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McNiven helped off the ice and bloody after slapshot from Shea Weber.
 

McNiven helped off the ice and bloody after slapshot from Shea Weber.

All caught on video.

HockeyFeed

HockeyFeed

The Montreal Canadiens have had a scare at practice involving young goaltender Michael McNiven.

On Monday the Habs resumed their training camp at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard, Quebec and it was there that Canadiens star defenseman Shea Weber left one of his teammates hurting bad. As the Habs were going through some drills Weber fired off what has been described as a "half slapper," but even though he may not have put everything into that shot, it did plenty of damage. The shot went right into the face of Michael McNiven, who was wearing his goalie mask at the time, and left the 23 year old netminder sprawling down on the ice in obvious pain. 

According to those on the scene McNiven was bleeding from his face and had to be carried off the ice by his teammates, and while that may sound bad it sounds like he is going to be ok. Although teams are not allowed to disclose information regarding player injuries or illness as per the new NHL rules, Habs head coach Claude Julien did share with reports that McNiven was feeling well in spite of the fact that he was clearly rocked by that puck.


The news first broke courtesy of TSN's John Lu, who reported at the time that it was goaltender Charlie Lindgren who had been injured but actually as it turns out it was McNiven in the net and not Lindgren. Lu however did include a video in his report and as a result we can watch the moment as it happened and unfortunately for McNiven it looks rather painful. There's no way that taking a shot from Shea Weber to the face is ever going to feel good, but thankfully McNiven was protected by his gear and hopefully he will make a full recovery in short order.