With the NHL restart planned finalized, teams now prepare to travel to the hub cities for play to resume on August 1. The Boston Bruins will be part of a four team round robin for seeding starting on August 2. The top four teams from the East and the West will battle for that top seed in their respective conferences in the mini tournament.
Boston travels to Toronto on July 26 with exhibition games to take place July 28-30. The Bruins then face off in the round robin when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers on August 2, the Tampa Bay Lightning on August 5, and the Washington Capitals on August 8. The first round of the playoffs then start on August 11, the second round August 25, the Conference Finals on September 8, and the NHL Finals on September 22. The top four in the West are the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and Edmonton Oilers.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said, “While we have all worked very hard to try to address the risks of COVID-19, we know that health and safety are and will continue to be our priorities. We know that all of our fans are excited about our return to the ice next month, and that has been our goal since we paused our season on March 12.” Boston (44-14-12) had 100 points when play stopped in March, the best record in the NHL. The other three teams in the round robin the Lightning, Capitals, and Flyers had 92, 90, 89 points respectively. The Bruins will be looking to make it back to the Finals after a Game 7 loss to the Blues at TD Garden last summer. If the black and gold can make it back there it will be the first time they’ve made it back to back Finals appearances since the 1976-77 and 77-78 seasons.
