Florida Panthers winger Richard Zednik is in stable condition today after teammate Olli Jokinen, upended on the ice, inadvertently sliced open Zednik's neck during the third period of last night's 5-3 loss in Buffalo against the Sabres. The injury is so gruesome and bloody that it calls to mind Clint Malarchuk's similar injury on the Buffalo ice almost 20 years ago, and so horrific that I've watched the video of it about eight times this morning.
Jokinen fell headfirst to the ice, and his right leg flew up and struck Zednik directly on the side of the neck. Clutching his neck, Zednik somehow had the capacity to race the three-quarters length of the ice to the Panthers bench, where he nearly fell into the arms of trainer Dave Zenobi, who immediately placed a towel on the player's throat [see thumbnailed picture]…
Play resumed after a 15-minute delay, during which time crews scraped the blood off the ice and the surface was cleaned by Zambonis.
Videos of the accident keep getting taken down by the NHL fun police, but of course the NHL is too incompetent to have a decent video player on its own site, so I'll let you peruse a YouTube search of "Zednik neck" at your leisure. I have to warn you: you probably shouldn't watch the video if you're a pussy. The amount of blood that hits the ice before Zednik even finishes falling is kind of amazing. It's like Tarantino directed a Mighty Ducks movie.
