Kapanen shaken up after very late knee on knee from Brouwer.

You just know the Toronto Maple Leafs will be complaining to the National Hockey League about this play.

On Saturday night the Maple Leafs were facing off against the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida in what was a relatively slow paced game. After roughly 25 minutes of play there was just one goal between both teams and it belonged to the Florida Panthers, but it was around that time that things began to get ugly. 

It was 33 year old Florida Panther Troy Brouwer who turned things real ugly a little over 5 minutes into the game's 2nd period when he delivered a rather inexcusable hit to 22 year old Toronto Maple Leafs' winger Kasperi Kapanen along the boards. Kapanen was moving the puck up the ice and had long since gotten rid of the puck when he was the victim of what can only be described as an extremely late hit from a veteran forward who really should know better at this stage of his career. To make matters worse the hit itself was rather ugly as Brouwer stuck his leg out on the play and very clearly went knee on knee with the young Maple Leaf, sending him crashing to the ice in a heap.

To no one's surprise Kapanen was rather shaken up on the play and would remain down on the ice on all fours for several long moments as the Maple Leafs' trainign staff rushed out to attended to the downed forward. It was a while before Kapanen was able to regain his feet at all and even then he moved very slowly towards the Maple Leafs benched, hunched over and favoring his leg the entire time. Kapenen would eventually reach the bench under his own power however, which is probably a good sign, but he would also immediately head down the tunnel upon doing so to be looked at by the team's medical staff.

As for Brouwer there was no call on the play, the penalty came well behind the play so you can see why the NHL officials may have missed it in real time. That being said I would not be surprised if this did end up resulting in some discipline for Brouwer down the line.

[pub]