Wild Injury Update: Jonas Brodin & Marco Scandella Are Out
Great news for the Minnesota Wild as the team will be getting Jared Spurgeon back Thursday night against Buffalo. He’ll line up in the first defensive pairing with Ryan Suter.
But I thought Jonas Brodin was up with Suter?
Well, Spurgeon’s back, but the Wild are losing Brodin and Marco Scandella. Both defenders are out sick, with “similar symptoms” to what kept Keith Ballard and Christian Folin out previously. According to Michael Russo, Ballard had the mumps, which seems to be going around the NHL.
Brodin and Scandella both ill, similar gland swelling to Ballard and Folin earlier this year; Ballard had the mumps #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) November 13, 2014
The illnesses began for the Wild following a California swing early in the season, around the same time the St. Louis Blues went to California and started having some similar health issues. Now, Anaheim’s Corey Perry and Francois Beachemin have been diagnosed with mumps and banned from entering the arena.
Yeo addressed in today’s pre-game press conference that the team is concerned that whatever it is that the players have is in the locker room and could spread. There’s also a concern that other players have the virus already, but aren’t showing symptoms.
In other injury news, Matt Cooke is still a long ways from returning to the ice, Zach Parise is close and could suit up as soon as Saturday, and Josh Harding is still practicing and progressing, but won’t be back in the next few games.