Anthony Mantha in bad shape after a huge slam from Jake Muzzin.

This one looks bad. 

On Saturday night the Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against the Detroit Red Wings in what turned out to be a pretty big win for the Maple Leafs. The Leafs came in as the heavy favorites, the Wings are after all the worst team in the National Hockey League this season, and they cruised to a 4 - 1 victory over the struggling Red Wings. It was in the third period however that things really got ramped up and there is no doubt in my mind that this has fueled plenty of bad blood for when these two teams will meet next.

The biggest incident of the night came after a big time hit from Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin, one that leveled Red Wings defenseman Madison Bowey who was trying to carry the puck into the offensive zone at the time. Although I have not reviewed the hit extensively it appeared to be a clean hit from Muzzin to Bowey but in spite of that a frustrated Anthony Mantha decided he was going to come to the defense of his teammate. It turned out to be one of the more unfortunate decisions of Mantha's NHL career thus far as he seemed to poke a sleeping bear in Jake Muzzin. Initially Muzzin appeared surprised by the fact that Mantha had taken exception to the hit, but once it became clear that Mantha had bad intentions Muzzin kicked things into survival mode. 

He tagged Mantha with a jab as the Red Wings forward came towards him and after Mantha put him in something resembling a side headlock the Leafs defenseman delivered a huge slam to Mantha. The slam resembled something you would see at a judo tournament, something akin to a hip toss or a leg sweep or perhaps even a little bit of both, and it clearly rocked Mantha in the process. The Red Wings forward was slammed hard to the playing surface and the ice has very little give, leaving his body to absorb all of the impact from the slam. 

Unsurprisingly Mantha had to be helped off the ice after this and did not return to the game. It will be interesting to see if the NHL has anything to say about what was inarguably a dangerous slam, even if it was one that came as the result of a lot of provocation.