Duff’s notebook: Blashill preparing for Wednesday’s game like ‘we’re going to play’ it

The Red Wings are currently scheduled to play the New York Islanders on Wednesday, and while the NHL may or may not reschedule the game due to COVID concerns for both teams, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill told Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff that the Wings will do their best to get ready for Wednesday:

“We’re planning on playing until someone tells us otherwise,” Blashill said. “It’s on our schedule and we’re planning on playing. Given the fact the NHL canceled some other games and didn’t cancel ours, I’d assume we’re going to play.

“That’s the mindset we wanted to get across to our players today and the mindset we have. So you kind of move ahead as business as usual.”

[Pius] Suter made the choice of opting to skate on his own on Monday.

“He wanted to avoid coming right off protocol and practicing,” Blashill explained.

Other players could come out of COVID-19 protocols prior to Wednesday’s game.

“You always have the possibility of having no symptoms and two negative tests in a row and then guys can come out,” Blashill said.

Continued

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.