DETROIT – The past few weeks have been a reminder to the Detroit Red Wings, whether they needed one or not, that COVID-19 is still around, nearly 21 months after the 2019-20 season was postponed because of the virus.
On Monday, defenseman Marc Staal became the third Red Wing to be placed in COVID protocol over the past two weeks.
Coach Jeff Blashill said Staal will miss Tuesday’s game against the Nashville Predators at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., ESPN Plus/Hulu), as the Red Wings (13-9-3) seek their sixth consecutive win. Blashill said it hasn’t been determined how long Staal will be out.
Tyler Bertuzzi has missed two games in COVID protocol and will sit out three more before being eligible to return on Dec. 14.
Danny DeKeyser has been out the past five games, the first four in protocol. He will return to the lineup Tuesday.
Blashill said the team is “under kind of enhanced measures,” declining to specify what those are.
“When Bert got it, it was right before the game (last Thursday vs. Seattle), and I was a little worried about does that kind of deflate you a little bit when you get that kind of news right before a game?” Blashill said. “I thought our guys reacted really well to it. We’ve also won some games in a row and so the mood’s generally pretty good when you’ve won a bit. I think we’re all kind of crossing our fingers and hoping that nobody else ends up testing positive.”
DeKeyser said this is the second time he has had COVID, and he was fortunate to be asymptomatic this time. Still, the timing he said was “brutal,” the day before Thanksgiving.
“I didn’t really get to do anything for that, although I did get a little bit of turkey and mashed potatoes,” he said. “I was kind of waiting for it to come after the first 48 hours and then I never got any symptoms. I actually was up in my room, staying away from my wife and kids for the first couple of days and then when I was asymptomatic, I was starting to go a little bit crazy up there. I threw a mask on and gloves and stayed about 25 feet from my family members at all times and ate at a table by myself. Stayed away as much as possible.”
Gustav Lindstrom also is expected to miss Tuesday’s game due to a lower-body suffered on Saturday. His status is day-to-day. The team recalled Dan Renouf from the Grand Rapids Griffins.
The Red Wings entered the season eight-deep on defense and that depth is being tested. Troy Stecher has been out a month due to wrist surgery and isn’t expected back until February.
“You feel a little bit fortunate that Staalsy’s and DK’s COVID protocol situations were staggered, so that Staalsy goes out and DK comes in,” Blashill said. “Obviously, you’d love your lineup to be all players available at any point but that’s not the reality of it, so depth becomes critical. It gets tested as you go through the season. Certainly, with COVID it gets tested even further.”
The Red Wings have been passing the test on the ice lately with their longest winning streak since a six-game run from March 23-April 2, 2019.
“Two years ago was as challenging a time as I ever had professionally. I’m sure it was the same for our players,” Blashill said. “It’s fun to go into games with the expectation that you should win the hockey game.”
The turnaround began last season.
“I think belief was gained last year for sure, because we were in way more games than the year before,” Blashill said. “Outside of that one stretch where we were kind of the first team to have a ton of COVID cases and none of our games got canceled -- we played shorthanded in that stretch, and we didn’t do well – outside of that I thought we played pretty good hockey.
“I think there was an understanding of the importance of defending well, how it keeps you in games and you can find ways to win games. I would say on this current stretch it’s been similar. We’ve competed hard. When you do that, you’re in the mix to win games. And then it’s about making a play at a critical moment, and we’ve done that more this year than we did a year ago. I think we’ve taken a step 25 games in, but we’ve got a big five-game set ahead of us and a whole lot of games ahead of us.”
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