from Matt Porter of the Boston Globe,

Patrice Bergeron did not have to convince his teammates to get vaccinated.

“No meetings about it,” the Bruins captain said. “Everyone was kind of on board and did it organically, if you will, for their own beliefs and themselves and their families.”

Refreshing, no?

Meanwhile, Sabres forward Kyle Okposo noted there was a bottom-line reason for players to take their shots.

“It’s funny what happens when you start to affect people’s wallets,” he said.

NHL players reported for the Back to Normalcy Tour this past week, nearly all showing up for the first days of training camp fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This is no small thing.

In the summertime, Oilers general manager Ken Holland said, talk around the league was that 80 to 90 players among the 700-plus workforce had yet to get vaccinated. Now, according to deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the NHL expects single-digit holdouts. Twenty-seven of 32 teams reported being 100 percent vaccinated or expected to be there in the coming days. Only four teams, Detroit, Edmonton, New Jersey, and San Jose, project to start the season with unvaccinated players on their rosters.

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