Bruins' next 2 games postponed after Pastrnak, Krejci & 2 more B's skaters enter COVID-19 protocols

The Bruins are the latest NHL squad potentially dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19, with the league announcing Friday that four more players (in addition to Sean Kuraly) entered COVID-19 Protocols earlier this morning. As a result, Boston's matinee matchup against the Sabres on Saturday and Tuesday's home game against the Islanders have been postponed to a later date.

UPDATE: The NHL announced its latest COVID-19 protocol list at 5 p.m. on Friday — with David Pastrnak, David Krejci, Jake DeBrusk and Craig Smith joining Kuraly on this list. It is important to note that a player placed on the NHL’s COVID Protocols list doesn’t signal that said individual HAS tested positive for COVID-19. Other reasons can include possible symptoms, a false positive test, quarantine due to contact tracing, inconclusive results and more. However, given how quickly this has escalated in just the span of a few days, one has to assume that where there's smoke, there could be fire when it comes to tracking any potential positive cases. 

Pending test results in the coming days, it is expected that the Bruins will be able to re-open their facilities for practice on Wednesday, March 24 — potentially setting up a return on Thursday night against the Islanders in what will be the first game with fans in the TD Garden stands since March 7, 2020.

Ahead of Thursday's 4-1 victory over the Sabres, both Boston and Buffalo's morning skates were cancelled due to both Kuraly and a Sabres staff member entering into protocols. However, after more rapid testing was conducted, the NHL gave both clubs the green light to continue the game as scheduled.

Clearly, that appeared to be a short-sighted call (to put it lightly) — given the growing number of B's skaters entering the NHL's COVID protocol list.

This is the fourth time this month that the Bruins have had players land on the COVID-19 protocol list.  Charlie Coyle missed one game back on March 3 and Jake DeBrusk was held out of the B’s 4-0 loss to the Rangers back on March 13 due to false positive tests — with both skaters cleared to return in short order. Given the proximity in which both Kuraly and then these four players entered protocols, the decision to lock things down with this roster was the right call — and potentially another major misstep by the NHL when it comes to curbing a larger outbreak.

The Sabres are all too familiar with such a scenario — as Buffalo was forced to shut down operations for an extended stretch back in February after playing a pair of games with a Devils team that seemed to be in the midst of a full-blown outbreak.

From our story on Boston's first set of postponed games — and Buffalo's brutal break: 

According to The Athletic, the Sabres requested more info from both the Devils and the NHL about the health of the New Jersey club entering their weekend series, but were denied. Buffalo had every right to be concerned, given that Devils forward Travis Zajac was added to COVID-19 protocol list Friday ahead of the two-game set.

Sure enough, in the midst of the two games between the Sabres and Devils, New Jersey winger Kyle Palmieri took part in Saturday's contest but was added to the COVID-19 list Sunday. But Sunday's game went on as scheduled between both clubs, for some reason. And, of course, the NHL announced on Monday that the Devils would be shut down through at least Saturday due to COVID concerns. On Tuesday, there were FOURTEEN (14!) Devils skaters featured on the COVID-19 Protocols list.

Hopefully for all parties involved, this doesn't devolve into another major outbreak for both Boston and Buffalo, because the red flags were absolutely there, given that both teams were dealing with potential issues.

When the Bruins are cleared to return (and hopefully healthy), an already compressed schedule will become even more taxing — with the team now set to cram in 28 games in just 45 days.