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The Canadiens’ 20-day training camp begins Thursday in Brossard with medicals and the ever-popular fitness tests.

It hits the ice Friday for the first day of practice, will continue with a fan-friendly scrimmage two days later at the Bell Centre, roll through seven preseason games in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City and Ottawa, and conclude Oct. 6 probably with a Brossard skate before the team charters out for the Oct. 7 season-opener as visitors for the Maple Leafs.

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Over these 20 days, there will be sore muscles, hard management decisions, reassignment of players to their junior teams and to the American Hockey League’s St. John’s IceCaps and more questions than answers in some cases.

And, of course, there will be the annual wave of optimism greeting the end of summer that, in the modern National Hockey League, is not an off-season as much as a rude interruption of games.

I will dearly miss a talk this week with late Canadiens icon Jean Béliveau, a pre-camp custom that spanned maybe 15 years. Le Gros Bill always had a fresh, delightful training-camp story to relate, no matter how many he had previously shared with me.