MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Dylan Larkin and coach Jeff Blashill regarding the Red Wings’ attempts to navigate the team through their COVID outbreak:
“I think the mood in the room is that we’ve kind of been through it, had a lot of positive cases, hopefully we can move on from it and it isn’t really a problem for us anymore,” Dylan Larkin said.
The Red Wings, barring another postponement, will play at the New York Islanders on Wednesday, and coach Jeff Blashill anticipates having most of the roster available.
“Given the fact the NHL canceled some (Wednesday) games and didn’t cancel ours, I’d assume we’re going to play,” Blashill said. “That’s the mindset we wanted to get across to our players today so you kind of move as business as usual.”
Forwards Pius Suter, Givani Smith and Carter Rowney exited protocol on Monday. That leaves forwards Adam Erne, Sam Gagner, Lucas Raymond, Joe Veleno and Filip Zadina, defensemen Nick Leddy and Jordan Oesterle, and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in protocol.
All but possibly Raymond and Leddy are expected to come out of protocol in the next two days. Whether they are ready to play Wednesday will be determined on an individual basis.
“Certainly, nobody would play who wasn’t comfortable playing,” Blashill said. “That’s one conversation we’ll have with every player as they come off – are you comfortable playing? If they tell me they’re not comfortable, they just don’t feel ready, then they wouldn’t play. But our expectation, having spoken to all of them already, is that as guys come off, they’ll be inserted into practice and then into the lineup.”