An excerpt from the Boston Globe (Kevin Paul Dupont):
Ryder, 28, will travel south to Boston next week, checking out places to live after signing on with the Bruins as an unrestricted free agent July 1, getting a $12 million payday (over the next three seasons). After back-to-back 30-goal seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, he slumped to a career low of 14 in 2007-08, the hard-hitting onetime sniper becoming a forgotten part in Guy Carbonneau’s up-tempo bleu-blanc-rouge offense.
“A weird year, I’ll tell you that,” said Ryder, sitting in the lobby of a downtown hotel last week, not far from the condo he owns here. “I started out on a line [with top forwards Saku Koivu and Chris Higgins], got pushed back in the lineup, and then all of a sudden, I was out of the lineup.
“To be honest, I still don’t know what happened. All I ever heard from the coaches was, ‘Shoot the puck . . . work hard . . . it will all work out.’ But . . .”