Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Yeo hopes his best defenseman doesn’t have a case of the mumps, but he’s not ruling out the infection until blood work says as much.
Suter missed practice Tuesday and didn’t participate in Wednesday’s optional morning skate because of an illness, as reported by the Star Tribune. Yeo ruled him out for tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens at Xcel Energy Center.
“We’re hoping it’s just illness,” Yeo said. “There’s a couple symptoms that he has that would make us concerned that it could be [the mumps].”
It will be the first game Suter has missed since signing with the Wild on July 4, 2012.
Tonight will be the first game Ryan Suter misses as a member of the #MNWild since signing in the summer of 2012. Out with illness (mumps?).
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) December 3, 2014
Mumps has been spreading throughout the Wild’s locker room, seemingly targeting defensive players.
Reporters in Minny saying Ryan Suter's being tested for the mumps. He'd be the 5th player for the Wild to suffer them this season. #crazy
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) December 3, 2014
Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin, Keith Ballard and Christian Folin all missed games because of mumps. Ballard missed eight games, Brodin seven, Folin five and Scandella two.
Folin was recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate in Iowa and will pair with Brodin on the blue line for tonight’s game.
Reminder: tonight’s game begins at 6 p.m. because it is the Canadian national game on Sportsnet.
