Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports
The flu and colds are always expected around winter time, but mumps? Who even knew people even still got that? A few of the teams in the league are having a problem with a sudden influx of the almost harmless but just very irritating illness.
Anyone who knows about mumps knows that it is usually a childhood viral disease that has no serious symptoms. Most people have probably gotten the vaccine for it sometime in their lifetime. The big question is: how did it get passed around in the NHL?
It all started with the Minnesota Wild. Defensemen Jonas Brodin and Marco Scandella both had to sit out Thursday’s game due to having the same mysterious symptoms as teammates Keith Ballard and Christian Folin. Mumps is highly contagious through even the tiniest of fluids so the rest of the Wild’s players and staff had to get the vaccine on the double.
The Anaheim Ducks have even been hit with it. The odd cases of Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin being out with “flu symptoms” came back as the current cases of the mumps. The Ducks’ staff and players took the same precautions as the Wild did and kept it safe with the shot. The mumps even made their way to the St. Louis Blues and infected many of the players.
No one should be too concerned though as these kinds of outbreaks of the mumps are not too uncommon. All it takes to contact it is person-to-person contact with saliva, sweat, or anything else and with players being in close quarters, it is not surprising at all. The surprising, and almost funny or not, part was when the LA Kings decided to have their mascot dress up in a protective gown to make fun of the Ducks’ sickness to the joy of the crowd at Staples Center on Sunday. Maybe LA knows something and the mascots are the ones spreading it this whole time, who knows.
