Blues suffer the blues in Alaska training camp

ST. LOUIS -- Like most of the rest of the sporting world, the St. Louis Blues aren't playing their scheduled games this weekend. And that's fine with them.

The Blues are in Anchorage, Alaska, for training camp. But the week's horrifying events stole away any chance of enjoying it.

Many players just want to get home to their families.

"We're athletes, but we're also people," forward Jamal Mayers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Six degrees of separation -- we all know somebody or know somebody who knows somebody who was in New York. A lot of our thoughts aren't really here right now."

The week was geared toward two exhibition games against San Jose. Those games, like most games across the country, won't be played now.

Instead, the Blues planned to play a intrasquad game Saturday night.

The team has been living through somber days that seem to repeat -- morning practice, scrimmage and back to the hotel. Some look for diversion by watching movies or going fishing.

Forward Scott Young said he still finds himself switching on the news each day, drawn to make sure "there was no disaster that day."

The daily grind and the Blues players, coaches and officials desire to be elsewhere has taken the usual hi-jinks out training camp.

Staying in a hotel that has been a gathering place for stranded travelers hasn't helped. There isn't much joy.

"We'd all rather be home under the circumstances," Young said.

Training camp "has been pretty good, all things considered," he said. "The mood usually at camp is a lot of fun, some joking and this has been nothing like that at all."

The Blues were scheduled to return to St. Louis on Monday.