Pastrnak, Kase unlikely to return for Bruins until next week

David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase are not likely to return to the ice with the Boston Bruins until the team heads to Toronto to begin play in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, Bruins president Cam Neely said Wednesday.

"It's hard to say right now," Neely said. "My best guess would be Toronto."

Neely said he didn't believe that would affect the Bruins in the long run.

"Once we get into Toronto, I think we'll be fine," he said.

Boston will play in the round-robin portion of the Qualifiers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the Eastern Conference hub city, against the Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers to determine seeding for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Bruins' first game is Aug. 2 against the Flyers. Boston has an exhibition game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on July 30 (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, TVAS, FS-O, NESN, NHL.TV).

Pastrnak, who scored 48 goals this season to tie Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin for the NHL lead, has practiced once with Boston since training camp opened July 13. The forward took the ice with a small group July 15 after returning from the Czech Republic, where he spent most of his time since the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. Kase, a forward acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 21 who also spent the pause in the Czech Republic, took the ice the same day, but after practice had ended.

Neely said part of the issues the Bruins have had in keeping players on the ice -- nine players were absent Saturday because they were "unfit to participate" -- has to do with regulations in Massachusetts regarding the pandemic.

"Some other teams are dealing with this obviously, but what the state regulations are compared to maybe some other states are a little different across the country," Neely said. "We're following all the state guidelines. … We're following all the protocols, not just League protocols, but the state protocols."

Pictures circulated of Pastrnak and Kase out in the North End neighborhood of Boston and at a local rink since they returned to Massachusetts. They also missed the first two days of practice, something Bruins general manager Don Sweeney attributed to quarantine rules regarding players returning from Europe.

Neely, asked if he wished that different choices had been made, said, "Of course. We had the date for when camp was started and knew that some players may need to quarantine when they get here, you kind of hope that they would get here a little earlier. But you didn't really have much say in that. That was really left up to the players. Obviously with what's played out and transpired, you certainly would have hoped there were some different decisions made."

Kase's issues are more complicated than for Pastrnak, who is likely to go right back into his spot at right wing on the Bruins' top line with center Patrice Bergeron and left wing Brad Marchand. Kase has played six games with Boston, with one assist, and could have benefited from getting more acclimated to his teammates during training camp.

"That's been a little bit unfortunate and disappointing because we feel like he can be a big part of that secondary scoring," Neely said. "It takes time to get adjusted when we got him at the [NHL Trade Deadline] and then we hit the pause not long after. He's still got to get adjusted to our team, our system, his teammates. So it's been a little disappointing that we haven't been able to get him on the ice."