The St. Louis Blues are following the lead of the Phoenix Coyotes and are allowing center Pavol Demitra to play one preliminary-round game for Slovakia in the Olympics, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The Coyotes said last week that center Michal Handzus, left wing Ladislav Nagy and defenseman Radoslav Suchy can play in Slovakia's Feb. 9 game against Germany.

The Blues have games against Philadelphia on Feb. 9 and Atlanta on Feb. 12, when Slovakia plays Austria. Demitra, the Blues' leading scorer, will be available for Slovakia's game against Latvia on Feb. 10.

"I think that's great," Demitra told the paper. "It's nice to play for your country for at least one game, to try to help the team make the final round."

Both the Coyotes and Blues -- the only two teams to make their Slovaks available so far -- have personnel who are involved with other teams in the Olympics. Coyotes co-owner Wayne Gretzky is the executive director of Team Canada, while Blues general manager Larry Pleau is the associate general manager of Team USA.

Peter Stastny, the general manager of Slovakia's team, finished his NHL career with the Blues and is employed by the team for special assignments. He has been struggling to obtain the services of high-end NHL players, such as Los Angeles' Zigmund Palffy, who would help Slovakia advance to the final round and help it compete with the six NHL player-laden teams once it got there.

Stastny also is operating with a 23-player roster, which will carry over from the preliminary to the final. Should he decide to take all three Coyotes against Germany and Demitra and four other NHLers -- if they become available -- against Latvia, he would be left with just 15 players, 12 of them skaters, against Austria. A full team has 18 skaters.

"It's a situation where we pretty much have to win every game," Stastny said. "I can't go into the last game with a roster of 12."

The deadline for naming Olympic men's hockey rosters is Dec. 22.