The NHL has postponed all Nashville Predators and Boston Bruins games through Christmas because of COVID-19 concerns, the league announced Saturday.
Nashville has nine players and five members of the coaching staff in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. Boston has seven players currently in protocol — Brad Marchand, Craig Smith, Patrice Bergeron, Jeremy Swayman, Trent Frederic, Anton Blidh and Oskar Steen — plus an unnamed member of the team’s staff.
The NHL had already postponed Boston’s game Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens. After Montreal’s 3-2 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, with no spectators allowed in attendance at the Bell Centre, forward Jonathan Drouin expressed hesitation about playing the Bruins.
“I’m not really comfortable playing against a team that has so many cases of COVID,” Drouin said. “There are currently seven cases, but there could be three more tomorrow.”
Boston was expected to visit the Ottawa Senators on Sunday then return home to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. The Bruins’ home game Thursday against Colorado had also been previously postponed by the NHL due to a COVID-19 outbreak on the Avalanche.
The Predators and Bruins join the Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche who also will not play until after Christmas.
