WILMINGTON – Last fall, Mark Recchi was talking about what he wanted to cultivate in Boston. 

Said Recchi in Prague on Oct. 8: “What your goal is as a team is by the second half of the year for teams to go, ‘I don’t want to go play them, because you know they’re going to come and work their tails off, you know they’re going to finish every check, they’re going to be physical every night, and they’re big and they’re fast.’”

Now, the Bruins are trying to cultivate a strong atmosphere with great leadership. The catch is that they have to do it without Recchi. 

The B’s didn’t lose many guys from their Cup-winning roster – three –  and though the team got semi-comparable (and more affordable) replacements for Michael Ryder and Tomas Kaberle in Benoit Pouliot and Joe Corvo, respectively, it’s filling the skates of the retired Recchi that will be extremely tough. So for all the talk of how well the B's have been able to bring back the same team (which they have in very impressive fashion), it won't be the same. 

Recchi hung them up after his 1,841st game in the NHL, the seventh game of a heated Stanley Cup finals between the Bruins and Canucks. He lifted the Cup for the third time, and immediately called it a career.

“I'm really happy for him that he went out on top like that like he deserved,” Patrice Bergeron said Wednesday of Recchi’s career.

While Recchi can happily enjoy retirement knowing he was a three-time champion and one of the most respected to lace them up, the Bruins are left without one of the best leaders to play the game.

“It just means that guys have to step up,” Claude Julien said of what the Bruins have to do this season without Recchi. “When I say to turn the page, you don't forget the guy, but you've got to turn the page and move on. It means the guys have to show their leadership qualities. I think a lot of guys last year grew from that, from the whole experience. Now it's time for them to step up and be part of it. You don't replace a guy like Mark Recchi, but you try to as a group compensate for it.”

The Bruins’ Cup-winning trio of leaders in Zdeno Chara, Bergeron and Recchi may no longer be intact, but B’s players are left with the impression the veteran left on the squad. 

Perhaps Chara’s job was made easier as a result of Recchi as well. Prior to last season’s March 24 beatdown of the Canadiens, Recchi infamously made some less-than-flattering suggestions about Max Pacioretty’s concussion. The reason? To take heat off his captain. While it resulted in some flak from the media and Habs fans, it was just one of many displays of leadership from the veteran. 

Now, with Recchi not in Bruins’ camp for the first time in three years, the Bruins have to keep the lessons they learned from him and apply them.

“When you play with a guy like that who is a Hall of Famer, he brings so much to the table on and off the ice,” Chara said after practice Wednesday. “Sure, it's something that even older guys are learning from and trying to get as much as they can, because these kind of players don't come around very often.”

While his spot on the roster figures to be taken by Jordan Caron or perhaps Chris Clark, the B’s have yet to name Recchi’s replacement as alternate captain. Likely candidates include Andrew Ference, Shawn Thornton and Milan Lucic, and Julien has said it will be a team decision. 

Regardless of who wears the “A,” the fact that there are many options suggests the B’s have a strong group of leaders in their room. Bergeron feels that though one player will get the letter, compensating for Recchi’s leadership will be a team effort.

“It's about everyone stepping in and taking a bigger role as a leader, myself included,” Bergeron said Wednesday. “I've got to do that, and I'm ready to do it.”

Much was made during the postseason last year of how far Bergeron had come from a leader, and Recchi was pointed to as a big influence on the young center. Playing on the same line and working together as the team’s alternate captains, Bergeron and Recchi grew close, and have kept in contact since the 43-year-old hung them up. 

“We had such a good bond together,” Bergeron said of his relationship with Recchi. “You have to [stay in touch].” 

Bergeron may be a better leader because of his time with Recchi, and if he does indeed expect to take on a bigger leadership role, he’ll be improving on a high standard that he’s already helped set in the Boston dressing room.

“Definitely he's learned from Mark, but at the same time, Patrice with years has gotten better on his own and felt more comfortable,” Julien said of Bergeron. “I know when he speaks, people listen. He's not a guy that speaks a lot, but when he does speak, he gets guys' attention. He's really been a good leader that way. Everybody knows he's the ultimate professional. Everything he does is about doing the right thing to be a great player. That's on the ice and off the ice. Patrice is a great example, especially for our young players, to follow.” 

If you’re wondering how the Bruins will replace Recchi’s leadership, the answer is simple: they won’t. It’s how strong they are without him that will play a large part in determining the makeup of the defending champions.