The Minnesota Wild have a couple of new skaters on the ice tonight as they host the Los Angeles Kings, but they are also missing a couple of their top players.
The Wild announced Monday evening that forwards Jason Pominville and Zach Parise will miss Monday night’s game after they were diagnosed with mumps.
Mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus. The Centers for Disease Control says typically it begins with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness and loss of appetite, followed by swollen salivary glands.
The team says members of the organization who have symptoms are being tested and placed in isolation for five days.
This isn’t the Wild’s first go-round with the virus.
According to the Star Tribune, several Wild players came down with the illness in 2014 including Ryan Suter, Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin, Christian Folin and Keith Ballard.
Minnesota isn’t the only NHL team dealing with the illness. The Vancouver Canucks announced over the weekend that several players were showing symptoms of the virus – with one confirmed diagnosis.
According to the Wild, team doctors recently provided players and staff with the MMR vaccination and the organization is working with the NHL, the players union, and the Minnesota Department of Health to prevent further infection.
