Boston Bruins fans may be able to breathe a sigh of relief regarding David Pastrnak.
It was reported Friday that while the Bruins winger was assigned the league directive of “unfit to participate,” it was not because Pastrnak tested positive for COVID-19, his agent J.P. Barry told The Athletic.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed what Barry stated while speaking with reporters on Zoom call Saturday, further explaining how the NHL is protecting players’ privacy with the “unfit to participate” directive.
“We’re protecting the players’ rights they collectively bargained that to come back so if they want to put it out there, any information why they’re not at practice, yeah it makes my life easier, then I’m not asked,” Cassidy said after practice, via the team. “Sometimes I don’t know what happened to each and every individual through their testing and what they were told, how long to quarantine. I get a pretty good idea, but it seems to differ between players.
“So Pasta’s agent, good,” Cassidy continued. “There’s probably a lot of conversation about it, speculation, rightfully so. When you don’t get answers, you’re going to speculate. So that’s where we’ve opened ourselves up to with the players.
“So him coming out, you know, kind of putting a nail in that coffin that he tested positive because he didn’t, and so that’s good news for us. But at the same time, he’s not with our group so we’d like to have him back.”
#NHLBruins coach Bruce Cassidy, speaking to the media after practice, says that all of the players that did not skate on Saturday were "unfit to participate": pic.twitter.com/YoL8EUiEte
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) July 18, 2020
Hopefully, Pastrnak is able to return to the ice shortly, despite the Bruins not holding practice Sunday.
