Zdeno Chara is day-to-day after sustaining a leg contusion at Training Camp on Monday

It’s not quite opening night in the NHL, but the 2011-12 pre-season is here nonetheless.

Four games are scheduled for today’s slate with Nashville and Florida currently underway. With that, here’s a look at the news and notes around the Hub and the NHL as seen on the Internets.

Around the Hub

Defenseman Zdeno Chara left practice on Monday after a puck hit his leg when he attempted to shoot the puck and did not return. Head coach Claude Julien and company will be optimistic about Chara, who suffered a leg contusion as a result: “Right now, it’s a contusion and we’ll evaluate it as we go along,” Julien said. Read more about this in Matt Kalman’s post on The Bruins Blog.

Not to be forgotten, this was the first day of intersquad scrimmages at the TD Garden. CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty has the details.

Wait, today was only the first inter-squad scrimmage? Don’t tell that to Tim Thomas (Doug Flynn NESN.com)

Thomas’ counterpart, meanwhile, Tuukka Rask, is looking to rebound after last season. Perhaps he shouldn’t look too far in asking advice to Thomas after his bounce back season in 2010-11. Hmmmmmmmmm (Brendan Hall, ESPN Boston)

One year and 10 lbs. of added muscle gives Tyler Seguin confidence heading into the upcoming season. (Jesse Connolly, New England Hockey Journal)

One of the early storylines (shameless self promotion can be seen here on Bruins Daily) happens to be the search for that second — or even third — alternate captain for the Black and Gold. Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe breaks down the candidates.

Around the league

The health of Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller will be key in order to sustain their success from last year says Curtis Zupeke of NHL.com

Mike Danton’s strange career journey takes a turn for the better after saving a teammate’s life (Sean Leahy/Puck Daddy)

The popular Devils blog, In Lou We Trust, polled New Jersey’s fanbase on how much they think Martin Brodeur is worth in his last year of the contract

Winging it in Motown, simulates the upcoming season on NHL 12

Finally, in fantasy hockey news, your’s truly had his first draft of the year in The Program Keeper League — conducted by the self-proclaimed director of the site, Chris Wassel, who also has his own podcast every Wednesday and Sunday night for two hours beggining at 8 p.m. (a show that is also hosted by your’s truly). Although there is no recap posted yet on this year’s draft, Wassel does have a post on a rather unique trade that happened just days before the draft.

END NOTE: Bruins Daily will also be running a Fantasy Hockey league for the 2011-12 season. If interested, you can DM your’s truly @rosieshockey for more details.