The Boston Bruins headed into the Stanley Cup playoffs as one of the favorites to win it all.
But it all ended in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, with the team heading back to Massachusetts following the loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Star players just didn’t produce as during the regular season before the COVID-19 pandemic.
David Pastrnak had tied for the NHL lead with 48 goals during the regular season, but ended the playoffs only scoring three goals and picking up seven assists in 10 games.
Both Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase had a pretty rough July, with both players being forced into an extra quarantine.
While the rest of the Bruins prepared for the playoffs skating as usual, the duo had to sit and watch.
Pastrnak was also sidelined following an injury, and missed time during the first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes-
Following elimination, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy spoke of his star man Pastrnak, admitting the extra quarantine time and injury was a problem.
“Obviously missing time, Pastrnak and Kase, their conditioning level wasn’t where it needed to be to stand the rigors of that,” Cassidy said. “And that was a bit of circumstance.”
He continued:
“I know that Pasta had a lower body injury he played through the whole playoffs. You could see he wasn’t at top speed.”
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