The Kings are in St. Louis for the first time this season, so they’ve stepped into one of the centers of the NHL’s mumps outbreak, which claimed two additional players yesterday in Derick Brassard of the New York Rangers and former Los Angeles Junior King Beau Bennett of the Pittsburgh Penguins, raising the total of players whose diagnoses have been made public to 15. Greg Wyshynski’s recent Puck Daddy story provides a timeline of the outbreak, which no league reporter expected would have become the sport’s biggest story of the 2014-15 season.
The viral infection has not spread to Los Angeles’ dressing room. According to Matt Greene, it’s a “non-factor.”
“I don’t think you’re really worried about catching mumps,” he said. “I think I’m worried about the game more than I am getting sick.”
The Kings, under advice from team physician Dr. Michael Mellman, who was advised by the State of California Board of Health, received mumps shots last month. Through a team spokesman, I learned that the shots were administered “one month ago tomorrow,” which meant that the players received them on November 16, 2014.
Receiving the shots was not mandatory; it is unclear if any players declined to receive them.
Though no Blues players had mumps diagnoses made public, Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that “a number of players” had tested positive for the virus earlier this season.
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