Hip check sends Logan Brown face first into the ice.

A sport as fast and as physical as hockey is a dangerous one, a lesson that St. Louis Blues forward Logan Brown learned the hard way during an early game on Saturday afternoon.

Brown and the Blues were taking on the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche, in what turned out to be a fairly one sided affair a day after the Blues traded away their captain in Ryan O'Reilly and one of their hardest working forwards in 4th liner Noel Acciari.

To add insult to injury though, Brown found himself on the receiving end of a pretty brutal hip check from Avalanche defenseman Andreas Englund who apparently didn't like Brown intruding into his area of the ice. Englund would end up catching Brown very low as Brown tried to avoid the contact by leaping over him, but the end result was a far worse outcome for Brown who ended up crashing face first into the ice.

Brown not only smashed his face into the ice, but appeared to slide on the ice a bit with the entire weight of his body pressing down on his unprotected face. It was no surprise to see Brown leave behind a trail of crimson as he skated off the ice and into the Blues locker room for repairs.