Former Washington Capital and current Florida Panther Richard Zednik was rushed to the hospital after taking a skate blade to the neck during Florida’s game against Buffalo today.
The injury occurred as Zednik’s teammate Olli Jokinen was checked hard; as he fell, his skate flew up and caught Zednik on the side of the neck. Zednik was able to make his way, shakily, to the bench, when he stumbled into the arms of his Panthers teammates and medical staff.
Panthers defenseman Steve Montador recalled seeing Zednik in a state of shock as he got to the bench.
“He looked pale, he was obviously standing and to a degree, coherent. But he didn’t look as focused as you or I right now. He was staring at nothing,” Montador said. “That’s a pretty brave guy to realize what’s going on: Grab your neck and get off the ice.”
According to ESPN, Zednik is now stable after his emergency surgery to repair the deep gash in the side of his neck.
Get well soon, Zed. Our thoughts are with you.
Update: This reflection, from combined media dispatches, from Panthers’ captain Ollie Jokinen: “We shouldn’t have finished the game. I saw the replay, that it was my skate that hit him in the throat. I’ve never seen anything like that. There are bigger things than [finishing the game]. It was terrifying.”
Update #2: You can leave a message for Zednik at the Florida Panthers website.
10 Comments
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Zed and his family. Still one of my and my Montreal-loving husband’s favorite players, we wish him a speedy recovery and hope he’ll be able to return to the ice soon.
Get well soon Zed.
Get well Zed. Come back to fight another day. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your team. Bill in Buffalo.
My God, was that ever a horrible thing to see. At the risk of stating the hyper-obvious, that’s one of those things you never, ever want to see in a hockey game.
Who knows if Zed will be able to play hockey again after this, but that’s not important. The worst-case scenario seems to have been avoided, and we should all be thankful for that.
how many interview requests do you think Clint Malarchuk got today?
There must be something about former Caps and playing in Buffalo.
I almost feel bad about the revelation but it was actually refreshing and a welcome sight to see that there are certain injuries and events where suddenly team allegiance doesn’t matter anymore. Did you see how fast the Buffalo medical staff got to Zednik?
I hope Jokinen will be okay, too. I don’t know how many of you would have seen this, but TSN had a clip of him cursing out a reporter (don’t know who it was) in the media scrum after the game. Olli was asked what his reaction was when he saw what had happened to Zednik. Visibly upset, he just glared straight at the reporter, and growled at him: “Well, what do you think? What kind of a ***-ing question is that?”
Ordinarily, I would have found something like that pretty funny, but not this time. No way.
In addition to being the worst night of Zednik’s career, it was almost certainly the worst of Jokinen’s career, too. You could tell the poor guy was seriously rattled, and in no shape to talk to the media.
my god heal and help you and your family during this time and we hope to have you back soon. get well my friend
Per the London Free Press:
I was at the game when Rich was hurt, I was in the second row. He skated right past me and my daughter. I started to pray very hard. It was so scary for everyone. I am so thankful that it wasn’t his time. Rich is definatly a miracle man..
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