Alex Nedeljkovic circled the date as soon as the schedule came out, but he may need to redo his calendar.
The Detroit Red Wings await word on whether it’s game on with the Carolina Hurricanes next on the slate, because the Hurricanes — Nedeljkovic’s former team — had their Tuesday game postponed when four players entered COVID-19 protocol.
“I played with them for a while, started my career there, so hopefully they’re all doing well,” Nedeljkovic said after Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Little Caesars Arena. “Obviously, they’re sick but they’re doing OK and they’re battling and nobody is too ill.”
The Wings likely will know before their 1 p.m. practice. They are scheduled to fly in the afternoon.
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The Wings just dealt with three players going through protocol: Danny DeKeyser, Tyler Bertuzzi and Marc Staal. The Wings were in enhanced measures on their last road trip (meaning players essentially stayed in their hotel rooms) and continue to preach caution.
“We certainly have addressed that going back to when we had a few cases in a row and just making sure that our awareness is heightened and that our due diligence is heightened,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’re going to do the best we can. But you can do everything right and seem to still get the virus. All you can do is try to do it right to be as proactive as you can then you hope for the best and that’s what we’re doing.”
The Hurricanes at Minnesota game was the ninth one postponed this season because of the pandemic, four of them this week.
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“It seems every day there’s multiple — it’s not just one or two or three, it’s six or seven different guys across the league getting put in protocol,” Nedeljkovic said. “It’s unfortunate. Obviously it’s really easy to get and all we can do is just do our best to stop the spread and stay healthy — social distance when you can and whatnot. Hopefully, you don’t get it.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.