NHL Return: Cam Neely, Bruins Preparing For Next Phases

The Boston Bruins are preparing for an eventual return to NHL action this summer. Although training camps will not open until July 10th at the earliest, per Elliotte Friedman, Phases 2 and 3 will both occur in the next few weeks. The Bruins will need to prepare themselves for all that comes with those Phases. President Cam Neely discussed how the club is preparing for the next two Phases on Thursday. Neely met with the media via Zoom.

“Excited to at least get to the next phase where the players and owners have agreed upon a format on return to play,” Neely began. “Hopefully soon we’ll be able to get our facility open on a voluntary basis for the players to come in and use.”

That could be difficult to do in the immediate future. Neely himself admitted that ice has yet to be put back down at Warrior Ice Arena, the Bruins practice facility.

“Once we can figure out when to get the ice down, I think you’ll see more and more players trickle in,” Cam Neely continued. “We still have a lot of guys that have stayed in the local areas. So getting back into the facility, getting back on the ice, I think our guys are itching to do that.”

When the players do return to Warrior, things will not be the same. Phase 2 will see only small groups participate in on-ice sessions. It will require a lot of work from arena staff. Neely went into detail on how the club is preparing for that.

“We’re walking through it and making sure we have everything in place,” Neely said. “From sanitizing to temperatures, to making sure that the groups are spaced well enough apart. So we can clean in between each group. It’s groups of six, so we feel like, potentially, by the time we’re able to go we could have three groups of six rotating, but we don’t know the full extent of the numbers yet of players that will be here when we have ice up and running.”