Boston Bruins say forward David Krejci diagnosed with swine flu

Bruins’ Krejci diagnosed with swine flu

BOSTON — Boston Bruins center David Krejci is out indefinitely with the swine flu.

General manager Peter Chiarelli announced Thursday that the team’s medical staff confirmed a diagnosis of H1N1 for the 23-year-old Krejci.

The club said Krejci, their second leading scorer last season, will be kept away from the team until he has had no symptoms or fever for 24 hours. Chiarelli said the Bruins are taking precautions to try to protect others in the organization from the virus.

The Bruins already are without wing Milan Lucic, who is recovering from surgery on his broken right index finger, and center Marc Savard, who is expected to miss another two to four weeks with a broken left foot.

Coach Claude Julien must try to get more out of a team that was shut out in two consecutive games before Thursday night’s contest against the Montreal Canadiens.

“I don’t think anybody cares besides our dressing room. We’ve just got to deal with our own issues and hope that he gets better quickly,” Julien said. “That’s the reality of what’s going on in North America these days and we have to all be aware of it and do the best we can, and our team has done that.

“Our doctors and everyone involved, we’re taking all the precautions we can to try and avoid it. But unfortunately it’s all around us.”

Other NHL players have had swine flu this season. Center and captain Doug Weight of the New York Islanders, playing again after missing three games, said he had it. Three other teams said players had swine flu — forward Quintin Laing of the Washington Capitals, defenseman Ladislav Smid of the Edmonton Oilers and goaltender Peter Budaj of the Colorado Avalanche.

The Bruins have not received vaccinations for the H1N1 virus.

After scoring 22 goals and 51 assists last season, Krejci received a three-year contract worth more than $11 million a few days before having hip surgery in June. In 14 games this season, he has one goal and four assists. The team said Krejci started to feel sick after Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit.

The Bruins went into Thursday night’s game with a 6-7-1 record after finishing first in the Eastern Conference last season. They lost in the second round to the Carolina Hurricanes.

“It’s kind of been like that so far this year, one thing after another,” wing Blake Wheeler said. “It definitely hurts having Dave out, but we have guys that can step up in his place and hopefully get the job done.

“In our sport, or I guess in any sport, you have such close physical contact with guys, you’ve just got to be careful and you’ve got to take all the necessary steps — using hand sanitizer, making sure that you aren’t putting your hands in your eyes, stuff that your mom taught you when you were little.”