Slight travel delay: Blues get home 14 hours late

Sunday night in Vancouver, the St. Louis Blues capped off a perfect three-game road trip with a 4-3 shootout win over the Canucks.

For Ken Hitchcock’s triumphant troops, all that was left to do was get home.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, it wasn’t.

Per the Post-Dispatch, the Blues finally made it back to St. Louis early this morning…14 hours after they were supposed to get back.

The club typically flies home after road games, but in the case of Vancouver, a four-hour flight, Blues officials, based on sleep studies, prefer players get a regular night of rest and then travel the next day.

After spending Sunday night in Vancouver, the Blues were scheduled to fly out of Vancouver at 10 a.m. (Pacific time) Monday and arrive in St. Louis at 4 p.m. (Central time). But when the players arrived at the gate, they were notified by their charter company that the plane needed a part and it would take about eight hours for the part to arrive.

The Blues were told that a backup plane would be sent  in case the part did not work, but that ended up not to be the case. When it was discovered that the part was not going to fix the problem, then a plane was ordered to Vancouver.

In the meantime, Blues players were transported to a nearby hotel to wait out the delay. Finally, just after midnight Pacific time, the coaches and players boarded the aircraft bound for St. Louis. The sun was beaming at Lambert Field at 6:30 a.m., as the squinty-eyed, sleepy Blues exited the plane.

And to top it off, the team bus from the airport had to sit in rush-hour traffic.

The Blues host San Jose tonight at Scottrade Center.

And then it’s off to Denver!