Nobody’s safe!
At least at this point, that’s how it feels with the Rangers and their battle with the mumps.
On Thursday, the team announced forward Lee Stempniak was the latest player to enter a five-day quarantine while he is tested for the virus, keeping him out of at least this weekend’s back-to-back, home-and-home with the Hurricanes, starting Saturday in Raleigh, N.C. The good news for the Blueshirts is Friday is the first day center Derick Brassard is allowed out of his five-day quarantine, and he is expected to return to practice.
If Brassard can play, then that would leave the Rangers with 12 healthy forwards — healthy being a relative term. If not, they would be forced to dress seven defensemen or call someone up from AHL Hartford.
But the Wolf Pack, apparently, are not immune from the mumps epidemic, either. The Rangers seem to be at the forefront of the virus spreading through the organization, with the first possible of cases of mumps in the AHL coming Thursday with Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander and forward Joey Crabb being isolated and tested for the virus.
“There is a full protocol here that has been installed by the National Hockey League,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said after an optional practice Thursday in Westchester. “I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but our medical staff, there is a whole bunch of things they have to do prior to when the guys get there, after they get there, disinfecting, etc., etc., etc. Everything is in place for them. This is mandatory from the National Hockey League.”
But that protocol is not foolproof, as the Blueshirts have already lost games from Brassard and fourth-liner Tanner Glass due to the illness, which carries flu-like symptoms and is painful with swelling in the salivary glands. The league has had 15 confirmed cases of mumps on players of five different teams, including Sidney Crosby of the Penguins.
“It is certainly an outbreak that was unexpected and has caused unwanted disruption at the team level, but it is not something we have any significant control over,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement Tuesday. “As long as our clubs are doing what they need to do to minimize risk of contraction, we are hopeful that the wave of cases will run their course and life will return to normal in the relatively near term.”
As far as the players, they’ve all received booster shots in addition to the vaccination, and are trying not to think about it too much.
“I don’t think guys are worried about it,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “It’s just that it’s not good, it’s not fun, that it’s going around the league. It’s something that a lot of players have to deal with. But I try not to change anything.”
The Rangers are all drinking out of separate water bottles, as the virus is spread through droplets of saliva or mucus.
“Trainers here are trying to do a good job of keeping everything clean,” Lundqvist said. “You can’t think too much about it. If you get it, you get it. Obviously, it’s not good to see that many players get sick.”
It’s very rare to see an outbreak of mumps, and no one is really sure how it started its way through the NHL. When Vigneault was asked for his guess, he could only crack a joke.
“In the family, my father is the doctor,” Vigneault said. “But I couldn’t tell you.”