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Carlo Added To COVID Protocol; Zboril Undergoes Surgery

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The Boston Bruins are already shut down for the holiday break, but today brought some bad news for two of their defensemen. Brandon Carlo has been added to the COVID protocol, the tenth player so far for Boston. He joins Brad Marchand, Craig Smith, Patrice Bergeron, Jeremy Swayman, Trent Frederic, Anton Blidh, Oskar Steen, Taylor Hall, and Curtis Lazar on the shelf, unavailable for the time being. The first few names should be eligible to return before the Bruins take the ice again on December 27, but if Carlo has tested positive and is experiencing any symptoms, he will not.

Beyond the COVID issues though is Jakub Zboril, who is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn ACL. The young defenseman underwent the procedure on December 16 at Mass General Brigham after suffering the injury on December 2.

Zboril, 24, seemed finally ready to contribute at the NHL level, six years after going 13th overall in the 2015 draft. It’s been a slow development path so far, but during last season and the early going this year, he had taken a big step to force his way into the lineup on a regular basis. In the nine games before exiting early against Nashville, he had averaged nearly 17 minutes a night while recording three points.

Importantly, this injury means that Zboril will not reach the 80-game threshold required to make him a restricted free agent. Instead, he will now qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agent status, given he has played just 54 NHL contests and turns 25 in February. There would have been an argument to be made over whether the Bruins should qualify him anyway, given he would have been arbitration-eligible, but with this, the decision is no longer in their hands. The defenseman will hit the open market, should the Bruins not reach an extension with him before free agency opens.

Boston Bruins Place Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar In COVID Protocol

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The Boston Bruins announced today via a team release that forwards Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

The news comes a few hours after the league announced that the Bruins and Nashville Predators will be shut down through the holiday break. Boston is already dealing with a long list of COVID absences that includes Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Craig Smith, and Jeremy Swayman, as well as three other players and two staff members.

Boston’s next game is scheduled for Monday, December 27, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are 7-2-1 in their past ten games and winners of six straight.

Hall hasn’t exactly struggled in his first full year in a Bruins uniform, but he hasn’t performed up to the level he showcased in a 16-game stint last season after Boston acquired him at the trade deadline from the Buffalo Sabres. He has 14 points through 26 games, the same amount he had in just 16 with Boston last year.

Lazar was also acquired in that trade with Buffalo, and he’s reprising his role in the bottom-six forward group. He missed some time at the beginning of the season but had been playing consistently when healthy. He has two goals and three assists for five points through 20 games while averaging a reasonable 12:05 per game.

If both Hall and Lazar are confirmed positives, and there are no further postponements, their status for the game against Pittsburgh remains in doubt.

Bruins Assign Three To Providence

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Canadiens-Bruins Game Postponed

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The NHL has announced another postponement, this time for a game scheduled between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens for tomorrow night. This comes after the Bruins played undermanned yesterday and the Canadiens played in an empty building. There are COVID and hockey-related revenue concerns to be considered by the league, after the Bruins have continued to place more and more players into the protocol.

Just before the Bruins took the ice yesterday, Oskar Steen was placed in the COVID protocol, joining six others from the team including top players like Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. The league has maintained throughout this season that they’ll only start postponing games if the spread seems to be out of control, which it appears to be in Boston.

The Bruins are one of the teams that went west and played the Calgary Flames recently, a team that has had such widespread positive testing that they’ve completely shut down. Like in the case of the Carolina Hurricanes, who placed a good chunk of players in the protocol but then had multiple days with no more positive tests, the hope is that a lengthy postponement won’t be necessary for the Bruins. That obviously remains to be seen.

More Bruins Added To COVID Protocol

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Dec 16: The team has announced four new additions to the protocol. Anton Blidh, Trent Frederic, Jeremy Swayman and a member of the support staff are now unavailable. All three players took part in Tuesday’s game against the Golden Knights. The Bruins have recalled Jesper Froden and Kyle Keyser from the AHL. Later in the evening, the team added Oskar Steen and another staff member to the protocol.

Dec 15: The Boston Bruins have added Patrice Bergeron to the COVID protocol, joining Brad Marchand and Craig Smith who were ruled out yesterday. Bergeron played nearly 17 minutes last night against the Vegas Golden Knights, scoring the Bruins’ lone goal.

The Bruins are one of the teams involved in several games over the weekend that have turned up positive COVID results. The Carolina Hurricanes and Calgary Flames both have seen postponements to their schedule as a third of their roster entered quarantine, while the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers were each forced to play without some regulars. The Bruins now have three players in the protocol, but it would have been hard to choose a more important duo than Bergeron and Marchand.

In fact, if the trio of forwards is out for the full ten-plus days, this could be a critical time in the Bruins schedule. The team hasn’t been able to keep pace with the three division leaders in the Atlantic, now ten points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, and continue to struggle offensively. The club has just 70 goals in 25 games, scoring more than two just twice in their past seven. Taking three players out of the top-six certainly won’t help that offensive struggle, especially with five games still scheduled before the Christmas break.

Bergeron is having another strong season, with 10 goals and 23 points in 25 games so far. That includes a four-game point streak, which will now have to be put on hold as he deals with the COVID protocol.

College Hockey Round-Up: At The Break

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The holiday break has arrived in the NCAA hockey ranks as final exams and winter vacations will keep the college product off the ice for majority of nights over the next couple of weeks. Between now and December 28, only eight games will take place, all of which are non-conference match-ups. Play will return with a bang later this month as a trio of holiday tournaments featuring the likes of No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Western Michigan, No. 16 Providence College, No. 20 Boston College, and more will lead us into the new year. Before conference play returns in full force later in January, fans can also enjoy NCAA standouts at the World Junior Championships.

Where We Stand

The Mavericks of Mankato reign supreme atop the NCAA rankings once again. No. 1 Minnesota State has entered the portion of their season every year where they dominate their WCHA opponents in nearly every game. The team is 12-2-2 in conference play and on a five-game win streak that includes sweeps over No. 18 Michigan Tech and Bemidji State. While strength of schedule is always a question for Minnesota State, as long as they keep winning it may be tough to knock them from the top spot given their strong results in non-conference play earlier this season.

The No. 2 Quinnipiac Bobcats likely feel that they deserve the top spot however. Quinnipiac is second only to No. 9 Cornell in winning percentage and have played seven more games than the Big Red. Their record is ahead of Minnesota State’s and their scoring margin is just behind, despite arguably a more difficult schedule. The caveat here is also strength of schedule though, as the Bobcats current five-game winning streak has come against the likes of St. Lawrence, RPI, Union, and LIU and they have not beaten a ranked team since October 22.

Of course, star-studded No. 3 Michigan will remain a threat, but the Wolverines have not been as invincible as some believed. Michigan dropped a game to No. 17 Ohio State this past weekend and No. 11 Minnesota the weekend before that. With five members of their roster expected to miss the next two games, including a match-up with No. 4 Western Michigan, due to participation in the World Junior Championship, the pressure is on for the Wolverines. Of course, come tournament time there will be no greater threat, regardless of Michigan’s final ranking.

No. 4 WMU is one of the biggest surprises in college hockey this season with six wins against ranked opponents, but the Broncos have a buzz saw awaiting them in the second half with ten consecutive games against NCHC elite in No. 5 North Dakota, No. 6 Minnesota Duluth, No. 7 St. Cloud State, No. 8 Denver, and then North Dakota once more. It’s an impossible schedule, but Western Michigan hopes to prove it belongs at the top of the rankings by coming away with a winning record. Of course, all of  these teams have to play each other over the remainder of the season. The NCHC is the deepest and most talented conference in the NCAA this year, but that infighting could keep any of those programs from landing a top seed in the tournament.

No. 9  Cornell could be a sneaky candidate to make a second-half run to a top spot. The Big Red already league the NCAA is winning percentage and are second in goals per game and tied for third in scoring margin. While Cornell has played fewer games than all of the top teams due to the Ivy League’s late start and their strength of schedule suffers from some of the same weaknesses as fellow ECAC standout Quinnipiac, Cornell is statistically elite and has a chance to prove themselves as a top team when they face North Dakota on the road once they return from break.

As for Hockey East, the historic conference is definitely in a down year. No. 15 UMass Lowell leads the conference standings, but just went 0-1-1 against No. 12 UMass two weeks ago. The defending champs are right behind their satellite rivals, but far from the team they were a year ago. No. 13 Northeastern quietly has the best overall winning percentage in Hockey East, but their only statement wins came against slumping No. 16 Providence College last weekend. Barring a chance in trajectory in the second half, Hockey East may only send two or three teams to the NCAA Tournament this year and may not have any upper seeds.

Midseason Bracketology

It’s not often that the NCAA rankings align perfectly at tournament time for all 16 teams to be assigned in exact order to their regionals while avoiding conference match-ups and accounting for geography. In fact, the odds of it happening as if by design are slim to none. However, it just so happens that the current USCHO rankings do actually fit perfectly without conflicting first-round games or illogical geographic placements (albeit taking some of the fun out of “bracketology”). Here is a look at how the NCAA Tournament would break down if the season ended today:

Loveland, CO: No. 1 Minnesota State, No. 8 Denver, No. 9 Cornell, No. 16 Bentley*

Worcester, MA: No. 2 Quinnipiac, No. 7 St. Cloud, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 15 UMass Lowell

Allentown, PA: 3 Michigan, No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth, No. 11 Minnesota, No. 14 Omaha

Albany, NY: No. 4 Western Michigan, No. 5 North Dakota, No. 12 UMass, No. 13 Northeastern

In this scenario, the top three seeds all end up at the regional located closest to them, while host Denver lands in Loveland (as is required) and several other schools play close to home. Most importantly though, the regionals are completed balanced. Of course, this won’t stick through the rest of the year so that final rankings and regional assignments will inevitably change. Still, it is worth looking forward at some potential stellar early match-ups like in-state rivals Duluth and Minnesota or historic North Dakota and reigning champ UMass. The Frozen Four in Boston is still a ways a way, but with a number of talented programs vying for a spot this year, including many enjoying one of their best seasons in school history, the 2022 NCAA Tournament should be a good one.

Boston Calling

The Boston Bruins are certainly keeping their recent draft classes close to home. Of the team’s 11 selections over the past two years, seven will now be playing college hockey in Massachusetts or Rhode Island next year. Several are already there: 2020 third-round forward Trevor Kuntar is skating on the top line for Boston College in his sophomore campaign, 2020 sixth-round forward Riley Duran is impressing as a freshman at Providence College with 11 points in 21 games, and 2021 seventh-round defenseman Ty Gallagher is a half point-per-game with Boston University, also exceeding expectations. Already committed are 2020 fifth-round defenseman Mason Langenbrunner, the lone non-Hockey East prospect of the group who will suit up for Harvard University, 2021 fourth-round goaltender Philip Svedeback, who will join Duran at PC, and 2021 seventh-round forward Andre Gasseau, who will follow Kuntar to BC.

The latest addition to the list will make it three members of the Eagles forward corps that will belong to the nearby Bruins. Swedish forward Oskar Jellvik has announced his intention to play for Boston College next season, joining Kuntar and Gasseau. Jellvik was a fifth-round pick by Boston this year, which could prove to be a nice value for the team. Jellvik has 11 goals and 25 points in 23 games this season for the U20 club of Djurgardens IF. That 1.09 points per game mark and a +8 rating make him one of the more dangerous players in the Swedish juniors this year. If that ability can translate to the North American game, BC and the Bruins could have a special prospect on their hands. Boston will get to keep a close eye on his development too from right down the street.

 

Barzal, Toews, Marchand Placed In COVID Protocol

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Just when the New York Islanders thought they were out of the woods, another huge COVID-related blow is struck. Head coach Barry Trotz announced that Mathew Barzal will not play tonight for the Islanders after being placed in the COVID protocol.

Not to be outdone is the Colorado Avalanche, who have faced their own COVID issues this season. Devon Toews, who was recently named third star of the week after an outstanding set of performances is also in the protocol. The Avalanche have recalled top prospect Justin Barron from the Colorado Eagles to replace Toews on the roster.

The Boston Bruins have their own issues as Brad Marchand has been placed in the protocol as well. Unfortunately, Marchand was present at morning skate today, as his test results must have come back afterward. The Bruins notably played the Flames on Saturday, just before Calgary’s season was halted due to a serious outbreak.

With no offense meant to Ryan Lomberg or Craig Smith, who were put in the protocol this morning, the absences of Marchand, Barzal, and Toews are much more important to their respective teams. The Islanders have been desperately trying to climb out of an early-season hole dug by injury, illness, and scheduling. Without Barzal they’ll take on the reeling Detroit Red Wings, a team that has lost three in a row but is still ten points ahead of them in the standings (having played five more games). The star center was on a six-game point streak and now has 17 in 23 games this season.

Toews meanwhile has been playing at an elite level this season, racking up 20 points in 16 games so far while logging nearly 25 minutes a night for the Avalanche. Colorado has won four straight thanks to his help and find themselves skyrocketing up the Central Division standings. In fact, the Avalanche are now tied with the Calgary Flames for the best goal differential in the Western Conference at +25 and are within a single point of second place in the Central.

You might think after Toews, Cale Makar, Samuel Girard, and Bowen Byram that the Avalanche don’t have any more mobile, high-ceiling defenders in the system, but you’d be wrong. Barron, the 25th overall pick in 2020, has nine points in 14 games for the Eagles this season and will now get a chance to show what he can do in the NHL. The 20-year-old represents another wave of exciting talent for the Avalanche, though his debut wasn’t expected this soon.

Marchand is off to another outstanding start this season with 11 goals and 27 points, as he seemingly continues to improve despite entering his mid-thirties. The 33-year-old forward is arguably the most important forward on the Bruins roster, given he leads the team in scoring, plays the most minutes and continues to get under the skin of opponents. The Bruins are set to play the Golden Knights this evening, but will now be missing two important wingers.

For Barzal, Marchand, and Toews, if they have tested positive for coronavirus and are experiencing any symptoms, they’ll be held out a minimum of ten days.

Ryan Lomberg, Craig Smith Enter COVID Protocol

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While we wait on news from Calgary on the Flames’ situation, two players from the Atlantic Division are dealing with their own quarantines. The Florida Panthers have announced that Ryan Lomberg will be unavailable tonight due to COVID protocols, while the Boston Bruins announced that Craig Smith has been placed in the protocol.

Neither team confirmed whether or not the players have tested positive, but if they have and are experiencing any symptoms they will be held out a minimum of ten days. The Panthers are set to play the Ottawa Senators this evening and will have to do so without Lomberg, while the Bruins are welcoming in the Vegas Golden Knights without Smith’s help.

The spread of COVID across the league continues, though to this point there have been only three teams that required postponed schedules. Still, the prospect of Olympic participation seems more and more unlikely with each positive case. The league continues to try and navigate the schedule without disruption, meaning for teams like Florida and Boston, they’ll have to make due with a little less depth for the time being.

Bruins "Unafraid To Take A Chance" In DeBrusk Deal

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  • One of the other players on that list is Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk, who was the focus of one of Elliotte Friedman’s latest 32 Thoughts. The Bruins are “definitely willing” to trade DeBrusk according to Friedman and are “unafraid to take a chance” on a younger player in return. They won’t just sell off DeBrusk because of his public trade request.

Goalie Notes: Lehner, Bishop, Rask

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Jacob Markstrom is a likely candidate for the starting goaltender position for Sweden at the upcoming Olympics, but another promising option was Robin Lehner. That isn’t the case anymore, as Lehner tweeted last night that he will not be attending the Olympics.

Lehner, who has been very open about his struggles with mental health over the years, notes that this is a decision that puts that health ahead of his desire to compete for his country in what he calls a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” The uncertainty around what would happen if an athlete tests positive for COVID-19 while in China is part of why he made the decision.

  • The Dallas Stars are expected to send Ben Bishop to the minor leagues on a conditioning stint this week, according to Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News. Bishop hasn’t played since the 2020 bubble playoffs, but is finally getting close to being healthy enough to play again. The 35-year-old netminder is still signed through 2022-23 and carries a $4.92MM cap hit. He’ll become the fourth NHL-level goaltender for the Stars once he’s cleared to return to action, joining Anton Khudobin (who has been on the trade block in recent weeks), Braden Holtby, and Jake Oettinger.
  • There was a pretty impressive emergency backup goaltender at Boston Bruins practice today, as Tuukka Rask joined his former teammates despite still not having an NHL contract. Rask is still working his way back from offseason surgery, and has previously expressed that he would only return to the NHL for the Bruins. For now, he remains unsigned, but that could change at some point in the near future if he shows he’s healthy enough to help the team.

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