The Boston Bruins are getting firsthand experience in how the NHL’s injury protocol will work amid the league’s restart, and it’s left just about everyone else scratching their heads.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy revealed Thursday that both David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase were deemed “unfit to participate” for the team’s practice session. Both players, who were late to rejoin the team, also missed Friday’s session. But because of the desire to keep any medical information private amid a global pandemic, there’s little anyone can provide in terms of official word about players’ statuses.
So, we’re left to wonder what exactly the reason is for the absences of Pastrnak and Kase, especially considering both skated Wednesday in their first day back with the team only to vanish for the next two days.
Unsurprisingly, given the lack of concrete information, theories have surfaced, as well as photos on social media of Pastrnak and Kase out in what appears to be the North End and working out at a rink that wasn’t Warrior Ice Arena.
“I don’t know where they were,” Cassidy said Friday when asked about the photos. “Obviously if pictures are out there, I assume they’re real. I don’t know. I don’t believe he’s been disciplined by the league. As for, did it fit in the protocol? I don’t have a good answer for that.”
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Regarding whether the duo has been skating on their own, either prior to returning to the team or since, Cassidy seemed unsure of how that would be viewed in the league’s return-to-play efforts.
“If the league allows them to work out on their own, I’m OK with them trying to get their conditioning where it needs to be,” Cassidy said. “What are the parameters of it? Are they near people that are at risk? Are they social distancing? Are they doing it the right way? That’s the term I’m going to use: doing it the right way, to prepare yourself, then I’m OK. If not, and they’re putting themselves in harm’s way, then obviously that’s not a good thing. I don’t want to judge Pasta or Kase without knowing all the facts of what happened before they got here.”
Cassidy did make one thing fairly clear.
“This isn’t personal discipline against those two guys,” he explained. “If anything, when you’re out that long, you almost have to go the other way and get them up to speed. That’s not the case. We’re not disciplining anybody on our team right now for individual action. This all, again, unfit to participate right now.”
Cassidy indicated he hadn’t been told the NHL disciplined the players — again, for what, it’s uncertain — and you’d think the head coach of the team would know whether two of his best players were being punished by the league.
“I don’t know what the parameters of their when they came back from Europe, what they were, other than there is protocol in place that you have to have X amount of negative tests,” Cassidy continued. “Sometimes those come back quicker than others, and until you can return on the ice. We’ve had a number of guys who went through that. I couldn’t get in the rink, the coaching staff couldn’t. It’s not just unique to the players. That’s what was put in the place. There could have been a situation where they were going through that process, too. I honestly don’t know.”
Neither does anyone else right now. That’s life in the NHL for the foreseeable future, as Cassidy and the Bruins just have to hope both players will be back on the ice before too long.
