Boston Bruins fans can breathe a sigh of relief regarding David Pastrnak.
It was reported on Friday that while the Bruins winger was assigned the league’s “not fit to participate” directive, it was not because Pastrnak tested positive for COVID-19, his agent JP Barry told The Athletic.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed what Barry said while speaking to reporters on Zoom’s call on Saturday, explaining how the NHL is protecting players’ privacy with the directive “not fit to participate.”
“We are protecting the rights of the players who collectively negotiated for them to come back, so if you want to publish it, any information on why they are not in practice, yes, it makes my life easier, so don’t ask me, Cassidy said after the practice, through the team. “Sometimes I don’t know what happened to each individual through their tests and what they were told, how long they will be in quarantine. I have a pretty good idea, but it seems to differ between players.
“So the Pasta agent, alright,” Cassidy continued. “There’s probably a lot of conversation about it, speculation, rightly so. When you don’t get answers, you’re going to speculate. So that’s where we’ve opened up with the players.
“So he came out, you know, like driving a nail into that coffin that tested positive because it didn’t, and that’s good news for us.” But at the same time, he is not with our group, so we would like to have him back. ”
#NHLBruins coach Bruce Cassidy, speaking to the media after practice, says that all the players who didn’t skate on Saturday were “not fit to participate”: pic.twitter.com/YoL8EUiEte
– Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) July 18, 2020
Hopefully Pastrnak can return to the ice soon, even though the Bruins don’t have practice on Sunday.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara / USA TODAY Sports Images
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