The National Hockey League announced Friday that the duel between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins, scheduled for Saturday at the Bell Center, has been postponed.
The game will be rescheduled at an undetermined date.
The circuit specifies that the Habs will continue their season on Monday against the Islanders in New York.
The Bruins are grappling with an outbreak in their locker room. Seven of their players are on leave due to COVID-19. These seven players are forwards Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Craig Smith, Anton Blidh, Trent Frederic and Oskar Steen, and goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman. Steen had in fact just been recalled, precisely because of the outbreak, when he was placed on sick leave.
The Bruins still played their game on Thursday against the Islanders, but stayed in New York overnight rather than returning to Montreal directly. They lost 3-1. They are now due to return to Boston on Friday and it is still unclear whether they will play their scheduled Sunday game in Ottawa against the Senators.
For its part, the CH also played Thursday, in Montreal, a match played behind closed doors. After the meeting, Jonathan Drouin said he was uncomfortable facing the idea of facing a team struggling with an outbreak.
“That’s a tough question… I’m not that comfortable playing with people who may have COVID. When you’re down to seven guys on the team… Tomorrow morning there may be three more. I don’t feel comfortable playing with it. This is not what we were told this year with vaccines. Things sure change with moments like this. But it’s not really ideal. ”
For his part, the Canadian currently has no active case of COVID-19 among the players. Two of them, Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku, recently returned to ice training after being infected. They could come back to the game on Monday.
Last season, the Habs also had to postpone games due to COVID-19. In March, forwards Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia were affected, and five games were postponed. CH players were not yet vaccinated against the virus.