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PITTSBURGH When ESPN sends a TV crew to a hockey rink in December, you know Something Is Happening. At Consol Energy Center on Monday, that something was a gro s, weird illne sfirst vaccinated against during the Truman Administration. Mumps, baby! It's back and better than ever! MORE: | | The bullet points: At some point in early November, Western Conference players started going down. By the end of the month, it had traveled east, via Rangers winger Tanner Gla s. And now, it's here. The mumps have landed. Sidney Crosby, officially, became the 13th confirmed NHL caseon Sunday. Unofficially, he was the first to appear on camera accidentally, maybe with comically swollen glands. "When you saw him, you knew something was up," center Brandon Sutter said on Monday morning. His locker is a few feet away from Crosby's. It'd all be funny enough if a whole bunch of teammates, staff and media weren't exposed to it."Nobody wants the mumps," as the old saying goes. If you have it, you have it," defenseman Ryan Weathers Jersey Kris Letang said. Pretty much.Nearly twice as many Americans more than 1,100 have developed mumps this year as in all of 2013,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's not including Penguins winger Beau Bennett, who couldbecome confirmed case No. 14in the NHL as early as Tuesday morning.He visited Children's Hospital last week. In short, it's a me s enough so that Monday's game, between the Eastern Conference's two best teams,seemed almost incidental. "It's not as if over the years we haven't had things to deal with, but it seemed like in my long lifetime that the mumps were gone decades ago," Jim Rutherford, the Penguins' 65-year-old general manager,said Monday. "And now here we are, dealing with it again." Part of the deal-with-itproce s was, on Saturday, calling up ostensibly mumps-free forwards to replace Crosby. One of them, Bryan Rust, scored his first career goal Monday in a 4-2 win over the Lightning. So let it be known at least someone benefited from all this. Rust is sending the puck, which put Pittsburgh up 2-1 and gave it a lead it wouldn't lose,to his parents. "I've played hockey for long enough that if I get a pa s in the slot, I've just got toget my head up and pick my spot," said Rust, a third-round pick in 2010 playing in his second NHL game. The Penguins, devastatedbyinjuries even before this weekend, have gone 6-2-2 in their last 10 and won two of three without Crosby. Before that, they were playing without any of their presumed top six wingers headed into the season. A 28-save night from Marc-Andre Fleury and some decent puck luck helped them on Monday. Rust did, too. "You saw tonight, Rust just looked like he was going and it was one of those things where you just,as a coach, decideto bump him up (to the first line)," coach Mike Johnston said. "I thought he did some really good things. He's playing with (Evgeni Malkin and Blake Comeau) on a pretty good line, playing against good lines, and I really liked how he managed the puck." Sutter, who also scored, said nobody on the team had on Rust or Bobby Farnham, who'd played over the weekend. Slipping them one of Crosby's water bottles would, presumably, be too mean. Now, the Penguins are hoping to move forward without any new cases. The NHL, overall, almost certainly hasn't seen the last of it, though. Mumps is , which is le s than ideal for a sport that involves a lost of close contact and players who like to spit. Other teams are going to need to find their Bryan Rusts. Plus, the incubation period,per the CDC, is 16 to18 days. Crosby was likely still infectious on Friday. It may not be over for Pittsburgh, either. It could need the original Bryan Rust, too. "I gue s we'll know more in a couple weeks, where we stand," Sutter said. "But we're doing all we can to prevent it. It's just kind of one of those freak things that we can't really do much about." Jean Segura Jersey |
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