In the Blues’ locker room this morning, the TV was tuned to hockey highlights and preseason scores. When the score of the Blues-Minnesota game from Tuesday night rolled across the bottom of the screen, it was listed as a 4-0 Blues’ win instead of a 3-1 win.

“I’ll take it,” joked Blues goalie Ben Bishop, who allowed the only Wild’s goal in an otherwise stellar performance. Bishop made 23 saves on 24 shots and continued his solid training camp.

“Ben has had a tremendous summer and looks a lot stronger,” Blues coach Andy Murray said.

Bishop played six games with the Blues last season and went 1-1-1 with a 2.94 GAA and an .893 save-percentage. He told me today that he feels much better about his game today than he did at any point last year.

“We had a good end-of-the-year meeting last year and I wanted to show them from the start that I put in the effort, and hopefully it keeps going like it is,” Bishop said. “I feel really good right now. I think working with (Blues coach Rick Wamsley) over the last two or three years, it’s really starting to come together.”

Bishop said he’s thrilled to have Ed Belfour on board in Peoria. Belfour was hired this summer to work with the Blues’ minor-league goalies.

“I’ll get a chance to learn from one of the best goalies to ever play the game,” Bishop said. “You can put him up there with Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy. I’m just going to be a big sponge and soak it in. You can ask him just about everything and he’ll have an answer for it.”

Bishop remembers going to Blues’ games as a kid in St. Louis and screaming “B-E-L-L-L-F-F-F-O-U-R-R-R!”

“I was there for a few of those games,” said Bishop, not totally incriminating himself with his new teacher.

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Blues forward D.J. King has a thumb injury that I’m told is tendon-related, which probably required a minor surgery. King has not practiced the past couple of days and today he was wearing a splint on the thumb when he left the rink. The Blues have not released any information regarding the injury, but there’s a chance that King could be out for at least a couple of weeks.

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My colleague Jeff Gordon wrote a piece on STLtoday.com  about Erik Johnson’s performance Tuesday night. I didn’t talk with Johnson after the game, but as Gordon writes, Johnson was not all that thrilled with the way he played.

After practice today, Murray and Johnson had a brief on-ice discussion.

“I think he was wanting it all back at once last night,” Murray said. ”He’s going to continue to get better. He hasn’t played hockey for a year. He’s played basically summer hockey. I thought he did some good things . . . he was physical. His game will just continue to grow. I told him not to be as hard on himself after the game, as he was last night. That’s my job, that’s not his.”

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Goalie Hannu Toivonen participated in practice today. Toivonen, who’s attempting a comeback after playing last year in Europe, wasn’t very impressive in practice, but in his defense, he’s been off the ice for a few days battling a leg cut.

“He’s had the infection, so he’s working his way back right now,” Murray said.

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If you weren’t at Tuesday night’s game, you missed the first fight of David Perron’s career, as he took on Minnesota’s Danny Irmen in the third period. Some aren’t going as far as to call it a fight, but it was a tussle nonetheless.

“We were just wrestling and then I put him on his (rear end),” Perron said. “I’ve never been in a fight before. It just happened. Some guy tried to run me behind the net and I think I got someone back. I thought it was clean. I turned around and there’s like three guys coming at me. Me and (David) Backes were pushing two or three guys . . . I think (Backes) had more guys than me. I didn’t think too much . . . just dropped the gloves and put him down.”

Blues enforcer Cam Janssen was taking notes.

“I love how everybody sticks up for themselves,” Janssen said. “You don’t have to drop the gloves and square off with anybody, but stick up for yourself. That goes a long way . . . even if you are a skilled guy, and you’re not a big guy. But man, Perry throws his weight around. He’s a strong kid. He’s going to play that pest role out there and when he wants more room, he’s going to have to stick up for himself one way or another. It’s good that he did that.”

Janssen has gotten in fights in the past because opponents were upset with Perron. I asked Janssen if he minds fighting Perron’s battles sometimes?

“I don’t mind it, unless the guy is 6-foot-7,” Janssen said, laughing. “But no, I wanna keep (Perron) comfortable, so that he can do his role.”

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Murray got after a few of the younger players today in practice. Noting that it was Wednesday, Murray called it “hump day” for some of the prospects trying to make it through camp.

On one particular drill, Murray asked forward Anthony Peluso why he was always the last forward skating into the offensive zone.

“I was fairly hard on the guys in practice, barked at a few guys, tried to make a point, particularly with some of our young guys,” Murray said. “We’re just trying to get them up to par with how we practice and the intensity that we expect.”

Peluso, who’s gained some praise recently from Blues President John Davidson, said that you have to be able to shake off the comments from Murray during practice.

“You’ve just got to dig deep and do what he says . . . work harder at it,” Peluso said.

The Blues’ prospects have had a long couple of weeks, beginning with the rookie tournament in Traverse City, Mich., last week and continuing on with NHL training camp.

“Your body is just beat up right now, especially for the guys in Traverse,” Peluso said. “Everyone is trying to go as hard as you can and your body just takes a beating.”

Said Murray: “Hockey is the toughest sport because of the travel and the physicality of our game. Football is a viscious game. But we play four games in a week sometimes. So there’s time when the mental has to take over the physical. We shortened up on the workload today, but if we’re going to be out there, we expect quality work. Today was a message that even though you’re physically tired, mentally you’ve got to peservere.”

JR