Islanders

There was a scary scene at Barclays Middle in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening.

With simply over 11 minutes remaining within the third interval of the Islanders’ 6-2 loss to the Canadiens, New York’s Johnny Boychuk and Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen acquired tousled in entrance of the house staff’s web. Boychuk pushed Lehkonen out of the crease, and because the Montreal ahead fell, his proper skate got here up and clipped Boychuk within the face.

The Islanders defenseman instantly grabbed his face and was in apparent ache on the ice. He rapidly acquired up and skated to the locker room; his hand seemed to be over his left eye.

Wednesday morning, GM Lou Lamoriello up to date Boychuk’s standing and advised reporters he could be “OK” and that there was “no injury” to the 36-year-old’s eye. The skate did trigger a lower so extreme that it required 90 stitches to shut.

“He felt the skate blade get his eye, however fortuitously it simply acquired the eyelid. It took 90 stitches to repair however the plastic surgeon took care of it,” Lamoriello stated. “He’ll be advantageous. It is only a matter of time with the attention opening up and him feeling good.”

(NOTE: Some might contemplate the video graphic.)

After the sport, Islanders coach Barry Trotz advised reporters that Boychuk was nonetheless being evaluated.

The precise harm and its severity have been troublesome to find out from the video. Islanders winger Cal Clutterbuck advised NHL.com’s Brian Compton after the sport: “It isn’t good. It isn’t simple to see. Not good in any respect.”

Clutterbuck is aware of what a skate blade can do. He simply returned to the lineup Saturday after lacking greater than two months following surgery to repair a wrist that was lower by a skate blade in December. Islanders gamers are usually not the one ones to be lower this yr. The listing consists of the Maple Leafs’ Ilya Mikheyev, who also underwent surgery on a severed artery and wrist tendon in late December and lately resumed skating.

Earlier on Tuesday, TSN’s Frank Seravalli reported that NHL basic managers at their conferences in Florida have been proven new cutproof and Kevlar-reinforced undergarments to assist forestall skate cuts like those suffered by Clutterbuck and Mikheyev. Kevlar socks became more popular following Erik Karlsson’s surgical procedure in 2013 to restore a sliced Achilles tendon. 

Clearly, the Kevlar wouldn’t have helped in Boychuk’s case; nonetheless, it did seem that the visor he was sporting — which grew to become necessary in 2013 — took the brunt of the skate’s affect.

Final season, Boychuk took a skate blade to the neck from the Maple Leafs’ Mitchell Marner that fortunately didn’t slice his throat and simply left a mark from the incident.

“It was actually scary,” Boychuk stated the next morning to reporters. “You are feeling it hit your neck, simply ideas undergo your thoughts. It was actually scary. I’m simply completely satisfied that nothing critical occurred.”