Today in “INADEQUATE NEWS …”
The Bruins had another day of practice today, and were playing with a lighter-than-usual team: Seven additional players were out of practice today due to their “inability to participate.”
Yes seven.
Tuukka Rask, Nick Ritchie, Chris Wagner, Torey Krug, Charlie Coyle, David Krejci and Sean Kuraly were absent today, teaming up with David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase to create a pretty decent UNFIT lineup.
Lest we think the players had a fit or tension of any kind, Bruce Cassidy offered clarity that actually only added to the mystery.
From the Bruins website:
“We had no injuries to speak of,” Cassidy said. “Not fit to play: The league has asked us to continue in that line out of respect for the privacy of the players. That is what we will do … there are always different reasons. There are the quarantine rules, we must wait for the results of the tests, there are several different things that influence this. You don’t automatically assume we have a positive test. “
Well that solves it!
Since Cassidy explicitly said that none of the boys were injured, she essentially confirmed that the absences are related to COVID, either quarantine, awaiting test results, positive tests, etc.
Honestly, none of this is Cassidy or the team’s fault. They only play by the mysterious league rules.
However, the weirdest part about it is that the Bruins’ website had information on Athleticism story about Pastrnak’s absence, which essentially confirms it.
So … the team can share it when other people filter the news, but they can’t share the news themselves. Well done NHL.
Ideally, the absences from the boys above will be more in line with Joakim Nordstrom’s absence, as the striker missed practice on Friday but returned today.
