Boston Bruins: We musn’t judge those opting to stay at home

As we near the next stage of the ‘Return To Play’ plan, Steven Kampfer has opted not to re-join his Boston Bruins teammates.

As is the case across the league, Steven Kampfer has opted, due to concerns for his young family’s health, to not be a part of the Boston Bruins’ roster this post-season.

Whether or not Steven Kampfer would’ve featured proves somewhat irrelevant in this and rightfully I think we should respect his concerns and accept his decision.

Given how much of a family the Boston Bruins team is, what with countless days and weeks spent together at training and on the road, this wouldn’t have been an easy decision to make, hence the respect I have for him making it.

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In life, obviously there are more important things than your job; in Steven Kampfer’s case, this is the same – his job as a member of the Boston Bruins is obviously important to him, but family must come first.

He isn’t the only player opting to utilise this option, with the Calgary Flames’ Travis Hamonic possibly the biggest name to state his intent not to play.

Mike Green of the Edmonton Oilers, Karl Alzner of the Montreal Canadiens, Sven Baertschi of the Vancouver Canucks and Roman Polak of the Dallas Stars complete the list.

Such is the level of preparation and planning that the NHL and NHLPA have put into this ‘Return To Play’ whilst in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only six players have excercised this right.

All power to them, it’s never a wrong decision to value your family’s or indeed, your own well-being. Likewise, we must also respect every one of those players choosing to return, both for their own sanity no doubt, but also for our entertainment as fans.

Much I hate to praise a Montreal Canadiens player, you have to be somewhat impressed by Max Domi, who himself is in a higher-risk category as a sufferer of Type 1 diabetes. While he hasn’t yet made an absolute decision, he seems to be intending to play. That takes some guts given the potential risk factors.

Steven Kampfer may not be a huge name for us, but the Boston Bruins will still miss him as a depth piece on their playing roster. As already stated though, big respect to the man for his decision.

Should we go all the way, you’d expect his 45 games across the past two seasons to mean something to the organisation and they’ll no doubt be an exception made to gift him a ring.