Placed LW Jason Blake on IR with a severe laceration in his left wrist (Oct. 16, 2011)
Recalled LW Patrick Maroon from AHL Syracuse (Oct. 16, 2011)
It is certainly amazing that in the sport played with knives attached to boots, more players do not suffer severe lacerations due to flying skates, or through falling under the charging blades. Hockey lore speaks of the gore attending the two occasions where a flying skate met an unprotected throat, but the simple fact that an award was not named in their honor should be enough to inform us that both Clint Malarchuk and Richard Zednik recovered fully from their frightful injuries and even resumed NHL careers in short order. More recently, Montreal Canadiens blueliner Andrei Markov suffered a deep laceration on his ankle after banging skates with goalie Carey Price very early in the 2008-09 season. Unlike with body checks, one always wants to be higher than his opposing figure in skate-on-skate contact. Markov was able to return to the ice around 10 weeks later. His subsequent health hex is unrelated, or so we are told.
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Update - Maroon was sent back down to the AHL after this article was written.