Bruins remain focused on hosting outdoor games for next season

Before everything was settled and we were told that a 56-game season would take place for 2020-21, seven teams were reportedly putting together a plan to convince the National Hockey League to let them host outside games for the campaign, in order to put many fans in the stands. 

Earlier this month, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman had talked about the Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins being ready to play the entire 2021 NHL season outdoors.

These teams had made their due diligence for somewhere down the road if they learned they would be allowed more fans at outdoor events than indoor ones. The Bruins had been in contact with state and city officials about different options. Friedman was made aware, at that time, that they were looking into Fenway Park as an option. 

On Tuesday, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun revealed that the Bruins were still exploring the idea of hosting outdoor games for the upcoming campaign. He mentioned that no decision has yet to be made seeing that the Bruins wants to make sure they would be able to have enough fans attend and at this point hard to know when that could happen. 

There is no doubt that it would be cool to see Bruins in action at Fenway Park or Gillette Stadium in 2021 — similar to the 2010 and 2016 Winter Classic events — but these setups cost a lot of money… 

And we all know how their own Jeremy Jacobs is about spending doe… 

President Cam Neely is hoping the TD Garden will be made safe for fans to attend games if the option of hosting outdoor games is completely thrown out the window. 

“As far as fans in the building, that’s going to be dependent on city and state regulations and guidelines,” Neely explained to The Athletic on Monday. “I know the staff here at the Garden has done a lot of work behind the scenes to make it as fan friendly as possible and as safe as possible when we’re allowed to have fans in here to make sure they’ve gone through all the protocols — safety is obviously the utmost important to us.

“A lot of work has been done, so when we do get the green light to have fans in the building, everyone should be comfortable coming and watching our games played live.”

That’s probably why the Bruins are looking at all of the options : they want the support of their fans for the tough season coming up. The Bruins have yet to re-sign captain Zdeno Chara or fill the holes on the back end, and will kick off the season without Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. 

They need the fans to boost their team!