P.K. Subban released from hospital after scary injury
P.K. Subban gave NHL fans a scare when he was taken off the ice on a stretcher in the third period of the Montreal Canadiens' 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. But hockey fans can rest assured that the star defenseman will be okay, as the Canadiens announced Friday morning that Subban was released from the hospital late Thursday night with a non-serious neck injury.
Subban got hurt in a freak collision with teammate Alexei Emelin, as Emelin bumped into Subban's head while going in for a hit on Buffalo's Marcus Foligno in the corner. Subban was backboarded and immobilized before he was stretchered off the ice, but he did appear to give a thumbs up to the fans on his way out.
The play left Subban's Montreal teammates shaken. Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said the hit gave him a new understanding of what it was like for his teammates when he was taken off the ice on a stretcher back in 2011 after he was slammed into a stanchion by Boston Bruin Zdeno Chara.
Via Sportsnet:
"I couldn’t play,” Pacioretty told reporters. “It was impossible to concentrate after that. Maybe even moreso than a lot of the other guys. Now I know how guys felt when it happened to me."
It is good to hear Subban will be okay, especially after P.K.'s younger brother, Malcolm Subban, suffered a fractured larynx after getting hit in the throat by a puck last month. The younger Subban, who plays for the Boston Bruins' AHL affiliate in Providence, had surgery on his larynx on Feb. 8 and will miss at least two months of action.
