Savard has concussion ailment

Marc Savard

is missing the start of the Boston Bruins' training camp, because he is suffering from post-concussion syndrome, the team said yesterday.

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said that the star center has been suffering for a couple of weeks. He was in Boston while the team was taking physicals, but he couldn't work out and will not address the media.

Chiarelli would not reveal the exact nature of the symptoms, but said Savard was in good spirits.

Savard initially suffered a concussion March 7 after being hit from behind by Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke. Savard missed the rest of the regular season and did not return to the Bruins' lineup until the club's second-round playoff series against the Flyers.

There had been no indication from the Bruins in the weeks before camp that Savard was having any medical issues.

In other hockey news:

* The Chicago Blackhawks are close to a deal to assign goaltender Cristobal Huet to play this season in Europe, thus eliminating his $5.625 million salary-cap hit. Huet, 35, is entering the third year of a $22.5 million, 4-year contract he signed in July 2008.

* Brad Keselowski won the pole for the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, tomorrow at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a record lap of 133.572 mph. Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson qualified a career-worst 25th.

* English newcomer John Parry shot a 5-under-par 67 to take a one-shot lead after the second round of the PGA European Tour's Austrian Open in Atzenbrugg. Sharing second place were U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, Sweden's Pelle Edberg and Spain's Jose Manuel Lara.

* The U.S. Soccer Federation said the American team will play an exhibition against the Bafana Bafana in Cape Town on Nov. 17.

* American goalkeeper Hope Solo will have surgery to repair a torn labrum in her right shoulder and will miss qualifying for the Women's World Cup.

* Olympic gold medalist

Kristin Armstrong,

the most successful American road cyclist, is considering a comeback to professional cycling just days after giving birth to a son and a year after leaving the sport.

*

Dodge Morgan

, who in 1986 became the first American to sail solo around the globe without stopping - and did it in record time - died of complications from cancer. He was 78.

* Australia's women's basketball team beat the United States, 83-77, in Spain in a tuneup for the world championships.

* The United States and Colombia split their opening-day Davis Cup matches, with American Sam Querrey losing to Santiago Giraldo and American Mardy Fish edging Alejandro Falla. *