The Bruins were the target of a COVID outbreak this past week and ended up having to play two games without some of their best players. In Long Island last Thursday, Boston only actually had enough players to skate 17 on the ice. Thankfully though, all of Boston’s players became healthy immediately! Allowing for them to play their two games this past weekend!
Bruins Beat Down Montreal
Boston’s first stop in their short road trip was in dreaded Montreal. After beating the Habs earlier this season, the Bruins clearly wanted to make a trend of that this past Saturday. All of the Bruins came to play, and it looked like COVID never even really affected the team. Shot after shot came reigning down on poor Jake Allen, who was in the net for the Habs.
Brad Marchand continued to stake his claim as the most important Bruin this season by putting up two goals. David Pastrnak even got out of his goal-scoring slump by adding to the Bruins lead early in the third period. As a Bruins fan, it was exciting to see that 100% really happened because Pastrnak has not been as sharp as he normally is this season. Following two Montreal goals in garbage time, Boston would go on to win 4-2 against their long-time rivals.
Bruins Have No Breaks For Ottawa
Boston had a quick turnaround for their next game, playing in Ottawa at 5 PM on Sunday. Normally with that quick of a turnaround, players would often look very tired on the ice, but not the Bruins. The team would not let up against Ottawa, this time scoring 5 goals instead of 4. Though it seemed goals were hard to come by for Boston, this game and the last really were great to watch.
Boston, this time, was able to shutout Ottawa after Linus Ullmark was denied his shutout the previous night. And again, it is just amazing that Ullmark could play in back-to-back nights with no issues! Taylor Hall, similar to Pastrnak, also got out of his goal-scoring slump, which I am again so glad actually happened. I am so thankful that the NHL allowed these two games to happen!
Reality Check
Ok, I’ve had my fun, now it’s time to talk about what really has been going on. The NHL has been absolutely bungling COVID this season. Teams are being shut down left and right and some can’t even reliably cross into Canada. It just has been awful. The NHL currently has the policy of “wait until this is an unsolvable issue.” Just look at the two games I pretended happened. Neither of them got postponed until the last possible second.
What’s even funnier is that they got postponed after the NHL announced that the Bruins-Avalanche game in Boston this coming Thursday would be pushed back. Which is like, what? The NHL has basically almost ruined their own season, and unfortunately, it seems as though the best way to mitigate their issues is to not send their players to the Olympics.
Now even if the NHL had handled everything perfectly, they still may not have sent players to the Olympics due to the quarantine rules China is pushing on athletes. They would more likely be going if half the league did not get an extended Christmas break due to COVID. With the Bruins being one of those teams shut down, there, unfortunately, won’t be too much to talk about in the next Broons Weekly Update. But don’t worry, I’ll figure something out. And I plan on having it be more lighthearted. Have a great Christmas everyone!
1 Comment
Brad Marchand is overrated. #WASHED