New York Rangers star center Vincent Trocheck had a harrowing health scare early in the season.

Trocheck, 32, revealed to reporters that his 14-game absence at the start of the season was due to a bacterial infection in his lungs.

“I had some viral bacteria get into my lung and wasn’t sure what it was. This happened, I think, before the first game of the year. I thought I was just having back spasms, and then I played the first game,” Trocheck said.

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“Got a little bit worse. Played in Buffalo. I got a cross-check right in that area, and whatever fluid was in there, it’s like bubbles, and I guess the bubble burst and it spread. So, then it just got a lot worse. I had a lot of fluid around my lung, so I had to have surgery to get the fluid removed.”

The two-time All-Star said he had chest tubes inserted and was in the hospital for about a week. He called it weird and wouldn’t call it an injury.

“It was very scary. I thought I was dying,” Trocheck said.

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Trocheck, who starred on the penalty kill for Team USA during the Olympics and its gold medal run, said no one knows how the fluid emerged.

The Pittsburgh native played in 67 games this season, scoring 16 goals and adding 37 assists, good for 53 points. Trocheck found himself in the middle of trade talks around the deadline but ultimately was not moved.

While Trocheck wasn’t traded at the deadline, he still could be this offseason as the Rangers look to retool after finishing last in the Eastern Conference.

Trocheck just completed his fourth season with the Rangers and has three more seasons left on a seven-year, $39.375 million contract.

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John Fogerty credits his wife for saving his life after a rough patch in his career.

During a recent interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, the 80-year-old Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) founder discussed a tumultuous time in his music career following a legal battle with his record company regarding the ownership of his songs, crediting his wife for helping him come “out on the good side of it.”

“A lot of this, of course, is from the care of my wife, Julie. If I hadn’t met her, I probably would be dead. Simple as that,” he said. “I didn’t see any way out. I was really abusing myself, alcohol mostly. I really felt bad inside.”

He went on to explain that someone who feels as he did is “not really operating on the same plane in the world” as everyone else, and you can “become kind of a pathetic person.”

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“When you’re really hurting inside for whatever reason, I mean, in my case, something really unjust had been done to me,” he said. “But however you get there, and then you start abusing yourself with drugs, alcohol, whatever… it becomes a habit. You just stay there, right? And so you’re not really enjoying the sunshine and the love that’s around you.”

The Grammy Award-winning musician noted that this was his mindset when he met his wife, Julie, while on tour in 1986.

Fogerty admitted that he should have been “overjoyed” by the success of his third solo album, “Centerfield,” but instead felt “miserable” and bitter” due to repressed feelings, adding he was “in perpetual binge mode.”

He then released “Eye of the Zombie,” which was less successful but managed to bounce back after meeting Julie.

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“One day [I] just suddenly met Julie, not expecting to meet the love of my life, the person that I feel that I was destined to meet and the person that would, through her good graces, help me find myself and help me enjoy and find the joy of life again,” he said. “And it all changed.”

Fogerty and Julie went on to tie the knot in April 1991 and welcomed three children together during their 35-year marriage: sons Shane, 34, and Tyler, 33, and daughter Kelsy, 24.

As the founder of CCR, Fogerty wrote many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Proud Mary,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” and “Fortunate Son,” but didn’t own the rights to them until January 2023 when he finally settled a decades-long dispute with the record company.

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“As of this January, I own my own songs again. This is something I thought would never be a possibility,” Fogerty said in a statement. “After 50 years, I am finally reunited with my songs. I also have a say in where and how my songs are used. Up until this year, that is something I have never been able to do. I am looking forward to touring and celebrating this year! I want thank Concord for helping to make all of this happen. And, I am excited for new ideas and a renewed interest in my music … like a revival.”

Fogerty originally left Fantasy Records in 1974 in a contentious separation, with the musician fighting the record company for his music from the beginning.

Fantasy Records even went as far as to sue Fogerty for plagiarism, with Fogerty telling Rogan, “I got sued for sounding like myself.”

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“I’m the dad [of these songs]. I created them,” Fogerty told Billboard, at the time. “They never should have been taken away in the first place. And that hijacking left such a massive hole in me. The happiest way to look at it is, yeah, it isn’t everything. It’s not a 100 percent win for me, but it’s sure better than it was. I’m really kind of still in shock.”

Julie helped celebrate the news in a statement released on Fogerty’s website, saying she is “so blissful knowing that this has finally come true for him.”

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum reportedly said at a Bank of America reception Thursday that he thinks President Teddy Roosevelt will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next year, according to the New York Post.

“Roger Goodell was in the White House in the Oval Office. I had a chance to be with him there, because we, the National Park Service, control the National Mall,” Burgum said, according to the outlet. 

“The draft for the NFL is being held on the Mall a year from now, (and) the Capitol will be in the background.

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“Keep it a secret. Keep your fingers crossed, but I think we’re going to see Theodore Roosevelt inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. … It’s going to be announced on the Mall when Roger Goodell is conducting the draft.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the secretary, the White House and the NFL for comment.

Teddy Roosevelt is credited with saving football in 1905–1906 by forcing college leaders to reform the game’s rules after frequent injury-related deaths of players. 

The reforms led to the creation of the forward pass and the banning of dangerous formations.

The 2027 Pro Football Hall of Fame class is headlined by first-year eligible legends Rob Gronkowski, Adrian Peterson and Ben Roethlisberger. Bill Belichick and Eli Manning are also candidates to get in after missing out on first-ballot entry.

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