de Gray suffering from mono

BRAMPTON, Ont. – While the Ontario Hockey League playoffs are known as a grind, they’re even tougher when you’re under the weather.rrSuch was the situation in which defenceman John de Gray of the Brampton Battalion likely competed this spring, being diagnosed with mononucleosis soon after the Troops were eliminated by the Barrie Colts on April 13 in the fifth game of an Eastern Conference semifinal.rrI don’t know if I played with it, but I got it right after we were done,” de Gray said by telephone Thursday from his Markham, Ont., home. I didn’t really feel bad while we were playing.” rrHead trainer Brad Handley said that, while de Gray exhibited no symptoms of mononucleosis during the Barrie series, we couldn’t figure out why he looked as fatigued as he did.”rrDr. David Kazdan, one of the Battalion’s team physicians, said symptoms aren’t always immediately obvious.rrIt’s a virus, and usually when you first get it you get acute symptoms like a sore throat, swollen glands and it can be tough to swallow. It can feel like a severe strep throat. But some people don’t get that. They just get the symptoms that follow, like fatigue, swelling of the glands and the spleen.rrJohn might have just attributed the symptoms to working hard on the ice. He might not have thought there was something else going on.”rrde Gray, 18, said he doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to attend the National Hockey League’s draft combine, to be held at Toronto from May 30 to June 3. The top 115 players eligible for the NHL Entry Draft are invited for team interviews, medicals and fitness testing.rrI talked to my agent, and he said he’d inform the NHL about the situation,” said de Gray, rated 68th among North American-based skaters in the NHL Central Scouting Service’s final rankings.rrHe told me not to worry about it, but he said I should just go in and do the best I can. Teams should understand I haven’t really been able to stay in shape. All you need is one team to like you, and hopefully I’ve impressed somebody through the season.”rrThe Battalion’s first-round pick in the 2004 OHL Priority Selection, de Gray earned 10 assists in 68 games in his second campaign, which he acknowledged didn’t go as well as he would have liked.rrI had high expectations for myself at the beginning of the season. I had a pretty good rookie year, and I was expecting to go a lot farther in my second season. I plan on being much better next season.rrI think I can improve in all parts of my game. It’s something I have to battle through, and it’ll help if I have a good summer.”r