Devastating early update on Kyle Palmieri.

The New York Islanders appear to be bracing for the worst case scenario.

According to a report from ESPN's Emily Kaplan, the Islanders fear that Palmieri has suffered a torn ACL which of course would be a devastating injury for the veteran forward. A torn ACL typically requires at least 9 months of recovery and that is in scenarios in which no surgery is required. Should Palmieri need surgery we could be looking at a scenario in which he will need more than a year to recover from the injury.

Update: The Islanders have officially confirmed a torn ACL, Palmieri will be out for at least 6-8 months as per their official announcement.

That would be bad news at the best of times, but it is especially tough to swallow when you consider how Palmieri made his exit from the ice after he suffered the injury. Despite suffering what now appears to have been a catastrophic injury, Palmieri would remain in the play and even created a scoring chance for his team despite effectively being only on one leg.

You have to see it with your own eyes to believe it:

That play from Palmieri now looks all that much more heroic with the added context of what he was going through in that moment, a moment that I believe has created a ton of new Kyle Palmieri fans around the National Hockey League.