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Mumps wreaking havoc on Western Conference teams

Mike Yeo

Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Yeo talks to Jason Zucker (16) in the first period of an NHL preseason hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

AP

From the Minnesota Star-Tribune’s Mike Russo:

Brodin and Scandella both ill, similar gland swelling to Ballard and Folin earlier this year; Ballard had the mumps #mnwild

— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) November 13, 2014


Yeo on illness: “this came from somewhere else.” Wild clearly thinks this began in Calif. and now it may “be in our locker room.” #mnwild

— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) November 13, 2014


Yeo said linesman Steve Miller missed the #mnwild#njdevils game the other night with the same symptoms

— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) November 13, 2014


Yesterday, the Anaheim Ducks announced that Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin had been diagnosed with mumps as well, news that came just weeks after
the St. Louis Blues went through a team-wide infection:

When the Wild talked with the St. Louis Blues a few weeks ago and discovered that the Blues had a number of players test positive for the mumps (originally the Blues thought it was a bacterial issue, but mumps is a virus), the team sent Ballard and Folin to Regions to undergo a mumps test.

Russo had floated the idea of this outbreak originating in California prior to today’s tweets. He made note that both the Wild and Blues fell ill following trips through Anaheim and Los Angeles, and referenced this quote from Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock:

“It starts with one person, and then it’s passed very quickly through water bottles, or a towel, or whatever, the shower floor. It just goes, like ‘right now,’ goes zipping through your team.”

Related:

Blues say Center for Disease Control hasn’t been to Scottrade, don’t plan on it coming

Sutter: Illness excuse a ‘popular thing around the league,’ but Kings won’t use it