hamill, Jordan Knackstedt, Jason Lawrence, Lane MacDermid, Taylor MacDougall, Jeff LoVecchio, Levi Nelson, Tyler Randell, Max Sauve, Peter Stevens, Jason Wilson
Will not participate due to injury (1): Jordan Caron

Brad Marchand, Mikko Lehtonen, Jeff Penner, Andrew Bodnarchuk, and Kevin Regan, who were first-year pros in 2008-09, will not participate in the club's rookie camp in Kitchener, Ontario. They will kick off with the big boys when training camp officially opens on Sept. 12 at TD Garden.

It's almost time for hockey again.

Tickets for Boston Bruins games will be on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. Fans can purchase tickets at the TD Garden box office, Ticketmaster outlets and on Ticketmaster.com. Tickets to games at the TD Garden range in price from $32.50-$289.50. Games are split between "regular" and "gold" status. There are limited games available for the Student Section ($29.50), and the Tufts Medical Center Family Section ($20/$30 adults, $10/$20 child) are the lowest priced tickets.

The Bruins also have ten-game mini plans available. Games are split between Family, Business, Rival and Superstar plans.

If you can't make it to a game (or simply can't afford to), the NHL released their national television schedule today. The Bruins will be on Versus seven times, including the season opener against the Capitals on October 1st. The other six games aired on Versus are November 3rd (Red Wings), November 10th (Penguins), January 4th (Rangers), March 15th (Devils), March 29th (Sabres) and April 5th (Capitals) games.

The Winter Classic game will be aired on NBC. Fans can register to win the right to purchase tickets to the Winter Classic at Fenway Park. Ticket prices will range from $50-$350. The ticket drawing will begin on September 15th at noon and run through October 5th.

The Boston Bruins announced the general sale of individual tickets for the upcoming season will go on sale on August 20th at 10 a.m. Tickets can be purchased at the TD Garden Box Office or online. Fans should note this is much earlier than the September dates in previous years.

I was asked on Twitter earlier if this would included Winter Classic tickets and after reading the release, I think it is safe to say that the Winter Classic is the only game that is not on sale.

Individual tickets for Bruins games played at the TD Garden during the 2009-10 preseason and regular season will go on sale on Thursday, August 20 at 10:00 a.m. at the TD Garden Box Office and online at www.bostonbruins.com.

For games played at the TD Garden, tickets will range in price from $10.00 - $289.50. In addition to seat location, ticket prices will vary depending on opponent and date of game. Please note that ticket prices are subject to change.

Keep in mind, the NHL is the one that holds the reigns on the Winter Classic. The Bruins are merely the host team and Boston is simply the host city. The Bruins' obligation for the Winter Classic is to their season ticket holders and it sounds like it might end there. There should be tickets available to the Winter Classic for general public, but one would have to research how the experiences were in both Buffalo and Chicago for the previous Winter Classics.

On a side note: If you're looking for a cool calendar to sync with your mobile device or any calendar, might I suggest the one I created yesterday? The WickedBruinsFan Google Calendar has all the key Bruins dates, starting with training camp and preseason games, and it includes every Bruins game for the 2009-2010 season. I added the ticket sale date a few minutes ago and some upcoming charity events. If you want it, use it.

The Boston Bruins announced today they have added an ECHL affiliation relationship after not having one last season. The Bruins are now affiliated with the Reading Royals. The Royals are in Reading, Pennsylvania. In addition to the Bruins, the Royals are affiliated with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Bruins can designate players to Reading in addition to Providence (AHL).

While I am here, there was a training camp tidbit I found on the Boston Globe Bruins Blog. Fluto Shinzawa wrote the Bruins will be finalizing their rookie camp roster this week. The Bruins rookies are going to participate in a rookie camp in Kitchener, Ontario from September 5th-10th. They will be joined by rookies from Pittsburgh, Toronto and Ottawa.