Dunn missing from practice, Bortuzzo, Tucker make camp debuts;
Berube laughs off Jack Adams snub; O'Reilly finalist for Lady Byng
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- The Blues had a pair of additions and one notable omission at practice Thursday.
Defenseman Vince Dunn was the notable omission after he skated Monday and Tuesday.
With the league now taking the reigns on disclosing information, Blues coach Craig Berube said, "You'll have to take that up with the league. Any individuals that aren't out there or anything that goes on comes from the league."
Defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who missed Monday and Tuesday's practices, was on the ice.
"It was good, he was out there today," Berube said. "It's tough for a first day back, but he did well and it was good to have him back."
Defensive prospect Tyler Tucker, a seventh round pick in 2018, made his debut as well Thursday.
Tucker, who had 56 points (17 goals, 39 assists) in 55 games split between Barrie and Flint of the Ontario Hockey League, will get great benefit out of working with the big boys.
"He's going to be in camp here with us and get good experience," Berube said. "It's going to help him at training camp for sure."
* Berube laughs off Jack Adams snub -- For those that know Berube, he's not one to fret over minor things.
Being considered for the Jack Adams Award, given to the coach voted as best in the NHL, and voted on by the members of the NHL Broadcasters' Association, is no minor feat, but Berube wasn't too worried about it when asked Thursday.
"I don't care. I don't think about that stuff, I really don't," he said.
Boston's Bruce Cassidy, Columbus' John Tortorella and Philadelphia's Alain Vigneault are the three finalists.
The winner will be announced during the conference finals.
"The guys that are finalists for the award deserve it, in my opinion," Berube said. "They've all had tremendous years. I think Tortorella has done a tremendous job there in Columbus. Losing (Sergei) Bobrovsky, (Artemi) Panarin, losing players like that, very young team, a lot of injuries this year, he's done a great job. Alain Vigneault, coming into Philly and getting them back on the map, he's done a tremendous job there. He's been a great coach for a long time. He's done a good job, and Cassidy's done a good job every year in Boston and well-deserving of it. That's great for those guys. It's just the way it is. I don't really worry about it."
All Berube did after winning the Stanley Cup is put the Blues in position to repeat. They were 42-19-10, good for best record in the Western Conference.
* O'Reilly up for Lady Byng again -- Another day, another Lady Byng Memorial Trophy nomination for Ryan O'Reilly.
The Blues' center, along with Toronto's Auston Matthews and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon are finalists for the award given to the "player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability."
O'Reilly, who won it in 2014 with the Avalanche, was a runner-up the past two seasons behind Aleksander Barkov of Florida last season and William Karlsson of Vegas in 2018.
"I definitely don't like being on that side of the ice," O'Reilly said via conference call Thursday, referring to the penalty box. "It's a weird place to watch the game from. I can't really vividly remember my penalties. Every time I get one, I'm definitely disappointed. It's not a fun place to be. I'm not very tough, so it's usually for something like a stick infraction, something where I kind of lost control. It's definitely disappointing, but it's amazing to be nominated, it's an honor and looking forward to finding out who's the winner."
O'Reilly had 10 penalty minutes in 71 games this season, but consider this: over his career, O'Reilly is usually a Lady Byng nominee because he has just 106 regular-season penalty minutes in his career in 804 games and 11 seasons. Sixty of those have come the past eight seasons. So he averages 0.13 penalty minutes per game.
The finalists are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, and O'Reilly has a plethora of fans on his own team.
"He takes pride into playing hard and playing the right way, taking a lot less penalties than most players, which is really impressive because he does play down low a lot," linemate David Perron said. "It's two plays for you. When you play down low defensively or forechecking offensively, that's the two only times that can happen and he's in both situations a lot. It's very impressive."
Also, the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy finalists were announced, and Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who nearly died earlier this season after sustaining a cardiac event in Anaheim in February, was the Blues' nominee but isn't one of the finalists.
Those belong to Stephen Johns of Dallas, Bobby Ryan of Ottawa and Oskar Lindblom of Philadelphia.
* Intensity peaking -- If one felt the first two days of training camp 2.0 were elevated, those were walks in the park compared to Thursday.
Berube and the coaching staff put two groups through intense drills after the group was off ice Wednesday doing workouts.
"We've got to keep it going," Berube said. "We've got to keep the tempo going. More competition drills will be coming into play. Today, there was more competition and things like that. I thought the guys did a good job. Both groups were really good, I thought. Overall I was very happy with practice."
Defensemen Jake Walman and Niko Mikkola pulled double duty working with both groups, and as for Mikkola, Berube put an interesting twist on his potential availability for the playoffs.
"He's got a realistic chance of playing," Berube said. "He played some games for us this year and was very effective. We know he can play in the league. You never know what's going to happen. You've got to have everyone prepared to go. We're going to take (31) guys up to the hub and we're going to keep them ready."
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