ESPN reported today that Mark Fistric of the Dallas Stars missed last Saturday night’s game vs Los Angeles after being hospitalized with symptoms consistent with a foodborne illness. In an effort to step out of hockey and into epidemiology, Fistric (below, left side of the Blackhawk sandwich), who has 3 points and 14 penalty minutes this season, reported that he believes the illness was caused by a pregame meal on Friday.

"The last thing I ate was a pregame meal in San Jose, and everyone ate it and no one got it," Fistric said. "I felt fine during the game. But when I was getting on the bus, it started hitting me. It was the most pain I’d ever felt in my stomach and they took me right to the hospital [when the plane landed]."
Fistric said he was put on antibiotics and got plenty of sleep the last few days.

Although most pathogens will create symptoms within a couple of days, Fistric might have been exposed up to ten days before feeling ill. While it might make a reappearance, it’s usually not as simple as blaming the most recent meal for the illness.

As I dug up some stats on Mark Fistric, I came across some info on his dad, Boris, who was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 1979 and spent his professional career in the minor leagues. Boris was a bit of a bad ass, racking up 460 penalty minutes in 64 games as a junior (that’s about three fights every two games) and breaking 390 minutes twice while with Kalamazoo of the International League. Wow.