NHL referee seriously injured in Game 7.

It has been a grueling and physicals series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so much so in fact that even the referees are getting hurt.

On Sunday night, National Hockey League referee Chris Rooney appeared to suffer a pretty serious injury in Game 7 when a battle for the puck between Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola and Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner resulted in Rooney being on the receiving end of some collateral damage.

It would be the stick of Mikkola that would catch Chris Rooney up high and it did so in pretty brutal fashion, knocking the referee's visor off as the stick slashed across his face. To the surprise of no one this caused Rooney to be busted open and you could clearly see crimson streaks along the ice and along the boards from the damage that was done to his face.

Here is a look at the replay of how it all went down:

This would actually result in a pretty significant delay in the early moments of the game's second period, with Rooney's injury requiring medical attention before he could be helped off the ice. Even after Rooney left the ice it took some time for the cleanup crew to get rid of the mess on the ice, something that only added to the already lengthy delay.

I can only hope that Rooney is going to be ok, this one did look pretty bad.