ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - After an error in COVID-19 testing for a number of St. Louis Blues players, the team will still be without its top scorer due to COVID-19 protocols. The errors kept some Blues players from participating in Wednesday's morning skate, but they have all been cleared.
However, the Blues leading scorer in the regular season – David Perron – is still on the COVID protocol list and will not be available for Wednesday's game.
The Blues announced they had found "discrepancies" in COVID-19 test results for "multiple players" before Game 2 of the First Round Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup with the Colorado Avalanche.
The NHL came out with a statement saying that positive COVID-19 test results that came back for a number of Blues and Vegas Golden Knights players were errors. Those players were isolated and further testing was done. All players' tests came back negative and they will be allowed to play in Wednesday's games.
"Those tests have returned uniformly negative results, therefore confirming that the initial reported test results were in error. As a result, all affected Players will be eligible to play in their team's next game," an NHL statement reads.
The names of which players tested positive were not released.
A number of Blues players were not seen on the ice for the team's morning skate in Colorado, including goalie Jordan Binnington and forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz.
Perron, defensemen Jake Walman and forward Nathan Walker are still on the NHL's COVID protocol list that was released Wednesday afternoon.
On Wednesday afternoon, hockey insider Pierre LeBrun reported that teams in both the NHL and NBA are conducting some retesting due to "inconsistencies in overnight Covid testing" which may be contributed to "lab error/false positives."
Blues president of hockey operations and general manager Doug Armstrong released a statement on the issue:
"We have discovered discrepancies in Covid test results relating to multiple players. We have been in touch with and are working with the League to address these discrepancies with additional testing and expect to have further information later this afternoon."
He says head coach Craig Berube and all players won't be available to the media until after Wednesday game. Game 2 is set for a 9:30 p.m. CT puck drop in Colorado. St. Louis is down 1-0 in the best-of-seven series.
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