Brad Marchand laughs off concerns surrounding David Pastrnak.

The Boston Bruins found themselves at the center of something of a controversy this week when it was revealed that forward David Pastrnak had potentially come into contact with COVID-19 outside of the Phase 2 protocols laid out by the National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association. 

As a result the Bruins have been the focus of much media attention and when several of the team's core players failed to show up for practice on Saturday many wondered if Pastrnak had potentially put some of his other teammates at risk. Although Pastrnak's decision was seemingly irresponsible no one stands to be more negatively impacted by said decision than the Boston Bruins, so many of their players were asked on Saturday how they felt about their teammate's decision, one that potentially put them in jeopardy.

When teammate and linemate Brad Marchand was asked about the absence of Pastrnak he merely laughed it off, suggesting that he was only just learning of the incident involving the Bruins star forward.

"It's kind of news to me about Pasta. I thought he was just on a couple-day hangover," Marchand said jokingly as per WEEI Sports.

There's little to no doubt that the incident involving Pastrnak has served as something of a reality check for players in the Bruins locker room and likely for players across the league as well. Marchand was asked about that reality, one where a player could potentially find himself quarantined for an extended period of time should he be irresponsible and one where that risk could also extend to their teammates. 

"It’s unfortunate the times that we’re in, but this is the new reality for right now anyways," Marchand said. "The team is just going to have to be willing to be resilient and battle through it, and we’ve done that. We’ve done that the last number of years, where we’ve had a lot of guys out and gone through a lot of injuries"