Maple Leafs Star John Tavares Was Stretchered Off The Ice After A Knee To The Head Against Montreal

The Canadian teams finally got into the Stanley Cup Playoff on Thursday night, but one of the division’s biggest stars had a scary collision early in the action. Toronto forward John Tavares was stretchered off the ice in Game One of the first round of the postseason against the Montreal Canadiens after a scary collision with two Montreal players.

The hit happened midway through the first period in Toronto on Thursday night. Tavares was skating backward waiting for a pass in the neutral zone when Habs defender Ben Chiarot stepped up to disrupt the play by the faceoff dot. Tavares was separated from the puck, crashing to the ice as play continued up ice.

The hit happened right in front of an official, but it wasn’t necessarily illegal. The problem was another Montreal skater, Corey Perry, was flying up ice to backcheck, and he slammed into Tavares while he was splayed on the ice. His knee hit Tavares in the head, who lay motionless as play immediately stopped, and a worrying scene then unfolded at Scotiabank Arena.

According to TSN, Tavares was transported to a Toronto hospital. But not before a very scary scene where Tavares apparently regained consciousness with a shock.

Tavares was down on the ice and not moving as Toronto’s medical staff signaled for the assembled Emergency Responders to bring a stretcher. As the EMS personnel descended, Tavares was put into a sitting position and appeared to pass out momentarily. When he came to, Tavares was seemingly disoriented and had to be calmed before the medical staff could continue.

Thankfully, Tavares gave the thumb’s up before he left the ice, though his status as of Thursday night is still not known and the optics of both the hit and his reaction are extremely worrying.

Hopefully Tavares is OK, but it was a harrowing start to a highly-anticipated matchup in the NHL postseason that will certainly be less entertaining without Tavares on the ice for the Leafs.