There was understandably some concern Saturday when seven more Bruins joined David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase on the "unfit to participate" list, but Sunday brought at least a little bit of good news.
At least one of those seven, Charlie Coyle, is just fine. Coyle's agent, Bob Norton, informed multiple media outlets that Coyle was held out of Saturday's practice due to an inconclusive COVID-19 test, but that he later tested negative. Coyle has not had any symptoms.
Pastrnak is quarantining after coming into contact with someone who tested positive. We still don't have confirmed reasons for why Kase, Tuukka Rask, Torey Krug, David Krejci, Sean Kuraly, Nick Ritchie and Chris Wagner were unfit to participate Saturday.
Speaking to the media via Zoom on Sunday, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said that "several" of the players who missed Saturday's practice were able to get on the ice Sunday, though he declined to specify which ones. Most of the team had a scheduled day off Sunday, and Sweeney said they will "hopefully" have a full group or close to it for Monday.
Sweeney noted that much of this is dependent on test results, which certainly lines up with the explanation for Coyle's absence Saturday. He also said this has forced the team to "adapt on the fly," something coach Bruce Cassidy also pointed out Saturday when discussing the fact that he had to scrap what was supposed to be a full-team scrimmage Saturday simply because he didn't have enough players.
"You'd like be at full capacity the entire time, but I referenced the fact that we weren't going to be," Sweeney said. "We were going to have situations that would arise, and we'd have to deal with the mental side of it. That goes for the coaches as well, to have the ability to be flexible and change what they had intended to do, because of what they have to do. They went out and had a great practice yesterday with the players that were available and did the things they wanted to accomplish in the course of that practice.
"We have players on the ice again today. We'll have hopefully a full group tomorrow, but again, we have to wait until test results come back on a daily basis and seeing who's available to practice and move forward. The best laid plans sometimes go astray. You have to be able to adapt on the fly, and I think our coaches are also understanding that now. As we get closer to moving to the hub, we certainly would like to have our full group at some point in time to be able to practice at the level and execute at the level we expect them to."
Sweeney said that a player missing one day because of pending test results can be overcome fairly easily, but noted that guys who have missed a full week, like Pastrnak and Kase, will have some catching up to do. He said he remains "hopeful" that Pastrnak and Kase will be able to get on the ice with the team at some point before they go to Toronto.
"A player missing a day here or there, it's not that big of a deal," Sweeney said. "But when you're starting to miss weeks on end, which we've had a couple players be in that category, you'll certainly have rust to knock off. We have some players who had been skating quite a bit leading up to Phase 3, but the timing I think more than anything, the continuity with your linemates, situations you have to work through as you go through practices, you're going to have to hopefully get them up to full speed when you do have them back in a shorter period of time.
"It's not ideal by any means, but that's just what you have to deal with going forward. I think every team pretty much will probably face it at some point in time unless they're just incredibly fortunate, and good for them. But we're not in that situation, so I can't change that. All I can do is worry about and plan for what we have to do moving forward."
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