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Seguin’s “missed breakfast because alarm was on Boston time” excuse has some holes

Boston Bruins v Toronto Maple Leafs

TORONTO, CANADA - NOVEMBER 5: Tyler Seguin #19 of the Boston Bruins shoots during warmup before NHL action against the Toronto Maple Leafs at The Air Canada Centre November 5, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)

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Interesting piece here from CBS Boston’s Matt Kalman on the ramifications of Tyler Seguin missing a Bruins team breakfast. Specifically, the reason Seguin gave for missing the breakfast:

That he offered a lame excuse about setting his clock on Boston time (he would’ve been early had that been the case), wasn’t the best start on the road to accountability. However, as we all know, he has plenty of time, starting now, to show not only that he’s learned his lesson, but maybe to teach the lesson to others.

He can take the initiative to be early or exactly on time, and maybe even rally many of his teammates to do the same, going forward.

Seguin operates primarily in Boston (Eastern Standard Time) but missed the team breakfast in Winnipeg (Central). For those without a world clock handy, allow me to explain: Setting your alarm for, say, 6:30 a.m. “Boston time” means it would go off at 5:30 a.m. “Winnipeg time” -- ergo, you’d be an hour early for whatever it is you had to wake up for.

BUS-TED!

In addition to the Seguin thing, Kalman had some other choice nuggets about Boston’s breakfast ritual:

Head coach Claude Julien put on the breakfasts, which one former Bruins player said typically takes place early on game day and lasts during a brief window of around an hour, in order to take stock of his players’ frame of reference (i.e. are they hung over?)

I can just see Julien grilling the waiters to see who ordered what. “Which guy got the plain toast and ginger ale? Was it Marchand?”

It takes discipline to not only get down to breakfast, but do so in your formal travel clothes.

I knew a guy that used to counter this by sleeping in the clothes he planned on wearing to breakfast, giving himself the six extra minutes of sleep that would’ve otherwise been wasted getting changed. The only problems were that 1) he’d sleep terribly and 2) his clothes would be more wrinkled than a Shar Pei. Wasn’t the smartest guy I ever met.

Veterans might make it down to breakfast just before the time window closes. On rare occasions, they might even pass on breakfast for a reason they have to provide.

Shawn Thornton: “I’m not going to breakfast tomorrow.”

Claude Julien: “What’s your reason?”

Thornton: “My reason is I don’t want to.”

/uncomfortable pause

Julien: “See you at the rink.”

[Update: CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty weighs in. “So Tyler Seguin didn’t set his alarm clock for the proper time on Tuesday morning. Or so he says. But if you have a shred of common sense, you realize that if his alarm clock was set to Eastern Standard Time, it would have made him an hour early rather than an hour late.”]