Penguins' Beau Bennett diagnosed with mumps
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Beau Bennett became the 15th player in the NHL this season to be diagnosed with the mumps.
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced on Tuesday evening that forward Beau Bennett has been diagnosed with mumps.
Bennett is the second Penguins player this week to be diagnosed, joining team captain Sidney Crosby who has missed the past three games.
What makes Bennett's situation so concerning is that he recently made a visit to Pittsburgh's children's hospital the day before Crosby arrived at practice with a swollen face. The Penguins didn't announce that Bennett started to show symptoms until Monday.
At that point there was no way of knowing that Bennett was infected, but it's definitely caused a concern and all of the children that interacted with Bennett that day are being tested. Following that development, the New York Islanders reportedly cancelled their trip to a local children's hospital that had been scheduled for Wednesday as a precautionary measure.
Bennett is the 15th player in the NHL to officially be diagnosed with mumps this season.
Injuries have limited him to just seven games this season and he was not in the lineup during the Penguins' recent games against the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils, two of the more recent teams to have players diagnosed. He has not appeared in a game since Nov. 24 against the Boston Bruins.
A first-round pick by the Penguins in 2010, Bennett's promising career has been derailed to this point by a seemingly never-ending run of bad injury luck.
