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The New Jersey Devils are back at work after 19 players landed on the NHL’s COVID-19 roster and forced the postponement of seven games since late January.
The Devils, who face the Rangers on Tuesday, trained on Monday for the first time since defeating the Sabers in Buffalo on Jan.31.
In the three days following that game, 11 players were added to the list of NHL unavailable players due to COVID-19, bringing the Devils total to 17. The list reached 19 on February 9.
“It’s a little unfortunate and it’s a little crazy how quickly it spreads,” said forward Miles Wood on Monday. “I think that’s the scariest part. You know, it destroyed a team in the space of three days, so it’s very serious.”
New Jersey has 10 points, but has only played nine games, the least in the Eastern Division. Before Monday, the Devils had at least four games in hand with each team ahead of them.
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Blackwood was the first to test positive on January 20. Veteran Travis Zajac, who is two games away from his 1,000th regular season game with New Jersey, was sidelined ahead of the Jan. 29 game in Buffalo. Kyle Palmieri got his positive test on the morning of the 31st and then things exploded after the team arrived in Pittsburgh for a game on February 2. The NHL stopped the Devils, forcing the team to send the players home in two groups, those in the isolation group and those in good health.
Wood has not tested positive. He had COVID-19 before training camp opened this year, so many players have asked him what to expect. He said he had a cool head. However, he knew others who had high fever.
Palmieri, who practiced on Monday, said he felt nothing for a few days after his positive result. Two or three days after the result, symptoms developed and lasted until the end of the week. He said his sense of smell was just coming back.
Zajac, who entered the protocol a few days before Palmieri, remains there.
Blackwood said he had a bad cough and trouble breathing. He’s just getting back in shape and has said he’s ready for the Rangers in New York if called upon since the team has been out for two weeks. He also said seeing the team fall with COVID-19 was “crazy”.
“I didn’t expect that to happen, but my thoughts were just, ‘I hope it’s not because of me,’” Blackwood said.
Palmieri doesn’t believe the Devils did anything wrong to cause the peak. He said the players wore their masks, ate their meals in their hotel rooms and held each other accountable.
“But we spend an hour or two in a side-to-side game on a bench breathing heavily and I mean, playing hockey is a tough sport,” he said. “You come back and you’re pretty gassed and you try to catch your breath. So that’s a lot of close contact, heavy breathing. You’ve read enough about this virus, it’s probably one of the worst things you can do is long, prolonged periods of heavy breathing in people without a mask. “
Palmieri admits there has been some anxiety over the past two weeks. Gamers are concerned about keeping their families healthy and the possible long-term effects of COVID-19.
“You think about every scenario that comes through your mind and what could happen,” Palmieri said. “But hopefully, as we all start to come back, everyone will be very healthy. And like I said, we’re going back to playing hockey and doing what we love.”
Devils coach Lindy Ruff has told his team to treat the past two weeks as a reset. He felt the team were playing well before the break. He wants his players to focus on defense and make short changes on Tuesday. Special teams were covered on Monday and got players to skate and improve their endurance.
“I don’t think a coach has really dealt with anything like that and, you know, that number of players come out and now have to do a reset,” said Ruff, who spent close to two. decades as a coach. “I think you can come up with a lot of excuses, you know, that you could lose a game. I want to find reasons why we can win.”
Wood said playing Rangers would help. It’s a rivalry game and he said there was no reason the Devils weren’t ready.
“We have a lot of young guys on the team and to be honest I don’t think it’s going to affect us that much,” said Wood. “I think the adrenaline will take over and we’ll be fine again.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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