The lockout is over, so now what?

The league will begin a 48-game season -- on Jan. 19, in all likelihood, though there are still some reports floating around that the 15th could be in play -- in which teams only play in-conference opponents. Furthermore, the schedule will be far more condensed, meaning that fans often can expect four games a week. 

With a group of Bruins players taking the ice Monday at Agganis Arena (a regular occurrence throughout the lockout) in anticipation of training camp and, eventually, games, the wait for NHL hockey around these parts is finally drawing to a close. 

“Words can’t describe [how much I’ve missed it],” Tyler Seguin said Monday. “Just from hanging out with the guys, seeing everyone and obviously the game, it’s been a long [few] months.”

Now that we know there is going to be a season, here are some things to expect:

General madness: The schedule has yet to be released, but games will come much more frequently, making it a fast-paced season leading up to the playoffs.   

Add in that they’ll be seeing the same teams (in an improved Eastern Conference, by the way) more often and you can expect better rivalries to build throughout the season. Fewer games also means that two points will mean a lot more, so a bad month (as the Bruins had last season when they started off 3-7-0) could do major damage to a team’s playoff case. 

“It will be crazy, definitely,” Andrew Ference said on Dennis & Callahan. “It's just a concentration of games, and we're staying out East the whole time, so you're always playing against your rivals, which makes it great. 

“Talking to guys that went through it the last shortened season, guys like Cam [Neely] and some of the other players that were playing back then, they said it was awesome. As far as the work stoppage, it was just as awful and all those things. But once you got into the season they said it was an absolute sprint and a bit chaotic.”

Before madness will come sloppiness: When teams start training camp, some players will be in shape and some won’t be. A short camp will require them to get caught up to speed quickly, whether it’s improving conditioning or just getting comfortable on the ice. While the players are excited for the craziness of the condensed schedule, they’re also resigned to the fact that a short preseason likely will mean a sloppy opening week or two. 

“I'm sure the biggest adjustment will be for the guys that haven't been running into each other for the last six, seven months,” Shawn Thornton said. “Getting hit and going the other way, the aches and pains will be back. The hands have never felt this good. That will be different in the next month or so. There will be some sloppiness I'm sure.”

The Bruins at least have the benefit of an easier adjustment to training camp compared to other teams. While every team needs to worry about getting on the same page and making sure everyone is in shape, some clubs (such as the Canadiens) will be working with new coaches teaching a new system, while other teams will be trying to find chemistry with revamped rosters. 

Boston, meanwhile, has retained pretty much the same group of players and coaches. However, Milan Lucic feels the B’s can’t assume they’ll have it easier than everyone else. 

“We can't just think it's going to happen,” Lucic said. “At the start of last season, we thought it was just going to happen, it was just going to come easy again because we were the champs and we started off 3-7. Until we started making it happen, that's when things started to turn around for us. 

“I think we learned our lesson last year, so we know going into this year that in order for us to have a good start and try to make sure our game isn't sloppy off the bat, and we all go out there and make it happen. It all starts in practice and how the coaches run us through our teams.”

Tuukka Rask will have his hands full: In taking over as the Bruins’ No. 1 goaltender in a rapid-fire season, Tuukka Rask will be going from playing once a week to playing three times a week or more. The spotlight was already on Rask to begin with when Tim Thomas decided to take the year off, but for a guy who has to prove that he can be both an elite starting goaltender and stay healthy, this schedule should be a challenge.  

“It's going to be almost every other day, so the workload's going to be big, but that's why you work out during the summer, and for me I went overseas to stay sharp and stay in game shape, so it shouldn't be an issue,” Rask said Monday.

“As a goalie, it's going to be a tough challenge physically and mentally, and I think we've got many good goalies in our organization who can help us out.”

Rask hasn’t spoken to Thomas, as he tried to give the two-time Vezina winner a ring recently, only to find out that Thomas had changed his number. He hasn’t spoken to backup Anton Khudobin either, as Khudobin is playing in the KHL.

"He's in Russia,” Rask said with a laugh. “I don't even know what kind of number he's got there."

Rask says he's 100-percent healthy after missing the end of last month-plus of the 2011-12 regular season with an abdomen/groin strain. Asked whether he still feels like he’s getting a full season in this year based on the eight games he played in the Czech Republic, Rask said “it does and it doesn’t,” as he hasn’t played in a game in over a month since returning to Boston.  

“It's still a lot of games,” he added. “So I'm sure it's going to feel like a full season. “

Rask is the victim of some bad luck, as he signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal as a restricted free agent last summer with the hope that playing a full season as the Bruins’ top goalie could earn him a better payday next year as a restricted free agent. The lockout took away his opportunity to play a full season, but he still sees the opportunity to prove to the B’s that he is their goalie of the future. 

“I mean, I've still got to play good no matter what,” Rask said. “It doesn't matter if it's one game or 80 games. We'll see what happens. I'm just trying to be my best and see where it leads.”