Darnell Nurse takes out Roope Hintz in Game 2.

This could very well go down as the most controversial moment of the 2025 Western Conference Final.

On Friday night, Dallas Stars star forward Roope Hintz was forced to leave Game 2 of that series against the Edmonton Oilers after he suffered what appears to be a relatively serious injury to his foot. All of the controversy of course stems from exactly how that foot injury came to be.

Hintz was battling in front of the net with Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse in the early moments of the third period, a battle that would include Hintz delivering a stiff cross-check to the back of Nurse. Nurse nearly doubled over from the cross-check and, obviously not happy at the fact that he had just been cross-checked, Nurse would then turn around and swing a slash at Hintz in retaliation.

While this is the kind of play you see in front of the net every night in the National Hockey League, especially during the Stanley Cup playoffs, this one would go horribly wrong for Hintz who appeared to suffer a serious injury on the play. So serious in fact that Hintz would be entirely incapable of getting up under his own power, needing multiple teammates to help him get back to the Stars locker room.

Here is a look at the full incident as it happened live:

Here is a second look at the slash that caused the injury:

Much of the controversy stems from the fact that Nurse was only awarded a 2 minute minor penalty on the play, but that does appear to have been the correct call in this circumstance. This did not appear to be a malicious slash on the part of Nurse and instead was rather typical of the kind of battles we see happen in front of the net on a regular basis. The fact that Nurse's slash hit the top of Hintz's skate rather than his shin pad is likely what turned this from a routine exchange into a serious injury.

The severity of that injury however may be something the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety will take into consideration however, and we will have to wait and see what ruling they make today on what is quickly turning into one of the most controversial moments of these Stanley Cup playoffs.