Blues take advantage of strange day following postponed game

Instead of playing Vegas, team uses time to practice before heading 

to California; Wainwright makes pitch as hockey player following error

By LOU KORAC
The Blue were all set to play the second of a two-game set with the Vegas Golden Knights Thursday when things suddenly changed.

The players had woken up early Thursday morning ready to go through their daily gameday routine, which included a morning skate at T-Mobile Arena in preparation for a game. But when the NHL postponed the scheduled game due to caution over COVID-19 protocols involving the Golden Knights, their coaches and so far, one player (Alex Pietrangelo), gameday turned into practice day.

"It's different obviously," defenseman Colton Parayko said Friday. "You get ready, you wake up in the morning getting ready for the game, obviously the night before too the preparation starts. We knew what was kind of ahead this season and the different challenges that we were going to have to face, obviously this was something this was a possibility somewhere throughout the season. I guess at the end of the day, you just prep for the game and prep as best as you can. I guess if that happens, you've got to refocus and we had a good practice yesterday morning in Las Vegas there and came to Anaheim. We got a good day out of it and now we're here in Anaheim and looking forward to tomorrow and playing them.

"You never know. Obviously I think we had a couple teams right at the beginning that didn't even get a game in before they had their protocol in. It's kind of one of those things where you've got to be aware of it and be ready for it, but you don't expect it obviously and you kind of expect to be playing. That's how you want to prepare and be ready for each game."

The Blues did take the ice for an optional morning skate and it was around that time that the league had rendered its decision. No makeup date has been announced yet, but instead of leaving the ice, most of the players took advantage of a chance to get some practice time in and hone in on some things they feel necessary to work on. They practiced and then headed to Anaheim much earlier than expected. 

"I thought we had a really good practice yesterday and high intensity," Parayko said. "Worked on a couple different things. There's not a lot of practice time where we can do the X's and O's. You take that time to gear up for the next game and a lot of it's just done through video work right now and in between games. It was good to get a practice day and good to work on a few things even though it wasn't a scheduled practice day. Good to work on some things, keep moving forward and now looking forward to Anaheim."

The Blues are scheduled to play against the Anaheim Ducks Saturday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (7 p.m.), and before Thursday's cancellation, were in the middle of six games in nine days and 14 in 24. So that made practice time in between tough to attain.

"I think any time we can get out there and have a good skate and work on things, it's going to be important because it's going to get compressed even more," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "You're not going to have the time to work on things and we've got things we've got to clean up and get better at.

"It's obviously a little bit weird. That's what we've got to be ready for this year. This could happen, who knows how many times. We've dealt with it, moved on and we got out there and had a practice and let's get ready for tomorrow."

With Vegas only having the one player entered into COVID-19 protocol, but others, such as Detroit and Washington, that had multiple players entered in but having to play their games as scheduled, it begged the question of why the Blues and Golden Knights didn't go ahead with their game.

"That's the league stuff to be honest with you," Berube said. "I'm not going to sit there and worry about what happened and why we didn't play. If you guys want to find out more, you should probably contact the league and all that.

"I was fine with (playing Tuesday, a 5-4 shootout win). I was fine playing the game and I would have been fine playing in Vegas the next (game). It is what it is. I was fine with playing the game Tuesday."

As of Friday afternoon, the Blues have had no players listed on the league's COVID-19 protocol list.

"So far, so good," Berube said. "There's always going to be concern the whole season, right? That's what you've got to deal with. You've got to be mentally strong about it all. I get it. It's not easy, but there's always going to be concern."

* On defense for the Blues, Adam Wainwright? -- That's right, the Cardinals pitcher, who's spent his entire career in St. Louis and signed a one-year contract on Thursday, was mistakenly reported to have signed with the Blues.

Wainwright, was obviously excited by the news based on his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/UncleCharlie50/status/1355175787134144512.

So of course the 39-year-old was going to play along and decided to put out a skit on his twitter account also and put in an audition of sorts: https://twitter.com/UncleCharlie50/status/1355176785076510721.

Even though the Blues are in California, word got around quickly that they have a new teammate.

"I like it. Big defender," Parayko said. "I saw the skit. He had the back catcher mask on. Got him in the uniform, get him out there, takes up a lot of the ice. Big, big body out there. Might have to partner up with him and we would just throw our sticks on the ice and hopefully take up a lot of space."

So it begs the question of what position would the 6-foot-7, 230-pound Wainwright be best suited at in the NHL? 

"That's a good question. I think just for his size and what not, I've got to say he's going to be a good d-man," the 6-6, 230-pound Parayko said. "He takes up a lot of space, he'd be tough to play against. A lot of forwards probably don't want to get to go to the net against him. I'm going d-man."

* Bozak out, Bortuzzo doubtful -- Blues forward Tyler Bozak is not expected to play in either game against the Ducks this weekend after leaving Tuesday's win in Vegas due to an upper-body injury. 

Bozak was the recipient of a blind side hit from Vegas' Mark Stone, who was given a two-minute interference penalty but was not suspended.

Sammy Blais is expected to replace Bozak, who has two assists in seven games, in the lineup.

Defenseman Robert Bortuzzo is doubtful for the opener against the Ducks, according to Berube, but will skate Saturday and then the team will reassess where he is in terms of potentially being available Sunday.

Bortuzzo, who has missed the past five games also with an upper-body injury, was checked from behind Jan. 15 against Colorado and Valeri Nichushkin, an incent that also was not reviewed by the NHL's Department of Player Safety.