3. Coronavirus shutdown
On March 12, the NHL and the rest of the sports world, along with normal everyday living, was stopped in it’s track by the coronavirus breakout world wide.
At the time of the season pause, there was no telling what was going to happen next in terms of finishing the regular season or even the playoffs. In May, the league announced that the regular-season was over and they were going to have two bubbles with the Qualifying Round series for seeds 5-12, while the top four teams in each conference would play three Round Robin games each for seeding purposes in the playoffs.
At the time of the pause, the Bruins were playing their best hockey of the season, on pace to win the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the postseason. Now, the home-ice advantage doesn’t mean much (look at Game 7 in 2019 against the Blues), but it’s hard to argue that the Bruins were heavy favorites and had plenty of steamrolling toward the playoffs.
Two days prior to the pause, the Bruins went to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and snapped the Flyers’ nine-game winning streak with a 2-0 shutout behind 36 saves from Tuukka Rask. Little did anyone know that would be the last time we would see the Bruins for four and half more months.