Cam Neely concedes that COVID-19 has put a bit of a crimp in Bruins camp - The Boston Globe
The Bruins on Wednesday stood but 70 or so days from clinching the franchise’s seventh Stanley Cup.
So there, could your faithful puck chronicler be any more blue-skies-and-rainbows than that? The Jacobs family stick-carriers don’t even leave here until Sunday to begin their playoff run, and what once seemed so distant now is only about 10 weeks away from possibly being a “Get the Duck Boats ready!” reality.
No telling, of course, what the local rules and regs would be, say, in that first week of October. There could be no boats and no Cup parade allowed in Boston.
Or, there could be a parade with no one other than cardboard cutouts of fans allowed to line up cheek-to-jowl along the route.
The Bruins thus far have had, shall we say, a less-than-seamless re-immersion since the start of conditioning camp last Monday. They didn’t practice Wednesday, a scheduled day off, and it doesn’t appear that David Pastrnak or fellow Czech winger Ondrej Kase will make their camp debuts Thursday when Bruce Cassidy’s charges return to on-ice workouts in Brighton.
In fact, based on what Cam Neely said during a Zoom session Wednesday with reporters, it’s possible both will miss the entirety of the two-week camp.
“It’s hard to say right now,” noted Neely, asked if the pair might not participate until next week’s workouts in Toronto. “My best guess would be Toronto. There’s hopes before we leave. But my best guess would be Toronto.”
Neely is the team president, which is to say he’s an informed guesser. Which is also to say his guess is not good news. All of this one day after franchise goalie Tuukka Rask revealed that he has been nursing a broken finger, suffered while he performed box jumps during his off-ice training.
Can someone please hit the “fast-forward” button on Return to Play Camp?
Pastrnak was tied for the league lead in goals (48) before the NHL went dark in March. Kase is slotted as the No. 2 right winger, acquired in the David Backes swap to try to build the secondary scoring that is a prerequisite for clubs hoping to make a serious Cup run.
Of the 24 teams tuning up for the postseason run, the Bruins have been topping the list of daily scratches for workouts. And though the league has not provided a comprehensive day-to-day accounting of who has been scratched, or for what reasons, Neely did not disagree with the characterization that the Bruins thus far have been more challenged to keep bodies in workouts than many or most of the other 23 teams.
Some of the reasons for the absences, said Neely, have been due to stringent state and city health guidelines.
“Some other teams are dealing with this, obviously,” he said. “But what the state regulations are, compared maybe to some other states, are a little different across the country. We’re following all the state guidelines, and what our doctor is saying, and the expectations of the city.
“I mean, we had the date when camp was started,” said Neely, asked if he were disappointed how this has played out, “and that some players would need to quarantine when they get here. You kind of hope they’d get here a little earlier.”
The team, noted Neely, “didn’t have much say in that, and it was really left up to the players.”
“Obviously,” he added, “with what’s played out and transpired, you certainly would have hoped that there’d been some different decisions made. But in the long run, I don’t know if it’s really going to affect us. Once we get into Toronto, I think we’ll be fine.”
The Bruins on Wednesday stood but 70 or so days from clinching the franchise’s seventh Stanley Cup.
So there, could your faithful puck chronicler be any more blue-skies-and-rainbows than that? The Jacobs family stick-carriers don’t even leave here until Sunday to begin their playoff run, and what once seemed so distant now is only about 10 weeks away from possibly being a “Get the Duck Boats ready!” reality.
No telling, of course, what the local rules and regs would be, say, in that first week of October. There could be no boats and no Cup parade allowed in Boston.
Or, there could be a parade with no one other than cardboard cutouts of fans allowed to line up cheek-to-jowl along the route.
The Bruins thus far have had, shall we say, a less-than-seamless re-immersion since the start of conditioning camp last Monday. They didn’t practice Wednesday, a scheduled day off, and it doesn’t appear that David Pastrnak or fellow Czech winger Ondrej Kase will make their camp debuts Thursday when Bruce Cassidy’s charges return to on-ice workouts in Brighton.
In fact, based on what Cam Neely said during a Zoom session Wednesday with reporters, it’s possible both will miss the entirety of the two-week camp.
“It’s hard to say right now,” noted Neely, asked if the pair might not participate until next week’s workouts in Toronto. “My best guess would be Toronto. There’s hopes before we leave. But my best guess would be Toronto.”
Neely is the team president, which is to say he’s an informed guesser. Which is also to say his guess is not good news. All of this one day after franchise goalie Tuukka Rask revealed that he has been nursing a broken finger, suffered while he performed box jumps during his off-ice training.
Can someone please hit the “fast-forward” button on Return to Play Camp?
Pastrnak was tied for the league lead in goals (48) before the NHL went dark in March. Kase is slotted as the No. 2 right winger, acquired in the David Backes swap to try to build the secondary scoring that is a prerequisite for clubs hoping to make a serious Cup run.
Of the 24 teams tuning up for the postseason run, the Bruins have been topping the list of daily scratches for workouts. And though the league has not provided a comprehensive day-to-day accounting of who has been scratched, or for what reasons, Neely did not disagree with the characterization that the Bruins thus far have been more challenged to keep bodies in workouts than many or most of the other 23 teams.
Some of the reasons for the absences, said Neely, have been due to stringent state and city health guidelines.
“Some other teams are dealing with this, obviously,” he said. “But what the state regulations are, compared maybe to some other states, are a little different across the country. We’re following all the state guidelines, and what our doctor is saying, and the expectations of the city.
“I mean, we had the date when camp was started,” said Neely, asked if he were disappointed how this has played out, “and that some players would need to quarantine when they get here. You kind of hope they’d get here a little earlier.”
The team, noted Neely, “didn’t have much say in that, and it was really left up to the players.”
“Obviously,” he added, “with what’s played out and transpired, you certainly would have hoped that there’d been some different decisions made. But in the long run, I don’t know if it’s really going to affect us. Once we get into Toronto, I think we’ll be fine.”
