Wild defensemen Marco Scandella and Jonas Brodin may have the mumps

The Wild will get defenseman Jared Spurgeon back in the lineup tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, and it's a good thing because first-pair defenseman Jonas Brodin and second-pair defenseman Marco Scandella have come up ill and may be out for awhile.

The two have the same symptoms that sidelined defensemen Keith Ballard (eight games) and Christian Folin (five games) earlier this season. As I reported last week, Ballard was diagnosed with the mumps.

"They're ill and similar symptoms to what we had some other guys out with," coach Mike Yeo said of Brodin and Scandella. "We don't know for sure that's what it is, similar symptoms."

Those symptoms, according to Ballard, are awful flu-like symptoms – achy, fever, zero energy and swollen glands in the neck area.

Scandella and Brodin both noticeably struggled at times Tuesday in New Jersey – the Wild's fourth consecutive loss. Yeo said Scandella has been sick since Montreal, where I remember him coughing up a storm while we were talking to him. In New Jersey after the morning skate, I even commented to him about marks on his neck (looked like a jersey burn), which was also swollen.

According to webmd, "Mumps is spread by mucus or droplets from the nose or throat of an infected person, usually when a person coughs or sneezes. Surfaces of items (for example, toys) can also spread the virus if someone who is sick touches them without washing the hands, and someone else then touches the same surface and then rubs the eyes, mouth, nose, etc.

Yeo said linesman Steve Miller missed the Devils game that night with similar symptoms, and from looking at his game logs, Miller did two St. Louis Blues games Oct. 23 and Nov. 4.

I bring this up because the Blues have had a string of illnesses this season and many of those players had positive mumps tests, according to sources. Anaheim's Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin have also been diagnosed with the mumps. This has even affected some reporters.

"This came from somewhere else, but it's a possibility that it's inside our locker room now," Yeo said. "Whatever we've got to do to clean it up and make sure nobody gets this and certainly keep these guys away from anybody. Problem is you start to wonder and start to worry, is this sitting inside anybody else waiting to come out, too?"

Wild athletic therapist Don Fuller has been in contact with the league. I have contacted the league to see if they're looking into this stuff and I haven't heard back yet. Folin and Ballard were on antibiotics when they were sick, and the Wild disinfected their equipment and had players use different water bottles and towels. So far, it appears as if only defensemen have been infected, and they do sit next to each other in the locker room and on the bench.

Yeo said all the sick players have reported the same thing – it feels like you're coming down with something, and it either goes away or boom, your neck swells up.

It appears as if somebody's locker room is a petri dish. The Wild's illnesses began after an Oct. 17 trip to Anaheim and Oct. 19 trip to Los Angeles. The Blues also played in L.A. Oct. 16 and in Anaheim Oct. 19.

Also, the Wild played a preseason game at St. Louis on Oct. 2 and the Blues played in Minnesota on Oct. 4.

So some have suggested it could have even started in St. Louis or Minnesota and maybe those teams brought it with them to California in October.

Ballard told me last week, "I've asked my mom and she said I had the vaccine [as a kid], so it makes no sense. So that's the hard part [team doctors] are trying to wrap their heads around. How would I have gotten it?"

Yeo said the Wild's lineup is up in the air because with defense pairs tonight of:

Suter-Spurgeon

Ballard-Dumba,

… the Wild may want to have the security of a seventh defenseman and play Stu Bickel up front. This way they can move him back to D if there are issues. But on the other hand, you lose two puck movers in Brodin and Scandella, Yeo may not want to do that.

The lines in the skate were

Zucker-Koivu-Pominville

Niederreiter-Granlund-Coyle

Carter-Brodziak-Fontaine

Zach Parise is getting close, Yeo said, "but we just have to make sure we're following protocol. Make sure he's getting proper rest and recovery. We desperately want him back in the lineup, but we have to make sure when he comes back he's staying in the lineup."

What does Yeo expect from Schroeder in his Wild debut?

"We're not scoring goals."

On Thomas Vanek's struggles, Yeo said, "Pressure builds. It was well-documented and I don't think there are any secrets about it that he was brought here to help us [score goals]. Whenever we've struggled, we've struggled because we've had a tough time scoring goals, and that's why he was brought here."

On the all-Gopher line, Yeo said, "We kid about it, but we don't just roll the dice and see what comes up here. It may appear that way sometimes," he said, jokingly.

But Yeo said, "Granny needs workers with him. He's got to get back to his game. He needs to get back to a driving, speed game. I feel like he's been a lot more east west and the speed of his game hasn't been a factor because of that. We're going try to get him guys that can drive the net, guys that'll open up ice for him and help him score off the rush.

"We've got to get Haulzy's game going. Put him with two guys who can create and generate off the rush and make plays in the offensive zone. Two guys with a lot of speed should help Thomas, too."

Darcy Kuemper vs. Jhonas Enroth (1-7-1, 3.63 goals-against average and .901 save percentage).

In the past 99 games, the Sabres have won 12 times in regulation. This is a team that hasn't scored a first-period goal in 13 games. They have been outscored 60-21. The Wild hasn't led in 240 minutes.

Sabres helped turn the Wild's season around last year. Let's see if they can do it again.