Blues place David Perron on Covid-19 protocol list

Deja vu, am I right?

Not only is David Perron the 20th player placed on the covid-19 list by the Blues this season, this isn’t the first time he’s wound up missing time with covid. Back in May, shortly after being vaccinated, Perron missed time with a covid diagnosis, leading to much speculation about his vaccine status thanks to tongue waggers on Twitter.

Perron joins Vladimir Tarasenko, Jake Walman, Scott Perunovich, Brayden Schenn, and Colton Parayko as the latest members of the team who are out due to the virus. The Blues have James Neal and Nathan Walker available if need be on the taxi squad at forward, as well as Calle Rosen on defense. As Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch points out, this is a precarious position for the team.

Under the new five-day quarantine rules, it’s possible that Tarasenko, Walman and Perunovich will test out of protocol in time for Thursday’s home game against the Seattle Kraken. If not, the Blues will have to scramble to come up with a full game-day roster for that contest.

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And if neither Perunovich nor Walman test out in time for Thursday’s contest, the Blues will be left with only five defensemen. Which explains why Calle Rosen was called up to the taxi squad from Springfield on Tuesday afternoon. He would give the Blues six available defensemen against the Kraken if needed.

This all presumes, of course, that the Blues have no positive tests between now and Thursday night.

The Flyers have four active covid cases right now, and their game has been postponed. The Blues? What’s the prognosis there? Bill Daly told Thomas “We are aware of their current situation and we are monitoring it.”

That feels like a no.

The Blues have survived worse before the NHL adjusted their call-up rules and re-included a taxi squad. The Blues more than likely helped inspire the rule tweak, so if course, it would stand to reason, for the NHL to continue to ignore the team having to play at a disadvantage. After all, the Blues have been playing like they’re ignoring their disadvantage the whole time.