When the NHL finally made the call to postpone four Bruins games and shut down the franchise through the holiday break, there were very few objectors.
As of Monday morning, the Bruins remain at nine players currently mired in COVID-19 protocols, along with two other staff members. A week-plus break stands as the logical measure in order to try and get this latest outbreak contained, especially with no roster relief available in the form of taxi squads or emergency cap space.
And regardless of your sentiment regarding the NHL’s current testing procedures, the Bruins benefit immensely from pushing back these four games — given the ugly on-ice results put forward last Thursday when the listless B’s labored against the Islanders without Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand leading the charge.
With points at a premium, the Bruins will dodge a major bullet in terms of avoiding waltzing into scheduled losses with Bergeron/Marchand out of commission — with both star forwards slated to return (along with Craig Smith, Trent Frederic, Jeremy Swayman, Anton Blidh and Oskar Steen) by the time that the Bruins resume play on 12/27 against the Penguins.
And yet, even though the tentative plan for now is for the Bruins to ramp things back up once the NHL’s holiday break ends, that’s far from a given — given a number of circumstances far beyond the unpredictability of this recent COVID strain.
As of now, the NHL is still holding firm against a mandated, league-wide shutdown, even though nine teams have been sidelined through Christmas — Boston, Nashville, Colorado, Florida, Calgary, Detroit, Toronto, Columbus and Montreal.
A joint release from the NHL and NHLPA on Sunday noted:
“We will continue to play the 2021-22 regular-season schedule. Although there has been a recent increase in positive COVID test results among Players, coaches and hockey staff, there have been a low number of positive cases that have resulted in concerning symptoms or serious illness. Therefore, the NHLPA’s and NHL’s medical experts have determined that, with virtually all Players and Club hockey staff fully vaccinated, the need to temporarily shut down individual teams should continue to be made on a case-by-case basis.
"The effects of recently introduced enhanced prevention and detection measures will be evaluated daily. The NHL and NHLPA, along with their medical experts, will be monitoring not only the number and pattern of positive COVID results, but also the depth of Club line-ups so as to ensure both the health and safety of the Players and the integrity of League competition.”
Yes, as of right now, the NHL might be full steam ahead, but there sure seems to be plenty working against the Bruins when it comes to getting their games next Monday and Wednesday against the Penguins and Senators, respectively, off the ground.
No ramp-up time afforded
For almost every NHL club, the first game post-holiday break is often an ugly endeavor, with those mandated three days off allowing for plenty of rust to form on skaters’ legs.
For a majority of the Bruins, however, those legs might as well be stalagmites.
With the team facilities at Warrior Ice Arena shut down through the holiday break, the Bruins will not be able to take to the ice in a practice setting until 12/27 — in other words, the morning of their first game back against a Penguins team that is also jockeying for Wild-Card positioning in the Eastern Conference standings.
For guys like David Pastrnak, Charlie Coyle, Charlie McAvoy and other regulars who have so far been able to avoid COVID protocols — jumping right back into a game setting after what will be 10 days away from the rink is a big ask.
But then when you factor in guys like Marchand and Bergeron who have been in COVID protocols since Dec. 14 and 15, respectively, it sure doesn’t seem all that conducive to a team’s success to throw such a roster right back into the fray.
Don Sweeney noted on Saturday that going right from an extended shutdown to a regular-season tilt without any buffer period to get players’ legs back under them could be teams at a pretty severe disadvantage.
"I think you have to understand what the level playing field is for everyone across the league and make the best decisions in that sense,” Sweeney said. “Some teams are playing tonight because they're able to field their rosters and that may be no different than coming out of the break. We'll be obligated to fill our roster and play the game if it's on. Just like we did the other night with the Islanders. It's our job as managers and coaches to get the players that are available to us in a position that they can play and perform and hopefully be successful."
Now, all things considered, the Bruins and NHL don’t necessarily have a lot of leeway to push back more games and cater to unfortunate scheduling circumstances such as the ones presented on 12/27.
The product on the ice during that contest against the Penguins may not be pretty, but if the Bruins are able to bottle up this recent outbreak and have most of their lineup regulars back in the fold — the show might have to go on.
But that doesn’t mean that Boston is out of the woods when it comes to more COVID complications — especially as it pertains to travel up north.
Border issues loom large
When factoring in the 10-day quarantines in place due to COVID protocols, only Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar are slated to miss that 12/27 game against the Penguins.
But things get a whole lot more complicated the following Wednesday when the Bruins are slated to take on the Senators up in Ottawa on 12/29.
Even if Boston manages to avoid any more positive tests in the coming days (especially up in Canada), current quarantine restrictions up north mandate that visitors are not allowed into the country if 14 days have not passed since a positive COVID test. So even though guys like Bergeron and Swayman might be able to play on Monday against the Penguins — only Marchand and Smith will be eligible to play in Ottawa among the nine players currently in COVID protocols.
Unless the NHL augments its rulings on taxi squads or cap relief, the Bruins could very well find themselves fielding a roster with plenty of AHL talent sprinkled across the depth chart.
Of course, there could be bigger issues on the horizon as far as cross-border travel in the NHL — especially with that 14-day quarantine in place in Canada.
Even though the joint NHL/NHLPA release noted that the no league-wide shutdown is currently in the cards — that didn’t deter the NHL from postponing 12 games featuring head-to-head matchups between a U.S. and Canadian-based team leading into the holiday break.
The statement noted: “Due to the concern about cross-border travel and, given the fluid nature of federal travel restrictions, effective on Monday, all games involving a Canadian-based team playing a U.S.-based team from Monday, Dec. 20 through the start of the Holiday break on Dec. 23, will be postponed and rescheduled.”
While the days of an All-Canadian division are hopefully in the rearview mirror after last year’s region-based division reshuffle, it sure seems like the NHL has a lot of work to do when it comes to limiting the potential headaches of cross-border travel in wake of this latest COVID surge.