Canadiens' Danault leaves on stretcher after taking Chara slap shot to head
Canadiens forward Phillip Danault was stretchered off the Bell Centre ice on Saturday after taking a Zdeno Chara slap shot to the head.
With less than two minutes remaining in the second period, Chara one-timed a puck that sailed on him and caught Danault around the earpiece of his helmet. The Canadiens forward fell to the ice clutching his head as silence fell across the arena. According to the broadcast Chara’s shot was clocked at 123 km/h (76 mph), which is fortunate considering how hard the Bruins captain can fire the puck.
Scary scene at the Bell Centre as Danault taks a shot from Chara to the head pic.twitter.com/Gvyp1zs1gk
— Marina Molnar (@mkmolnar) January 14, 2018
Danault remained on the ice for several minutes as he was attended to by the training staff. At one point it appeared that Danault was going to try to leave the ice under his own power, but a stretcher was brought out as a precaution.
Chara understandably was left shaken by the incident and was the first player to have words with Danault as he was taken off the ice. He also addressed the situation with reporters after the game.
Here are Zdeno Chara's comments on what was going through his mind and how he felt about unfortunately taking a shot that hit Phillip Danault up high in Habs-Bruins game: pic.twitter.com/KqbEFMA7NA
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) January 14, 2018
Officials called off the final 1:27 of the period, which were played at the beginning of the third period.
The Canadiens later announced that Danault was transported to hospital to undergo testing, and that he is awake and moving.
