NHL Postpones Boston Bruins Game Vs. Canadiens

Logic and reason are finally winning out as the NHL has announced it’s postponed Saturday’s Boston Bruins game vs. the Canadiens at the Bell Centre amidst an ongoing COVID outbreak with the Black and Gold.

The Boston Bruins were so wary of entering Canada for this weekend’s back-to-back vs. Montreal and Ottawa that they remained behind in New York to practice on Friday after Thursday night’s 3-1 loss to the Islanders. The B’s were waiting COVID test results on Friday to see if any more players would be pulled from a rag tap lineup and placed into the league’s COVID protocol.

The Bruins currently have seven players in COVID protocol, including key players like Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Craig Smith and Jeremy Swayman, and were forced to ice a lineup of just 11 forwards and six defensemen in the Isles loss due to salary cap constraints.

Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy was asked postgame on Thursday if the Bruins had any choice whether or not to play vs. the Islanders given the conditions, and said they were prepared to play until the NHL said they were shut down.

“I don’t believe so. That’s a question for Donny [Sweeney],” said Cassidy, when asked if the Bruins were given a choice of whether or not to play Thursday’s game. “It was not discussed with me. I was assuming we were playing all along even with being down one guy. My guess is if there were a few more positives then that option probably would have been on the table. But to my knowledge, it wasn’t on the table. We were here to play.”

It remains to be seen if the Bruins will travel to Ottawa to play the Senators on Sunday afternoon, but it was pretty telling that the NHL didn’t address when the B’s will play next in announcing Saturday’s postponement in Montreal.