Boston

B’s Look Good Heading Into Bye Week

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ESPN – The NHL will work in a five-day “bye week” next season as part of the negotiation with the NHL Players’ Association to sign off on the All-Star format changes announced this week, according to sources…

[T]he league will build in a five-day bye week for each team into their schedule between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 next season, sources told ESPN.com.

Players will be completely off with no practice during this break. There will be practice permitted after 4 p.m. local time on the fifth day if there is a game on the sixth day; otherwise no practice will be allowed on the fifth day.

I won’t lie, I had no idea NHL teams had bye weeks until I heard it mentioned on the pre-game show last night. A quick Google search revealed that the NHL bye week is, in fact, new for the 2016-2017 season. A complete list of NHL bye weeks can be found on reddit.

With their 4-0 win over the Canadiens last night, the Bruins head into their inaugural bye week winners of three in a row, 3-0-0 in the Bruce Cassidy era. The Canadiens also have their bye this week after back-to-back losses over the weekend.

The Bruins got skewered for firing Claude the day of the Patriots parade and rightfully so. But maybe the timing of Claude’s firing wasn’t so bad after all. The Bruins have strung together three straight wins, and now have six full days off before opening a west coast road trip in San Jose Sunday night. They will play four games in California and Texas in eight days before returning to the Garden on February 28.

In the past, I always expected the Bruins to fire a coach after a disastrous west coast road trip when it was probably too late anyways. At least this year the Bruins made the move before it was too late. We’ll have a better idea in two weeks if it really made a difference, and if the Bruce Cassidy era will extend into May, June or beyond.

Categories: Boston, Bruins, NHL

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