Late Friday evening, it was reported that the St. Louis Blues were forced to cancel their practices. This comes in the face of multiple positive tests according to The Athletic. The club is said to be expected to keep their training facilities closed for the weekend before reopening on Monday, obviously without those that tested positive.
New reports indicate that four Blues players and one coach have tested positive and are in quarantine.
Sources: Blues cancel practices due to ‘multiple’ COVID-19 positive tests https://t.co/fstyhGN1CA #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) July 4, 2020
St Louis Blues Covid 19 Scare Cancels Practices
Players will be barred from the team’s training facilities through the weekend, although the team did not have any group practices scheduled on Saturday or Sunday. Still, individual players will not be able to squeak in. Worries for the safety of the general public have started to rumble, as the brand-new Centene Ice Center was also being used by the public, alongside the Blues, as recently as Friday.
According to The Athletic, who originally broke the news, the positive cases are seen in multiple players. The names of these players likely won’t come out.
The Blues become one of many teams impacted by the Covid scares. The Boston Bruins led the pack, becoming the first team to be forced to adjust in early-June. The Tampa Bay Lightning were soon after, closing their facilities entirely in the face of multiple tests of their own. Similar scares have also popped up among the Arizona Coyotes and a handful of other players around the league.
This is very bleak news, surfacing in the face of the NHL’s entrance into Phase Three: which was set for July 10. While the league will surely move on with these plans, the St Louis Blues Covid 19 scare is more evidence that serious precautions need to be made.
The Blues will certainly follow similar guidelines to the Bruins and Lightning. The positive players will be forced to quarantine for two weeks. During that stretch, they will be tested repeatedly. While team training is sure to continue, it’s safe to assume the Blues will be much more cautious moving forward.
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