Darcy Tucker hopes it will be a long time before he truly knows what heaven is like. But he’s pretty sure he has a good idea.

Tucker signed as a free agent with the Colorado Avalanche this summer after seven seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, while goaltender Andrew Raycroft signed with the Avs after two seasons with the Buds.

Both had their contracts bought out this summer.

“Andrew and I feel like we’re in the Field of Dreams,” Tucker told the Denver Post. “We walked out of the corn field and into something great.

“We’re adjusting really well and the guys have been great with us. The guys on this team have been really refreshing. We’ve got a good mix of younger guys who make you feel young, plus a nice mix of older guys you can actually relate to sometimes.”

Tucker has played in 813 career NHL games with Montreal, Tampa Bay and Toronto. Last season, he scored 18 goals and 16 assists in 74 games with Toronto in what was a tough year for the veteran centreman.

After the Leafs bought out the final three years of his four-year, $12-million US contract, he joined the Avs with a two-year, $4.5-million deal.

“I just need to be myself,” Tucker told the Post. “As a player, you want to fit in and play like you always have. I think those younger guys make me feel like I’ve got a little bit of the edge back.

“It’s always nice to have, when you’re a boxer, guys in your corner of the ring and when you go on the ice, you don’t feel alone out there. You feel like you’ve got a good group of guys that no matter what happens, we’re going to stick together.”

Giroux on the bubble

Philadelphia Flyers prospect Claude Giroux was a name mentioned in recent weeks for potential rookie of the year honours in the NHL.

But if the comments from Flyers coach John Stevens are any indication, it appears his chances of cracking the Flyers’ opening-day roster are slim.

“I think Claude has done just OK, to be honest with you,” Stevens told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I think there was a lot of pressure on this kid coming in.”

The 20-year-old was the Flyers’ No. 1 pick (22nd overall) in the 2006 entry draft. He has been a dominant offensive force for three seasons with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

In his rookie campaign in 2005-06, he scored 39 goals and 64 assists, then followed that up with 48 goals and 64 assists in 2006-07 and 38 goals and 68 assists in 55 games last season.

He’s scoreless in four pre-season games with a minus-3 ranking.

“He’s still being evaluated as we move along,” Stevens told the newspaper. “But either way, I think he’s going to play some games. Whether he starts here or goes to the Phantoms and comes back, I don’t know.

“If he does start the year down there, it just means we’re deep enough here. If you look at our three lines, left and right side, Claude can play either side. We’re pretty strong over the first three lines on the wings.”

Bruins begin team bonding

The Boston Bruins begin the regular season with four straight road games.

But the team is wasting no time in getting to know each other, with the Bruins spending part of training camp in Vermont for the second straight year.

“When we start the season, it’s not about bonding. It’s about winning hockey games,” Bruins coach Claude Julien told the Boston Globe. “We need to do this kind of bonding now before the season starts.”

While a few of the 31 players took their golf clubs, they waded their way through a ropes course at a Vermont facility and spent time signing autographs at a Ben & Jerry’s Factory.

“We got really good feedback from the players last year,” said Julien. “They thought it was good. We felt it was very good. You can credit some of it to the start the team had on the ice.

“But I think as far as building team chemistry and players getting along, I think when you look at the long run from last year, team chemistry was extremely good. If you can start on the right foot, it just builds from there. I think giving ourselves an opportunity to do those things is very important.”

Cap plays havoc with rosters

While the NHL’s salary cap has forced teams into employing capologists, or just somebody who is good with a calculator, the cap has also put some pressure on coaches.

Every decision has to not only work on the ice, it has to work on the ledger.

“It’s an interesting situation,” a longtime player agent told the Boston Herald. “It used to be you could just say, ‘Which 20 guys are the best players?’ Not anymore.”

By most reports, the Bruins have about $1.3 million in cap space, while some teams — Calgary, Washington and San Jose — are over the cap limit.

Keeping in mind the bottom line may play a role in what decisions Bruins coach Claude Julien makes.

“We need to put the best team on the ice that’s available,” Julien told the Herald. “Somehow we’ve got to make it work.”

Herald sources have suggested the centre Marc Savard, who will make $5 million US this season and next year, could be moved for a puck-moving defenceman.

“That wouldn’t surprise me,” the agent said of the rumours surrounding Savard. “It’s been floating around for a while.”

Walker walks tall

Scott Walker may be small in size, but he seems to make up for it in his heart.

The Carolina Hurricanes right-winger is making a physical impact this pre-season, especially after coming to the defence of teammate Matt Cullen on Sunday in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Walker, all five-foot-10 and 196 pounds of him, sent a message to Flyers defenceman Nate Guenin, who blindsided Cullen in the first period in Sunday’s 1-0 Carolina victory.

“He’s one of those guys you love to have on your team because he does things like that,” Cullen told the Raleigh News Observer “He’s done that before, and he’s become such an important part of our team because of that, and the way he plays, and the way be puts himself on the line every game.”

The Hurricanes beefed up in the past couple of seasons, by adding forward Wade Brookbank and blue-liner Tim Conboy. Having Walker is a bonus.

The 35-year-old veteran has always brought toughness with his game. In his first three NHL seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, he chalked up 433 penalty minutes.

“I have a little bit of a temper,” he told the News Observer. “Sometimes, I forget what happens out there. I say some things or do some things I don’t remember.

“People say, ‘Oh, you’re not scared.’ I’m scared every game. You play scared. There are big guys out there and you can get run over. But that’s how you play — you can feed off the fear.”

Devils stopper bounces back

The New Jersey Devils had some concern when training opened about the health of back-up goaltender Kevin Weekes.

But Weekes, who is in his second season with the Devils and underwent surgery in the spring to repair a torn biceps tendon, seems to have passed the early tests.

The 33-year-old, who has also had NHL stops with Florida, Vancouver, New York Islanders, Tampa Bay, Carolina and the New York Rangers, stopped 23 of 26 shots in a 3-2 exhibition loss to Washington on Monday.

He played the full 60 minutes without feeling any ill-effects.

“Whenever you’re injured or you undergo something, you take for granted that everything is going to be OK,” Weekes told the New Jersey Star-Ledger. “I worked really hard for it to be OK, but it’s still the human body.”

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello signed Scott Clemmensen in case Weekes wasn’t ready to go, and coach Brent Sutter has openly said that the back-up job belongs to Weekes.

“We wouldn’t have done what we’ve done with him if there was any danger,” coach Brent Sutter said. “He was given complete clearance, full bore ahead. If I had been told differently, from Lou or the doctors, that we had to do something differently, we would have. He’s good to go and he’s showing that.”

Ice chips

Wednesday’s game between the New York Rangers and Metallurg Magnitogorsk was the first between an NHL team and a Russian team since Jan. 15, 1991, when the Quebec Nordiques fell 4-1 to Moscow Dynamo. . . . Prior to Wednesday’s 4-3 victory, the Rangers have neverbeaten a team from Russia, going 0-3 in exhibitions played during the 1975-76, 1979-80 and 1990-91 seasons. . . . Philadelphia Flyers backup goalie Antero Niittymaki, recovering from hip surgery, practised for 30 minutes on Tuesday and said he’s hoping to be ready when the season opens. “I wouldn’t say I’m 100 per cent, but I’m close,” he said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.