Jake DeBrusk had a stroke of bad luck Saturday morning.
With the Boston Bruins set to face the New York Rangers in a Saturday matinee, DeBrusk ended up in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol in the morning ahead of the game.
It is unclear if DeBrusk returned a false positive (like Charlie Coyle), an inconclusive test, was a close contact or actually has contracted the coronavirus. Whatever the case may be, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy feels for the winger, who had a bounce-back game Thursday against the Blueshirts.
"It's a tough break for him," Cassidy said Saturday morning. "He'll have to go through the protocol now and hopefully pop some negative tests or realize like Coyle it was a false positive, but we don't know that and we'll see how it goes. Hopefully that's the case for him so he can get right back in there, I'm sure he's feeling good about his game after the other night.
"Little bit of adversity this year for Jake, like I said hopefully it's one (of the situations) that he can get back in there and not have to do the full two weeks (or deal with) any other symptoms that may go with it. So that's where it is for Jake, and that's it. Unfortunately for the Bruins, he had a good, solid game (Thursday), did some of the things that we expect to see from him and were hoping to see more of it today, but that's not gonna happen, so hopefully it's Monday or Tuesday."
A player has to return multiple negative tests in order to clear the protocol. As a result, it's unclear if DeBrusk will be able to even join the Bruins when they head to Pittsburgh for a back-to-back against the Penguins beginning Monday.
