St. Louis Blues Halt Practices After Several Positive Tests
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues return to the ice hit a speed bump. They have halted practices due to several positive tests.
Nobody said it was going to be easy for the St. Louis Blues or any hockey team to return to play. Things got a bit more complicated just prior to the holiday weekend for the boys in The Note.
According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, and several news sites, the Blues have been forced to halt their small-group practices. The report states the Blues held practices on Thursday, July 2 and then did not return to the Centene Center for their Friday workouts.
The reason is several members of the organization have tested positive for covid-19. Names were not released, nor should they be.
We live in an age where we expect to know everything all the time. It is nobody’s business who has the virus, even if we want to send them well wishes.
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If a player wants to go on social media and let us know, so be it. Otherwise, the team should not release that information to anyone outside the organization.
To those on social media calling for the end of the season, it is not that simple. This virus is real, no doubt. It does not automatically mean the season should be canceled.
Also, there is no guarantee it would ever be safe. If you do not try to play now, there might never be a time that is clearly better.
That does not mean precautions should not be taken. The Blues are right to halt practices, assess the situation, see when the affected people are better (if they ever had symptoms) and go from there.
None of it means there cannot be a season. I’m not sure why Europe can successfully have soccer games and Korea can play baseball, but the United States and Canada are not allowed to even discuss having a return to sports.
However, anyone that thought this might not happen was kidding themselves as well. There is more testing being done, so of course you are going to have more cases reported. There is no need for overreaction on either side.
All this means is the Blues will not practice for awhile. They have time for it all to clear up by camp.
Additionally, we do not specifically know that all the affected parties are players. As mentioned, the report did not include names.
dark. Next. One Doug Armstrong deal yet to yield results
It is safe to assume players are involved if practices are halted, but it is just that – an assumption. For now, all we know is there were several positive tests and the team has stopped practices.
We must all be calm and not jump to conclusions.