Oh boy this one does not look good.
The Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins were facing off in an early season match up on Saturday night and unfortunately it didn't take very long for things to take a horrible turn for the worst. This one does not appear to have been caused by any malicious intent on either side of the ice but instead is just one of those terrible accidents that tend to happen so often when the game is being played at such a high level.
Less than halfway through the game's very first period Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz was engaged in a puck battle behind the Penguins net when he managed to break loose from the back and feed the puck to of his teammates up the ice. As Schultz was firing the puck up the ice Montreal Canadiens veteran forward Tomas Plekanec took the opportunity to deliver a stiff hit to Schultz along the boards, a hit that appeared to be both perfectly legal and relatively harmless by the standards of the National Hockey League. Unfortunately for Schultz however it now appears that the hit was anything but harmless.
Through no real fault of Plekanec's Schultz appeared to fall awkwardly along the boards and the big issue came when Schultz's skate appeared to get caught on the ice, cause his leg and ankle to buckle awkwardly as he fell onto both of his legs. The slow motion replay provided a rather gruesome close up of Schultz's awkward fall and there was immediate concern on the face of everyone in the building once they realize what exactly had just happened to Schultz's foot and ankle.
Unsurprisingly the talented veteran defenseman was in absolute agony on the ice immediately following his fall and although it took several moments for the National Hockey League officials on the ice to blow the play dead, Schultz was going anywhere. The 28 year old continued to writhe and twist on the ice as the pain flooded his body and given what a durable guy he has proven to be since the Penguins that was a horrible sign for fans looking on.
Trainers quickly came out to assist Schultz once the play was blown dead but they appeared to be at a total loss regarding what to do to help him, again an indication that this may turn out to be a very serious injury indeed. After a few moments of discussion with the trainers two of Schultz's teammates came over and lifted him off the ice. Yet another bad sign for Schultz was that the blue liner had to be literally carried off the ice by his teammates, and once he got to the tunnel to the locker room it didn't look any better for him.
If I had to speculate on the nature of the injury I would suspect that Schultz has suffered a badly broken ankle, but that is only speculation as no official word has come from the Penguins as of yet. Fair warning to those checking out the video below, it's not pretty.
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