Larry Brown Sports

Ottawa Senators defenseman Eric Gryba could be facing a suspension from the NHL after delivering a brutal open-ice shot to Montreal Canadiens forward Lars Eller on Thursday night. Eller had his head down looking to receive a pass when Gryba lowered his shoulder and came barreling into him. Gryba’s shoulder wound up hitting Eller in the head and it appeared he smacked his face off the ice.

As you can see, the hit left Eller with a frightening amount of blood pouring from his face. The team later announced that he had suffered head and facial injuries but was alert and awake in the hospital after being taken off the ice on a stretcher. Gryba was assessed a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct.

While it did appear that Eller made the hit worse by slowing up, there’s no denying Gryba lead with his shoulder to the head. The intent didn’t seem to be as blatant as this awful knee-to-knee hit we saw a couple months ago, but it was plenty to warrant a suspension. Chances are Gryba will be sitting out Game 2 on Friday night.

H/T Puck Daddy

A terrible tragedy took place during a Swiss hockey game earlier this week, as a player named Ronny Keller was reportedly left paralyzed after a brutal hit that sent him flying head-first into the boards. The play happened during overtime of a Nationalliga B playoff game between Olten and Langenthal.

As you can see from the video above, Keller stopped short a few feet from the boards as he was chasing down a puck when Langenthal’s Stefan Schnyder lowered his shoulder and delivered a hit. The play happened very quickly and Schnyder clearly intended to hit Keller, but I highly doubt he ever envisioned the result that followed.

Keller is currently in the ICU of the Swiss Paraplegic Centre in Nottwill, where the hospital’s chief physician has determined that he has been left paralyzed.

“Following the serious injury of the fourth thoracic vertebra, Ronny Keller will be a permanent paraplegic,” the doctor explained according to Tages Anzeiger. “There is neither head nor brain injuries.”

Schnyder is currently being investigated for any criminal complaint that might be filed against him. The hit could certainly be classified as boarding but, again, I’m sure Schnyder feels horrible about the result. We see massive hits like this all the time in the NHL, but fortunately instances of serious injury and paralysis are very rare. Unfortunately, they are not unheard of.

H/T Puck Daddy

Edmonton Oilers winger Taylor Hall threw a vicious hit on Cal Clutterbuck of the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. Hall is awaiting a disciplinary hearing with NHL vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan on Friday afternoon, but there has been no shortage of cries for the 21-year-old to be suspended from those who watched the play live or have seen the replay.

The puck was clearly bouncing away from Clutterbuck, and Hall sized him up and followed through with the collision anyway. It initially looked like a knee-on-knee hit, but upon viewing the replay it appears that Hall did hit Clutterbuck with his hip. However, that simple fact does not make the hit clean.

To me, it appears obvious that Hall at least leaned out and led with his knee — regardless of whether or not it was his knee that made contact with Clutterbuck’s lower body. The play was dangerous, and we’ve seen Shanahan suspend players for far less. Hall has a reputation for being a tough young kid (photo evidence here) and is not known as a dirty player by any means, but the league needs to make an example of him here. Those are the types of plays that shorten careers. There’s no place in hockey for a hit like that.

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Game 6 Tuesday night in Montreal, scoring both goals with a two-man advantage. The Bruins were heavily penalized throughout the game, racking up 25 penalty minutes compared to just six for the Canadiens. Perhaps no penalty decision was worse than the one to eject Milan Lucic, Boston’s best scorer, for the entire game after his second period hit on Jaroslav Spacek. Here’s a video of Milan Lucic’s hit on Jaroslav Spacek courtesy of Mock Session:

16 seconds after Lucic was handed a game misconduct Patrice Bergeron was sent to the box for flipping the puck over the glass, giving Montreal a two-man advantage. They ended up scoring the tie-breaking goal and winning 2-1. Game 7 will be Wednesday night in Boston. Let’s hope the refs call the game a little more evenly next time.

Vancouver Canucks winger Raffi Torres had just returned from a four-game suspension for hitting Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle when he got into more trouble for another hit. Midway through the second period of Game 3 between the Canucks and Blackhawks, Torres blindsided Brent Seabrook with an elbow to the head. Here’s a video of the hit:

Torres is a repeat offender, who led with his elbow, straight to the head of Brent Seabrook. The NHL is trying to crack down on head shots ever since Matt Cooke leveled Marc Savard last year. We may be anticipating a Stanley Cup run for the Canucks, but after that hit they’ll probably be doing most of it without Torres.

Honestly Raffi Torres, you return from a four-game suspension for a hit only to do that? I don’t have anything to say except if Mike Scioscia were your coach, he’d probably give you the look of disbelief:

UPDATE: Torres will not be suspended for the hit.

When we write about Alexander Ovechkin, he usually just spent a lovely evening carving up an entire defense and scoring.  That’s what superstars do.  Because players like Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are capable of such feats, their teammates tend to go to extreme measures to protect them on the ice.  If you hit one of those guys, you automatically slap a target on your own back.  Apparently Ovechkin is willing to return the favor, as he displayed Tuesday night after Tuomo Ruutu hit Dennis Wideman.  Check it out:

We know Ovechkin has a temper, but it’s nice to see superstars go out of their way to defend a teammate.  Ovechkin wasn’t satisfied with just putting a lick on Ruutu to send a message — he kept going after him.  Guys like that are the ones you want on the ice with you, for reasons other than their scoring ability. Thanks to The Big Lead for the video.

File this one under freak accident. Unless Zdeno Chara has pin-point accuracy in his attempts to hurt other players and knows how to use the structure of the rink to injure people, there’s no way the hit he put on Montreal’s Max Pacioretty during Tuesday night’s Bruins-Habs game was intentional. Canadiens fans will certainly argue otherwise, but watch the footage.  Fortunately, Pacioretty is said to be okay after the hit.  Check out the Zdeno Chara-Max Pacioretty knockout video, courtesy of NESN:

Chara was given a five-minute major, but only because Pacioretty was hurt so badly.  Had the same play happened at any other spot on the ice, the result would not have been a disaster and Chara may have even avoided a penalty.  We’re all glad Pacioretty is okay and nobody ever wants to see something like that happen, but it would be a shame to see the NHL suspend Chara for an unfortunate coincidence. The main thing we should learn from this incident is that the NHL needs to pad the area that separates the team benches. With guys flying around at such high speeds, it’s not safe to have rock solid glass and steel jetting out from the bench area. This injury is a tough way to figure that out.