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Jake Walman

Injury Notes: Girard, Coyotes, Oilers, Walman

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According to The Athletic’s Peter Baugh, the Colorado Avalanche will have defenseman Samuel Girard back in the lineup tonight, the first time since March 8th (link). Girard’s return comes at a good time for Colorado, who were already missing Ryan Murray on the left side before seeing Devon Toews go down last night after blocking a shot against the Winnipeg Jets. Though Toews is expected to be okay after the shot block, it’s unclear if he will have to miss any time.

Getting the 23-year-old Girard back in the lineup also helps to lengthen an already stellar Avalanche defense group as the team looks to get into a groove heading into the playoffs. Colorado is currently first in the entire NHL with 108 points, two ahead of the Florida Panthers, and 13 points ahead of the Calgary Flames for the top spot in the west. After a career year in 2020-21 with 32 points in 48 games, Girard has taken a small step back, having 27 points in 56 games this season, but has been a steady and reliable presence on the back-end for a dominant Avalanche team.

  • There is positive injury news out in the desert, as Arizona Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny announced that defenseman Janis Moser is on the Coyotes’ road trip and is now considered day-to-day for the team (link). It’s unclear when exactly Moser, who has not played since March 15th, will return, but having the young defenseman return to finish out the season would be much-welcomed for Arizona. The Coyotes also expect prospect Jack McBain to make his NHL debut soon, says Tourigny. McBain, who the Coyotes acquired from the Minnesota Wild on March 21st, and signed on March 23rd, has been unable to play due to injury. Tourigny points to Arizona’s games at Vancouver and Calgary next week, or the following week at home as possible dates of McBain to debut. The 22-year-old spent this season and three prior as a standout for Boston College in the NCAA.
  • Edmonton Oilers’ prospect Philip Broberg is expected to return from injury within the next two weeks for the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL, says Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Athletic (link). Broberg, who has split time between Bakersfield and Edmonton, has been out since March 18. Another Oilers prospect, Dylan Holloway, did not play last night and is expected to be out at least through this weekend, says Nugent-Bowman. A return timetable is not yet clear for Holloway, however Nugent-Bowman does believe that Holloway will make his NHL debut before the end of the season (link). The 14th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft by Edmonton, Holloway has eight goals and thirteen assists in 32 games this season for Bakersfield.
  • From Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, defenseman Jake Walman is out of the lineup tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets with an upper-body injury (link). Walman has been a reliable defenseman for both the Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues this season, coming to Detroit from St. Louis in the Nick Leddy trade back in March. No timetable for Walman’s return has been made available yet.

Blues Place Tarasenko, Perunovich, Walman In COVID Protocol

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After icing a nearly fully healthy team last night against Pittsburgh for what felt like the first time in forever, the St. Louis Blues got hit with bad news today. The team released a statement Thursday saying they’ve placed forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defensemen Scott Perunovich and Jake Walman in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

These are large absences for this team, especially Tarasenko. He’s been a somewhat unexpectedly huge contributor to the lineup after requesting a trade this past offseason, potting 14 goals and 20 assists in 34 games, seemingly fully recovered from years of shoulder issues.

Perunovich and Walman have been valuable depth pieces on defense, especially Perunovich. The young 23-year-old has impressed during his first NHL stint, scoring six assists in 18 games and averaging 15:33 per game. The 45th overall pick in 2018 will have to wait a little longer to score his first NHL goal, however.

Walman, through 18 games, has a goal and two assists in 12:06 of ice time per game.

NHL Announces Blank COVID Protocol Related Absences List

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May 25: The list is empty again today. Moving forward we will only publish it if a player is added to the protocol.

May 24: The long-awaited day has finally arrived. When the NHL released it’s COVID Protocol Related Absences list on Monday evening, it contained no names. It is the first time since the list originally debuted at the start of the regular season that the contents has been empty. Granted, the list now only includes the 14 active playoff teams as opposed to all 31 clubs, but it still marks a major achievement in the league’s battle against the Coronavirus.

Of course, the final step toward a league-wide clean bill of health actually came with the elimination of the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. When the Colorado Avalanche completed their sweep of the Blues, they also ended the seasons of the only two players on the latest CPRA list: David Perron and Nathan Walker. In fact, every player who has appeared on the list since the playoffs began on March 15 has now been eliminated – Perron, Walker, and Blues teammate Jake Walman and Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov, whose team was bounced by the Boston Bruins on Sunday as well.

With the NHL already feeling confident enough in its COVID-19 status as to allow relaxed policies to vaccinated teams, the hope is that this empty CPRA list becomes the norm and not the exception. With postseason results obviously carrying much more weight than regular season results, the league does not want to see any of their playoff series tainted by COVID results. The Blues’ absences, particularly Perron’s, were certainly felt, but as major underdogs against Colorado anyhow, the league escaped without much controversy. They hope that can continue throughout the postseason and that the CPRA list becomes a permanent thing of the past moving forward into next season.

West Notes: Thomas, Blues, Kadri, Pacioretty

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The St. Louis Blues have struggled mightily in its first-round playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche with little offense to show for itself. The team has scored just five goals over three games and needs some players to step up.

Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that one player the team needs more from is Robert Thomas. The 21-year-old looked like a promising youngster in his second season last year when he posted 10 goals and 42 points, but has struggled this year after missing 19 games with a broken hand, hasn’t produced on the ice. The center scored just three goals and 12 points in 33 games and has just two secondary assists so far in the playoffs.

“I think he’s gotta play with more energy and confidence in my opinion,” said Blues coach Craig Berube. “That’s a big thing I think I see with him, is the energy level’s a little low for him. He’s gotta find a little more emotion in his game and go out and play with some energy and emotion in the game. It’s hard to play the game in the playoffs without energy and emotion. And if he gets his energy levels up and gets more emotionally involved in the game, he’s gonna play better.”

  • Sticking with the Blues, injuries continue to be a problem for St. Louis. Berube said that the team will be without Vince Dunn, Robert Bortuzzo and Justin Faulk for a pivotal Game 4, the team announced. There is a chance that Jake Walman could be available for the game, and Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports he will play in Game 4 after coming off the COVID-19 protocol list. Dunn is expected to miss his 15th straight game with an upper-body injury. Bortuzzo and Faulk will each miss their second straight with upper-body injuries.
  • John Shannon of NHL.com reports that there still is no decision from forward Nazem Kadri about whether he intends to appeal his  suspension. Kadri received an eight-game suspension Friday after his hit on Faulk in Game 2. If Kadri wants to appeal, it would go into the hands of commissioner Gary Bettman. If he doesn’t like Bettman’s response, it could go to a third-party arbitrator, but that could take quite a bit of time, according to the scribe. A decision likely will be made later today.
  • Still no word on the status of Vegas Golden Knights’ Max Pacioretty as Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen reports that the top-scoring winger remains day-to-day. In fact, the forward has been day-to-day with an undisclosed injury since being injured on May 1. “We don’t know game to game whether he’ll be in, but it’s turned into obviously longer than we hoped,” said head coach Peter DeBoer.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 05/22/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:

St. Louis – David Perron, Nathan Walker

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: None

The Blues are still without Perron and Walker, though Jake Walman did exit the protocol yesterday and take warm-up with the team. Unfortunately, St. Louis is barely hanging on in their first-round series against the Avalanche and it might not matter even if Perron is back in time for tomorrow’s game. The timing of his positive test couldn’t have been worse as the Blues were already in tough against the powerhouse Colorado team and desperately need their leading scorer.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 05/21/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:

Pittsburgh – TBA
St. Louis – David Perron, Nathan Walker
Winnipeg – TBA

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: Jake Walman, St Louis Blues

Walman rejoined his teammates at practice this morning but will not play tonight after spending the last few weeks in the COVID protocol. It is very good news that he has been removed, especially as the Blues were down to the final defenseman in the organization. Still, Perron’s absence is more important to the team who find themselves down two games to none.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 05/20/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:

St. Louis – David Perron, Jake Walman, Nathan Walker

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: None

The Blues are still without their trio of players as they now head back to St. Louis to try and stay alive. The Avalanche have defeated them in both of the first two games and now both Justin Faulk and Robert Bortuzzo are dealing with injuries. It’s a tough situation for the Blues, but at least no other players have been added since the positive test results.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 05/19/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:

St. Louis – David Perron, Jake Walman, Nathan Walker
Winnipeg – TBA

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: None

There was some worry today that several players from the Blues and Golden Knights would be added to the protocol after testing came back positive last night. After re-testing, it was determined that there was an error at the lab. The league released a full statement:

This morning, we became aware of certain test results involving multiple Players on two Clubs (the St. Louis Blues and the Vegas Golden Knights) that had indicated positive results for the COVID-19 virus. Because those reported results emanated from the same laboratory, and due to other peculiarities and similarities as among the test results themselves, an investigation was initiated into the possibility that the initial test results reported may have been in error. All affected Players were immediately isolated and further testing was done involving collected samples. Those tests have returned uniformly negative results, therefore confirming that the initial reported test results were in error. As a result, all affected Players will be eligible to play in their team’s next game.

Unfortunately, while the Blues won’t have players added, they still don’t have Perron, Walman or Walker back either. The team will have to hope they can take down the Avalanche this evening without their top scorer.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 05/18/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:

St. Louis – David Perron, Jake Walman, Nathan Walker

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: None

Still no one off the list for the Blues, who were forced to try and compete with the Avalanche last night without their top offensive weapon. St. Louis generated just one goal on 23 shots in game one of their series. For now, the team will have to battle to stay alive until Perron and the others are cleared.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 05/17/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:

St. Louis – David Perron, Jake Walman, Nathan Walker

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: None

It’s bad news for the Blues, who will be without Perron for the first game against the Avalanche tonight. The team’s leading scorer, Perron had 58 points in 56 games and has played very well against the Avalanche throughout his career. The team will have to hope his stint in the protocol is over in a few days.

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