The Slanch Report

In a press release today, the Boston Bruins announced that young future-star center David Krejci has a confirmed diagnosis of Swine Flu, making him at least the 4th confirmed case in the NHL.

“Like most people, we are taking many precautions to try to prevent our players and staff from contracting the H1N1 virus,” said Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli. “Our medical staff is working with David to get him healthy as soon as possible, and our players and staff will continue to take precautions with hopes of preventing the spread of the virus to others in the organization.”

So far Krejci is the only Bruin thus diagnosed, and hopefully the only one. It’s a shame the Bruins don’t play in Calgary, because there the entire team were given swine flu vaccines, much to the chagrin of the thousands of patients outside a clinic waiting for their shots.

The Alberta government has since fired a senior staff member at Health Services for giving the Flames, the players’ families and the front office preferential treatment and the vaccines over the rest of the population who waited in line.

“I am deeply offended that this circumstance has occurred,” Ken Hughes, chairman of Alberta Health Services, said in a news release. “The decision to allow preferential access to the Flames and their families was a serious error in judgment.”

Believing they had gone through the appropriate channels, Flames president Ken King defended the Flames, saying that because of the players extensive travel schedules and the close-contact of hockey that it was a priority for the team to get vaccinated. He didn’t offer an explanation why the players families or the front office also deserved preferential treatment. King also offered that the Flames players receiving the shots in a private location was done to prevent the mass hysteria that could happen if the players waited in the clinic’s line.

Alberta has since run out of vaccines and was forced to shut the program down on Saturday. Unlike the Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Raptors and even the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos have reported that they have not sought out preferential treatment for their players.

[Boston Bruins and AP]