By the time Nick Ritchie got done saying hello to his new Bruins teammates, it was time to say goodbye.

The Bruins obtained Ritchie from the Anaheim Ducks for Danton Heinen on Feb. 24, less than three weeks before the sports world was shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak, first sending players into quarantine in various Boston abodes before they were allowed to scatter all over the world to their respective offseason homes.

Ritchie – along with his brother Brett, who’d been signed by the Bruins last offseason and was sent to Providence before Nick’s arrival – returned to their family’s horse farm in Ontario where they raise harness racers. He had hoped his good fortune to be traded to Boston would have seen him deep in the playoffs right about now, but that is not the case.

“Obviously it’s been tough where we haven’t seen the team or practiced or anything,” said Ritchie on a Zoom call with reporters. “I was there for such a little time, I don’t think I got to know everybody like everybody else knew everybody with me being one of the few new guys. That kind of sucked that the pause happened, but we’ve been having talks once a week on Zoom here and we’ve been talking, and it just kind of feels like you’re back in the locker room for an hour or so. That’s all we can do right now and it’s been pretty good.”

Trying to look on the bright side, Ritchie hopes that this stoppage could give him the equilibrium that he never fully recovered after the trade.

“Maybe this time off will help me as well. Coming from Anaheim, the time change, middle of the season, it was kind of a rude awakening, all this kind of stuff,” said Ritchie. “Maybe it will help me that I got a chance to sit and think about it and come back and know that I’m a Boston Bruin and just really leave it out there.”

Ritchie said that he’s leaned on fellow former Duck Ondrej Kase, who was obtained by the Bruins just a few days before he was.

“I actually talked to him (Tuesday) a little bit. I’ve talked to him a few times since we went our separate ways, but even back to when we did come over (from Anaheim), we talked a lot those couple of weeks about the difference and kind of got each other through it,” said Ritchie. “I think it was really nice having someone who came from the same team that you’re through the same kind of process with a new team. A first-place team and all that stuff. It’s really helped that way and we’ve learned a lot in those couple of weeks. And we’re still learning, even though we’re not there.”

The 6-foot-2, 235-pound Ritchie, who has a pair of heavy hands when he drops the gloves, did not exactly rip it up in his short time with the Bruins. He had a goal and an assist in seven games. But he showed signs that he could add an element of which the Bruins were in short supply – a big, rugged winger with a touch of skill.

Having played the Flyers and twice against the Lightning (the second of which was a rollicking affair at the Garden) since coming to Boston, Ritchie got a little taste of what it might take when and if the postseason starts.

“I think there are a lot of teams that have built their teams to play against Boston and I think Boston has built their team to play against some of those their teams,” said Ritchie. “You can see it a lot, especially in those two Tampa Bay games, especially the one in Boston. It was physical, there was scoring, the crowd was into it. It was a playoff style and I think that’s a lot more of what you’d see moving on once you get into it with those other teams in the Eastern Conference.”

While it’s still undetermined when and if the playoffs can be played or what form they would take if it does, there has been some fairly optimistic talk coming from the league in the last couple of days. Commissioner Gary Bettman said on a virtual town hall with members of the San Jose Sharks’ business alliance on Tuesday that canceling the season is “not something I’m even contemplating.”

That kind of chatter has Ritchie excited.

“For sure it does,” he said. “We all want to play again and I think there’s been a lot of that talk for months and weeks. They’re obviously trying to get there. There are a lot of obstacles in the way. Hopefully they’ll shore those up and we’ll get a chance. Obviously I’m looking forward to it. I think it will happen. But there’s no guarantees, I guess.”

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