Morning Skate: On the shelf

Happy Monday, folks!

The good news — we have plenty of practice at filling time between Bruins games!

Earlier in the season, we whined and moaned about the silly scheduling that left us with too many off days between games, and now we’ve got a whole week to kill again!

The earliest the Bruins will return to action will be a week from today against the Penguins, though that assumes there’s no further COVID-related action from the league.

The NHL and the NHLPA announced in a joint statement on Sunday that they’re both committed to carrying on with the regular season schedule, the same day the league announced that another team (the Detroit Red Wings) would be shut down through the Christmas break.

However, the two also announced that all cross-border games between now and the break would be postponed; this is due to concerns about issues with personnel who test positive getting stuck on either side of the border.

Anyways, the league is determined to play on, but YOUR Boston Bruins are officially shelved, so...let’s kill time as effectively as we can.

One other note: the league and the PA (in that same announcement) said that there will be a decision announced in the coming days on Olympic participation, so expect the official “we’re not going” announcement soon.

Stranger things have happened, but I’d be shocked if any players are willing the risk the COVID-related repercussions that will come with traveling to Beijing.

Today’s discussion topic

The Bruins are a little more than ¹⁄₄ of the way through this season — give me one player who has surprised you in a good way and one who has surprised you in a bad way.