Early today in the IIHF World Championships, Devils captain Nico Hischier narrowly avoided hockey's scariest situation of taking a skate blade to the face. Hischier was cut up and bleeding, but narrowly avoided a disastrous play.
It was a total freak accident of a play, where Hischier cut to the front of the net with the puck, but fell down and got tangled up in two Czech defenceman on the play. One defenceman's skate brushed right past his face, but thankfully didn't make contact.
Hischier was pouring blood from his face, enough to have to go to the locker room to get stitched up and replace his jersey, which was covered in blood. Before the play he was wearing his usual number 13, but came back out with a number 49. When the game went to the shootout, Hischier wasn't selected for team Switzerland, which shows that he was nowhere near 100% okay even at that point of the game.
One of the reasons international hockey involving NHLers has been so scare is just because of situations like this. Hischier clearly narrowly avoided an unthinkable situation, and frankly, the NHL hates when that occurs not on their watch. Thankfully Hischier avoided a much scarier scene, and will be okay.
