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Torey Krug “hopes he did not play his last game as a Boston Bruin” |
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With the current National Hockey League season suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and no end date in sight, so many uncertainties remain.
The uncertainties in the sports world certainly lack the same importance that the uncertainties in life do. However, at some point, normal will return and so will the NHL.
But as the days pass and more and more rumors of what’s next for the NHL are spread, one question remains consistent for the many NHL’ers on expiring contracts: have I played my last game as a *insert team here?
Thanks to Zoom, and the now very popular web conference service, Torey Krug spoke to the media Tuesday for the first time since the NHL paused it’s season in mid March.
One of the first questions asked to Krug of course surrounded his contract status as Krug is set to become an unrestricted free agent whenever the 2019-20 season concludes.
“For me personally, I really hope I did not play my last game as a Boston Bruin and it’s been a place for me and my family to grow and my love the game and playing in front of these fans has been very special to me,” Krug said from his in-laws house back in Michigan where he is riding out the remainder of this quarantine.
Krug will be coming off of a four-year, $21 million contract and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the Bruins and Krug have not had any contract talks during this shutdown and no progress has been made.
“We haven’t had any talks since this thing has started,” Krug said. “We haven’t continued any talks or made any progress in that regard.”
Even if the Bruins wanted to talk contract with Krug, at this point, with so much uncertainty surrounding the game, hammering out details financially and logically are just too difficult.
Depending on how the COVID-19 situation plays out and what happens with both the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season and ensuing playoffs, salary cap projections and business plans for next season may go out the window, throwing a wrench into team’s plans with pending UFA’s.
“From a business perspective, I can’t put any assumptions on it, but can only guess that things will look a little different from a salary cap perspective next year and team structures will be affected by that,” said Krug.
As much as his future is uncertain, what’s next for the NHL is equally uncertain. Ideas such as playing games at neutral locations such as North Dakota and New Hampshire have been floated around.
As unique as these ideas sound, and the simple idea of hockey returning sooner rather than later is wonderful, so much has to be factored in.
Player safety and things being played on an even playing field are two important factors.
“With so many unknowns, it’s tough to understand what our circumstances will be and what will be available to us. Whether that’s back to normal buildings with fans involved, or empty arenas, or one of the things being tossed around is neutral sites where teams gather and play in that regards,” said Krug.
“For me, I think it’s a fairness thing. As long as everyone is in a situation where the playing field is level and we are all able to compete for a Stanley Cup, that’s our ultimate goal. It’s almost an opportunity to get creative and see what we can come up with.”
Once we are at a point where it’s safe to get back to a somewhat resemblance of normalcy, getting players back on the ice, and getting the puck dropped won’t be an overnight process.
“If we do come back, I think there needs to be some sort of mini training camp,” said Krug. “Whether that’s seven to 14 days or whatever it entails, we need to be able to get back up to speed as quickly as possible.”
The issue facing many players is the lack of proper training as access to team facilities has been shut down. Not every player has the luxury of an at-home gym and therefore, haven’t been able to try and stay as close to game shape as possible.
“Some guys have a nice big home that they have personal gyms built themselves and other guys—you know for the first few weeks I was in Boston in a town house that didn’t have much. But you know, you make do,” said Krug.
The emergence in the popularity of peloton bikes certainly helps players emulate what their heart rate may look like during a late third period shift, but it’s virtually impossible to emulate what your body goes through shift-by-shift in an NHL game.
Roller blading—as Charlie McAvoy has frequently been doing per his Instagram—is a way for players to emulate the skating motion, but Krug says that at the end of the day, nothing can replicate what actual skating on the ice does for the body.
“Absolutely nothing to be honest with you and pretty blunt,” Krug said. “The reality of it is that roller blading, yeah it mimics the motion, but you don’t get the buildup of lactic acid and having to deal with your groin and hip motions when you’re digging into the ice and trying to stop and start, and that’s a big part of it,” said Krug.
One bright spot in all this is for Krug has been that after missing the Bruins 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, the Bruins final game before the pause, with an upper-body injury, Krug is feeling back to normal and will be ready to jump back onto the ice when everyone else is allowed to do so.
“I feel really good and I’m healthy right now. I think I have a couple of hurdles I have to jump over once I get back to get officially cleared,” Krug said. “But as far it goes, I’m fully healthy and able to train as much as I can here at home.”
These are unprecedented times for all of us as we now learn to get by and live without some of the things we’ve come to know in our daily lives.
Athletes are no different, as daily routines in sports are as common as a David Pastrnak power play goal or Brad Marchand doing something, anything to irritate opposing players.
As much as Krug misses some of those everyday routines with teammates, one thing he hasn’t missed has been listening to Marchand rag on him on a daily basis.
“I’ll tell ya what, it feels pretty good,” Krug said of Marchand’s ragging.
“I just miss the simple conversations, seeing what Pasta’s [Pastrnak] wearing when he walks through the door and wondering what kind of mood Chris Wagner is going to be in, or seeing Chuckie [McAvoy] and his big smile walking through the door every day, trying to make sense of what’s coming out of Jake Debrusk’s mouth. There’s so many things you miss from a day-to-day basis.”
There’s a lot we miss too from a day-to-day basis, hockey certainly being one of those.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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