Blackwood, Geertsen, Kuokkanen Return | BLOG

After an uptick and slow bleed of COVID-19 running through the team over the past five weeks, the Devils are starting to come out on the other side.
Forwards Janne Kuokkanen and Mason Geertsen and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood have all been released from the NHL's COVID-19 protocol and rejoined the club for practice on Monday afternoon at Prudential Center.
"It was good to come back off that little COVID break," Blackwood said.
"I was going crazy in my apartment. So, it was nice to see the boys again and get some activity in my life again," Geertsen said.
None of the three players had particularly bad symptoms related to their illness, mostly dealing with boredom.
"The first two days I was a little bit sick. After that I felt good," Geertsen said. "I finished a book and watched Squid Games, took the dog for walks."

"I was a little more curious. I knew this one wasn't getting guys as (sick) as last year," said Blackwood, who also contracted COVID in January of 2021. "I was curious to see what would happen with myself. This one fortunately wasn't as bad. Even if you sit around for six days without having anything you're going to feel crappy."
That is particularly true with being unable to do much in the way of conditioning or exercise with the limitation of only body-weight work. To be practically dormant for over a week and then tossed back into practice can be jolting.
"It felt more like a training camp day for me, getting my wind back, my legs back," said Blackwood. "It didn't get me like it did last time. I feel like I'll be good to go."
Geertsen even did extra work to warmup his body before getting on the ice.
"I was a little bit stiff," he said. "I made sure to do a little extra in warmup to make sure I was a little bit limber and ready to go. I was breathing hard in the drills, but it felt good.
"I feel like I'm good to go. I was a little rusty (Monday). (Tuesday) will be another tune up and if they call me on Wednesday, I'll be ready to rock."
With 17 players (and that's not including those in Utica of the American Hockey League) having already tested positive for COVID-19, the team seems to have gone through the blunt of the virus. Meaning, the team has reached its own version of herd immunity and the virus will unlikely have as major of an effect for the rest of the season.
"It seemed like every couple of days we'd have one, two, three guys picked out of the lineup on any given moment," Blackwood said. "It's nice to know that won't really be happening too much anymore. It's nice to have that burden out of the way.
"We're close to having our full team back. We're not quite there. We're pretty much there."